The Women of '76. Molly Pitcher The Heroine of Monmouth

PeriodBefore 1872

MediumLithograph on paper

Dimensions13.4 × 9 in. (34 × 22.9 cm)

InscribedInscribed bottom margin center, "Entered according to the Act of Congress in the year 1850, by J. D. Dayton, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. / THE WOMEN OF '76. / "MOLLY PITCHER" THE HEROINE OF MONMOUTH. / Her husband falls - she sheds no ill timed tear; The foe press on she checks their mad career, / But firm resolve - she fills his fatal post. Who can avenge like her a husband's ghost?."

SignedInscribed bottom margin center, "NEW YORK, PUB. BY CURRIER & IVES, 152 NASSAU ST."

ClassificationsPrints

Credit LineGift of Mrs. J. Amory Haskell, 1931

Object number55

DescriptionA fictional depiction of a very masculine Molly Pitcher standing in front of a brass cannon wielding the ramrod in preparation for firing. She wears a red skirt under a blue bodice with white fringe, posed with both hands on the ramrod. The gun captain in a red shirt stands behind her. The body of Molly's husband in a blue shirt and black trousers lies in the foreground. Her water bucket, tipped over, rests by her foot in the lower left corner. Troops are depicted in the distance, with smoke from the cannon fire filling the sky upper right corner.

Curatorial RemarksNotable for its patriot title, this interpretation of Molly Pitcher reflects the interest in the “woman soldier” that emerged during the pre-Civil War era with the publication of books such as Elizabeth Ellet’s The Women of the American Revolution (1848). At the same time, activists associated with the Woman’s Rights Movement, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, were giving speeches and writing articles describing the ways in which women had contributed to the Revolutionary cause. Recent scholarship posits that this image––despite its nationalistic overtones––may have been intended as a satirical response to the growing cause for the betterment of women: since Molly had moved from the domestic sphere into the masculine realm of warfare, the artist chose to alter her physical appearance and downplay her femininity.NotesThis hand-colored lithograph was first published in 1860 by Dayton & Co., a firm based in New York, most likely after an earlier study created by the illustrator, Jacob A. Dallas. Described in advertisements as one of the most “spirited pictures ever printed in America,” it was later reproduced and disseminated to a wider audience by Currier & Ives. The print shows Molly Pitcher as a tall, Amazon-like figure with a husky build, unruly short hair, and rigid facial features. Rather than weeping at her fallen husband’s feet, she is depicted as a “battlefield dominatrix” determined to support the troops. In a reversal of traditional gender roles, the gun captain stands behind the vengeful Molly, awaiting her command to fire.

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