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Lexington, MA
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Portrait of Major William Dawes (1745-1799) by Daniel J. Strain; oil on canvas, 28”x34”

william dawes portraitt

William Dawes, a Boston native, is best known for his role in the famous ‘Midnight Ride’ of April 18, 1775. He worked as a tanner, which allowed him relative freedom of travel on and off the isthmus of Boston, and was active in the local militia. As a result of his familiarity to the British troops guarding the city, he was chosen along with Paul Revere and Dr. Samuel Prescott to ride into the countryside to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams about the planned British advance on Lexington and Concord. Dawes was assigned the more dangerous land route – which meant passing through the British checkpoint at Boston Neck, then the narrowest point on the isthmus – and rode west, arriving in Lexington at 12:30am. After warning Hancock and Adams of the approaching army, Revere, Prescott and Dawes mounted their horses again and set off for Concord, but encountered a British patrol before reaching their destination. While Revere was captured, both Prescott and Dawes escaped, but Dawes lost his horse and was forced to walk back to Lexington. He later began a provisioning business and worked as a commissary providing supplies to the Continental Army, but soon faded into obscurity. In recent years, his role has been overshadowed due to the acclaim given to Paul Revere by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow’s famous poem ‘The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.’

Daniel J. Strain (1847-1925) was born in Littleton, New Hampshire and worked in Portland, Maine and Boston, where he was known for his portrait heads of children. He then spent five years studying painting in Paris during the late 1870s, where he exhibited in the Paris Salon three years in a row. Upon his return to Boston in 1883, Strain set up a studio and quickly re-established himself as a portrait painter of notable local figures, although he was also equally adept at various genre scenes. This painting was copied from the original by the American painter John Johnston (1753-1818), who was also a talented portraitist. 

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