On October 1, 2020, Doc Chat was host to a spirited conversation about a professional rivalry between two colonial printers, and what it can tell us about the American Revolution, and early American print culture.

An ongoing series from NYPL's Center for Research in the Humanities, Doc Chat pairs a NYPL curator or specialist and a scholar to discuss evocative digitized items from the Library's collections and brainstorm innovative ways of teaching with them. In Episode Four, NYPL’s Madeleine Viljoen and Liz Covart, Digital Projects Editor at the Omohundro Institute and creator and host of the award-winning podcast Ben Franklin's World, examined one of the American Revolution's most iconic broadsides and dug into the rivalry between printers Paul Revere and Henry Pelham that helped shape the unfolding narrative of America's path to independence.

Doc Chat Episode 4: Printing the Boston Massacre from The New York Public Library on Vimeo.

A transcript of this event is available here:

Below are some handy links to materials and sources suggested in the episode. 

Episode Four: Primary Sources

The two (very similar!) broadsides discussed by the panelists can be found in NYPL's Digital Collections. 

Episode Four: Readings and Resources

Clarence Brigham, Paul Revere's Engravings (American Antiquarian Society, 1954)

Eric Hinderaker, Boston's Massacre (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2017)

Jane Kamensky, A Revolution in Color (W.W. Norton & Company, 2016)

Mitch Kachun, First Martyr of Liberty: Crispus Attucks in American Memory (Oxford University Press, 2017)

Serena Zabin, The Boston Massacre: A Family History (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020)

Join the Doc Chat Conversation 

Doc Chat takes place on Zoom every Thursday at 3:30 PM.  This fall, we are covering a range of topics, from Malcolm X, to the 1939 World's Fair, to the 1960s Lower East Side literary scene, and more. Check them out on NYPL's calendar,  and make sure you don't miss an episode by signing up for NYPL's Research newsletter, which will include links to register. A video of each episode will be posted here on the NYPL blog shortly after the program, so be sure to check back regularly to keep on top of the Doc Chat conversation.