Facing Attucks

With no confirmed portrait of Attucks, artists draw on their imaginations to bring him to life.

These pieces meditate on the figure of Attucks in more intimate and immediate ways, bringing us face to face with an imagined Attucks. A figure of dignity, these images often draw on period notions of respectability.

What do we gain and lose when we bring Attucks to life in our own time and place?

Digital Exclusive

Imagining Attucks Virtual Panel

PORTRAIT OF CRISPUS ATTUCKS
Artist unknownUndated
Reproduction

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The exact date and artist of this portrait of Attucks are unknown. However, it is perhaps the most frequently used picture of Attucks and has come to shape people’s image of him.

Portrait of Crispus Attucks

CRISPUS ATTUCKS: PATRIOT
Black American book series 1995
Holloway House
Museum purchase

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Crispus Attucks - Patriot

CRISPUS ATTUCKS
Maker unknownc. 1897
Half-tone photomechanical print
Reproduction courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

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<p>Maker unknown</p>

<p>c. 1897<br>
Half-tone photomechanical print<br>
<i>Reproduction courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division</i>

Crispus Attucks

CRISPUS ATTUCKS: PATRIOT
Black American book series 1995
Holloway House
Museum purchase

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<p>"When we speak<br>
of those musket-draped<br>
and manqué Englishmen;<br>
that cloistered country;<br>
all those common people,<br>
dotting the potted stoves,<br>
hating the king,<br>
shifting uneasily under<br>
the sharp sails<br>
of the unwelcome boats,<br>
sometimes we forget you.<br>
Who asked you<br>
for that impulsive miracle?<br>
I form it now,<br>
with my own motives.<br>
The flag dipping in your hands,<br>
your crafted boots<br>
hammering up the unclaimed streets,<br>
all that was in that unformed moment.<br>
But it wasn’t the feel of those things,<br>
nor the burden of the American character;<br>
it was somehow the sense<br>
of an unencumbered escape,<br>
the breaking of a Protestant host,<br>
the ambiguous, detached<br>
judgment of yourself.<br>
Now, we think of you,<br>
when, through the sibilant streets, <br>another season drums<br>
your intense, communal daring."</p>

<p>- from The Homecoming Singer, © 1971 by Jay Wright.<br>
Reissued in Transfigurations: Collected Poems,<br>
Louisiana State University Press, © 2000 by Jay Wright.<br>
Reprinted by permission of the author.</p>

POEM BY JAY WRIGHT - Click for text or larger image.

CRISPUS ATTUCKS: BOY OF VALOR
by Dharathula H. Millender
Childhood of Famous Americans book series1965
The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc.
Museum purchase

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<p>by Dharathula H. Millender<br>
Childhood of Famous Americans book series</p>

<p>1965<br>
The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc.<br>
<i>Museum purchase</i></p>

Crispus Attucks - Boy of Valor

PHOTOGRAPH OF CRISPUS ATTUCKS PLAQUE
Maker unknown1976
Bronze
Collection of Revolutionary Spaces

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This bronze plaque was presented to the Bostonian Society by the Boston Equal Rights League on October 17, 1976 for the Bicentennial of the United States. The Bostonian Society merged with the Old South Association in January 2020 to form Revolutionary Spaces, which is planning on re-dedicating and installing the plaque in the Old State House.

NN2038 Crispus Attucks Plaque

COMMEMORATIVE COIN AND STAMP SET
United States Mint, Department of the TreasuryMarch 5, 1998
Collection of Revolutionary Spaces
Gift of the Black Revolutionary War Patriots of America
1998.0004

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This framed commemorative coin and stamp set was given to the Bostonian Society by the Black Revolutionary War Patriots of America. It includes a Crispus Attucks dollar coin, produced by the United States Mint in 1998, as well as stamps produced by the United States Post Office featuring Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806), Harriet Tubman (1822-1913), Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), and Salem Poor (1747–1802). Currently, the only nations that have a stamp commemorating Attucks are Grenada and St. Christopher Nevis.