Paul Revere
For use in teaching about the portrait
https://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/midnight-ride-paul-revere-fact-fiction-and-artistic-license#sectintroduction
An interdisciplinary lesson focusing on Paul Revere's Midnight Ride. While many students
know this historical event, this lesson allows them to explore the true story of Paul Revere and
his journey through primary source readings as well as to compare artist Grant Wood's and
poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's interpretations of it.
Grant Wood painted American scenes and subjects during the first half of the 20th century in a
simplified style reminiscent of American folk art. Like poet Henry Wordsworth Longfellow,
Wood wished to tell and preserve stories of the American Revolution. Longfellow wrote his
poem 88 years after the event when he found letters belonging to his grandfather, who had
known Revere. Only a few people who had been children during the Revolution were still alive
in 1860 when he wrote Paul Revere's Ride. Wood based his 1931 painting on Longfellow's
heroic poem with no attempt to make it historically accurate.
This lesson encourages close study of Wood's painting, American Revolution primary sources,
and Longfellow's poem to understand the significance of this historical ride in America's
struggle for freedom. By reading primary sources, students learn how Paul Revere and his
Midnight Ride became an American story of patriotism.
Guiding Questions
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What does the visual evidence in Wood's painting tell us about this American legend
and historical event?
What is the true story of Paul Revere and others' midnight ride?
Learning Objectives
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Discuss and analyze how Grant Wood manipulated viewpoint, composition, and scale in
his painting The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere to present an idealized view of this
American tale.
Understand the significance of the midnight ride to United States history.
Analyze different perspectives about this event, using primary sources.
Synthesize the primary and secondary source works to develop an overall sense of the
events.
Lesson Activities see the website https://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/midnight-ridepaul-revere-fact-fiction-and-artistic-license#sect-activities
Resources https://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/midnight-ride-paul-revere-factfiction-and-artistic-license#sect-resources
Paul Revere's Ride in History and Literature
https://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/why-do-we-remember-revere-paul-reveres-ride-history-andliterature#sect-introduction
In his account of his famous ride, Paul Revere described the impetus for his journey: "…I was
sent for by Dr. Joseph Warren, of said Boston, on the evening of the 18th of April, about 10
o'clock; when he desired me, 'to go to Lexington, and inform Mr. Samuel Adams, and the Hon.
John Hancock Esq.'" Though the lantern signal from Christ Church had been Revere's idea, he
never mentions seeing it, though he does go on to say, "I set off, it was then about 11 o'clock,
the moon shone bright." Anyone who learned the story from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
heard it told a little differently. Virtually all students, at one point or another in their schooling,
are exposed to Longfellow's ballad, "Paul Revere's Ride." How accurate is it? Is it responsible
for Revere's ride achieving such iconic status?
Provide the opportunity for your students to think about the answers to these and other
questions as they read primary and secondhand accounts of events during the American
Revolution. Extend the study of American Revolutionary history into literature by discussing
how Revere's ride has been dealt with in poems by Longfellow and others.
Guiding Questions
What are the essential differences between Longfellow's account of Paul Revere's ride and
historical fact? Why does Revere's ride occupy such a prominent place in the American
consciousness?
Lesson Activities see website: https://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/why-do-we-rememberrevere-paul-reveres-ride-history-and-literature#sect-activities
Resources
https://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/why-do-we-remember-revere-paul-reveres-ride-history-andliterature#sect-resources
As a Team
1. Midnight ride of Paul Revere...A poem about Paul Revere- http://www.mercyisnew.com/wp-
content/uploads/Paul-Reveres-Ride-.pdf
2. A lantern art project to show the one by land and two by sea lanterns:
http://www.3dinosaurs.com/wordpress/index.php/paul-reveres-ride-and-2-if-by-sea-lanterns/