Skinner’s Joel Bohy to present at the Colonial Williamsburg Conference

You might have seen this director of Historic Arms & Militaria at Skinner, appraising guests’ treasures on the PBS series Antiques Roadshow. And now, you can pick his brain at Colonial Williamsburg when you register for our October 11-13 conference, The Weapons of War: Military Arms in Revolutionary America.

Joel Bohy holds a fired Provincial fowler ball that he found and excavated during a 2016 Archaeology project called “Parker’s Revenge” at the Lexington and Concord Battlefields.

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At about 9:00 A.M. on the morning of April 19th, 1775, approximately 450 men from Concord and the neighboring towns of Acton, Lincoln, Bedford, and Westford congregated on a rising pasture above the North Bridge. Capt. David Brown, one of the captains of Concord’s two minute companies, happened to own the pasture, which had a good view of the bridge. In the nearby town of Lexington, 700 British grenadiers and light infantry had arrived to look for large quantities of hidden military supplies and arms.

Guest blog post by David F. Wood, Curator, Concord Museum. The Shot Heard Round the World:  April 19, 1775 will be on view at the Concord Museum through September 21, 2014. 

“By the rude bridge that arched the flood Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled Here once the embattled farmers stood And fired the shot heard round the world”

When Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote this famous stanza, he was referring specifically to events that occurred at Concord’s North Bridge on April 19, 1775.… Read More

On April 19, 1775, minutemen and militia faced off with British regulars at the North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts. This day would turn out to be the “spark” that ignited the American Revolution.

Two hundred years later, I was a 9-year-old attending the Ripley School in Concord. During a bicentennial ceremony, I received a small block of wood, and so did all of the other students at the school. Our teacher told us that these pieces of wood were remnants of the North Bridge.… Read More

You never know what you will find while doing research. In November 2010, I was at the Arlington Historical Society, studying the events of April 19th, 1775 that sparked the Revolutionary war in America. The Museum Director asked me if I was interested in seeing a British belt which had purportedly been taken on April 19th during the British retreat through West Cambridge, MA (now the city of Arlington). As soon as she opened the box, I realized it was not a belt, but a Royal Artillery cartridge pouch flap and strap, missing the leather pouch, wooden cartridge block, and brass insignia.… Read More

A few weeks ago, Stephen Fletcher, Director of American Furniture & Decorative Arts at Skinner, handed me a small watercolor sketch. The two names written along the bottom caught my attention immediately: “Major John Pitcairn” and “Paul Revere, Del.” [delineavit]. I couldn’t believe what I was holding in my hands! Not only could this be a rare painting by the famed engraver Paul Revere, but it could also be the only known period image of Major Pitcairn.… Read More

Skinner will offer a historic Colt revolver at auction 150 years after Capt. Thomas James Eubanks’ death

I have spent many hours walking the grounds of the Gettysburg battlefield, tracing the events that took place there in July 1863. Just a few weeks ago, I was at the site again, this time with a beautifully engraved pistol that had been presented to a Confederate soldier who fought in the battle: Capt. Thomas James Eubanks of the 48th Alabama Regiment.… Read More