Events are funded in part through generous grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati, the Lowell Institute, and the Revere Hotel.
“The Governor, the Sheriff, and the Sawyer: a New Hampshire Perspective on the Coming of the Revolution”
December 10 @ 6:30 pm - 7:45 pm
Online and in-person Kimberly Alexander, Director of Museum Studies & Senior Lecturer History Department, University of New Hampshire, and Peter Flood, author of the 2014 Revere House Gazette article, “A Week in December – Paul Revere’s Secret Mission to New Hampshire.”
Paul Revere made multiple rides to New Hampshire to pass messages between Patriot groups. The conventional narrative of the American Revolution emphasizes the role of extra-legal events in Massachusetts such as the Boston Tea Party and Stamp Act riots. Yet, extra-legal actions were not exclusive to Massachusetts—New Hampshire had a long tradition of protest, especially when connected to timber. Laws passed by Parliament in 1708 and 1722 that claimed pine trees for the masts needed for the Royal Navy, among other items contributed to growing discontent with colonial rule, reflected in a series of demonstrations and riots through the 1700s. By late 1774, New Hampshire colonists were seizing Royal munitions.
Dr. Kimberly Alexander is on the faculty of the History Department at the University of New Hampshire, where she is Director of Museum Studies and Senior Lecturer and the recipient of a Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award (2021). Alexander is currently a James Hayes Fellow for 2023-2025, as the Project Director for the UNH Flax-to-Linen project, awarded by the UNH Center for the Humanities. She has held curatorial positions at several New England Museums, including the MIT Museum, the Peabody Essex Museum and Strawbery Banke. Her most recent books are Treasures Afoot: Shoe Stories from the Georgian Era (2018, Johns Hopkins University Press) which won an Honor Award from Historic New England in 2019), and Fashioning the New England Family (2021, Massachusetts Historical Society).
Treasures Afoot: Shoe Stories from the Georgian Era
Fashioning the New England Family
Peter Flood is the author of the 2014 Revere House Gazette article, “A Week in December – Paul Revere’s Secret Mission to New Hampshire.”
This is an online and in-person lecture, presented as a part of the 2024 Lowell Lecture Series. This year’s series focuses on the lesser-known express assignments Paul Revere completed. Speakers will share the importance of his courier work not only as an individual act of patriotism but also as part of a communications system that involved complex overlapping networks of leaders of all stations. The series will also explore the very practical aspects of long-distance horse journeys and the local colonial politics in key communities Revere interacted with.
Presented in partnership with GBH, the Suffolk University History Department, Milton Historical Society/Suffolk Resolves House (Milton, MA), Carpenters’ Hall (Philadelphia, PA), Fraunces Tavern Museum (New York, NY), and the Portsmouth Athenaeum (Portsmouth, NH), with funding from the Lowell Institute. For more information, please contact staff@paulreverehouse.org. All lectures are free and open to the public. This lecture will be livestreamed by on the GBH forum network on YouTube.