Jun

Today in Smithsonian History: June 14, 1974

“The Times,” September 7, 1762, engraving by William Hogarth sets out to defend King George III and the ministry of the Earl of Bute. A fire, symbolic of war, has broken out in the background buildings. William Hogarth was an English painter and printmaker who poignantly commented on the English society of the eighteenth century with biting satire. Featured in the “In the Minds and Hearts” exhibit of the National Portrait Gallery in 1974.

June 14, 1974 “In the Minds and Hearts of the People—Prologue to the American Revolution 1760-1774,” opens at the National Portrait Gallery, the first of three major Bicentennial exhibitions. It is on display until Nov. 17 and includes an authentic tea chest thrown overboard during the Boston Tea Party, discovered in the possession of a Texas resident only five days prior to the opening of the exhibition.

Read more about the remarkable history of the Robinson Tea Chest from the Boston Tea Party Museum.

The Robinson Half Tea Chest on display at the Boston Ships and Tea Party Museum. The chest, one of only two surviving from the “Boston Tea Party,” was passed down through generations after John Robinson retrieved it from the marshes that are now South Boston. (Photo via the New York Times)