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Paul’s In Stead?
While browsing through the Flickr photo archives of the Boston
Public Library (BPL) I came upon this amazing 1898 photo, which
managed to confirm a nagging suspicion I have had on my mind for
over twenty years.
Since the image cannot be duplicated with true
detailed justice by a mono laser printer, I have provided an
internet link, via the QR code, to the photo in its full
resolution glory.
In the photo you can see the larger 1885 public subscription
monument and in front of it a smaller, straight-edged object
protruding from the ground roughly where you see the granite curb
installed today.
The smaller object reads: “Paul Revere’s Tomb”
and after a quick comparison (size, shape, type of stone, etc.) it
became apparent to me that it was not the same small, rounded
tombstone you see embedded a few feet to the right today.
Thus it is unfortunately clear now, due to this photo, that the
small tombstone seen today is a replacement. Of the limited info I
could recently dig up, it appears that the placement of the
current headstone probably occurred in the early 1970’s when the
semi-circular standing area was created.
After tossing all of this physical evidence around in my noggin
for a little while, it finally hit me what had been the cause of
the nagging suspicion I have had had all these years about the
tombstone to be seen today – the simple inscription.
For years I had a “Jimmy’s Tangents” listing that said Revere
reputedly got his headstone as a gag gift when he was much younger
but that it had indeed become his tombstone. While I only had one
source for that story it made sense to me at the time because it
was the only way to explain the current marker’s presumptive
inscription.
On the older tombstone in the photo the
inscription reads “Paul Revere’s Tomb.” For whom is this
tombstone? Revere. Which Revere? Paul. And yet the “Revere’s Tomb”
etching on the current marker clearly presumes that the viewer
will know which Revere.
This fantastic photo, while
creating a few new questions to be answered, at least puts to rest
the notion that the current smaller marker is Paul Revere’s
original tombstone.
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