Historical Research Library

Discover the people, events, and key documents that shaped the Founding Era. 

Singers and dancers focused on Chris Jackson playing George Washington

Explore our Resources

Filter by person, event, document, and theme.

Paul Revere, "The Bloody Massacre in King-Street, March 5, 1770," Boston, 1770 (The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History)

Boston Massacre, 1770

A “massacre” of civilians in Boston by British troops fueled colonial resentment of British rule

Event
Bostonian’s Paying the Excise-man, or Tarring and Feathering

Boston Tea Party, 1773

Colonial tax protest in which American patriots dumped British tea into Boston Harbor

Event
James S. Baillie, Surrender of Cornwallis, 1845 (The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History)

Battle of Yorktown, 1781

A decisive victory of American and French forces that led to British surrender and American independence

Event
Paul Cuffee, painting attributed to Chester Harding

Paul Cuffe

Black and Wampanoag businessman and shipbuilder who advocated for abolition, civil rights, and African colonization

Person
Portrait of King George III by Thomas Frye (The Gilder Lehrman Collection)

George III

King of Great Britain viewed as a tyrant by colonists and a symbol of imperial rule

Person
Lithographed portrait print, “The Reverend Sampson Occom” (circa 1830), (Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History)

Samson Occom

Mohegan clergyman, writer, and orator who was a key figure in Native American rights and education

Person
Paul Revere, 1887 (Library of Congress)

Paul Revere

Boston patriot, famed for his “midnight ride,” whose art turned a local skirmish into a “Massacre”

Person
Philip Schuyler, engraved by T. Kelly, based on a painting by John Trumbull, 1835 (Library of Congress)

Philip Schuyler

American general, influential New Yorker of Dutch descent, and father-in-law to Alexander Hamilton

Person
Frontispiece, "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral," 1773, by Phillis Wheatley, 1773 (The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History)

Phillis Wheatley

First published African American female author and supporter of American independence

Person