How to Use the Images

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Photo 1: A miniature showing the redoubt atop Breed's Hill and the colonists waiting for the advancing British troops, June 17, 1775.

A similar diorama was installed in a bank in Boston in 1938. A reporter who first saw the exhibit wrote, "You unconsciously feel as if you were a spectator and close to the actual battle in which the colonial farmer-soldiers are moving about and taking their places at the breastworks."¹

¹A.J. Philpott, "'Battle of Bunker Hill:' Something New in the Realm of Realistic Art," Boston Globe, June 19, 1938.

Questions for Photo 1

1. Compare the battle formation of the British in Painting 1 with the position of the colonial troops of Photo 1. Make a list of differences you find. What are the advantages and disadvantages of both formations?

2. What might the average colonial soldier have been thinking or feeling as he watched the British troops advancing?

* The photo on the screen has a resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi), and therefore will print poorly. You can obtain a high quality version of the photo, but be aware that the file will take as much as two minutes to load with a 28.8K modem.