Resources

To learn more about Paul Revere and the American Revolution, browse below for different materials, including videos, written materials, and audio resources. Check for books, curriculum materials, resources for school projects, guidebooks and more in our online Museum Shop.

Text panels located within the Revere House for reading off-site.

Videos of lectures produced by the Paul Revere House in partnership with Old South Meeting House and recorded by the WGBH Forum Network. For other video resources, please visit our YouTube channel! 

Read our blog, The Revere Express.

Listen to Revere House Radio.

Recommended Reading

For Younger Readers
Fritz, Jean, And Then What Happened, Paul Revere? Coward-McCann, 1973. A whimsical, yet accurate portrait of Paul Revere.

Lawson, Robert, Mr. Revere and I. Dell Publishing Co., 1953. Historical fiction. Paul’s ride as told by his horse. Highly inaccurate (Revere didn’t own a horse at the time of the Revolution) but a fun read.

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, “Paul Revere’s Ride.” Illustrated by Christopher Bing. Handprint Books, 2001. Includes excellent maps, well-researched drawings, and the text of primary sources.

Rinaldi, Ann, The Secret of Sarah Revere. Gulliver Books, Harcourt Brace & Co., 1995. Historical fiction from the point of view of Paul’s thirteen-year-old daughter who is smitten with Patriot leader, Dr. Joseph Warren.

For Upper Elementary and Junior High School
Edwards, Ben L., One April in Boston. Spyglass Books, LLC, 2020. The story of one family’s gift passed down from the time of the American Revolution. Includes an accurate account of Paul Revere’s midnight ride. Written by a Revere relative.

Forbes, Esther, Johnny Tremain. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1943. An historical novel that takes place in Boston at the time of the Revolution. Paul Revere appears in the book but is not the central character. Details of daily life in colonial Boston and of Revolutionary events are portrayed authentically.

Forbes, Esther, America’s Paul Revere. Houghton Mifflin, 1974. Illustrated picture book using text from Esther Forbes’s Paul Revere and the World He Lived In (see below).

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, “Paul Revere’s Ride” (see above)

Sullivan, George, In Their Own Words: Paul Revere. Scholastic, 1999. A good overview of Revere’s life that quotes from primary sources and includes many illustrations.

For Older Readers and Teachers
Brigham, Clarence S., Paul Revere’s Engravings. American Antiquarian Society, 1969. Includes color facsimiles of all of Revere’s famous political cartoons.

Buker, George E. The Penobscot Expedition — Commodore Saltonstall and the Massachusetts Conspiracy of 1779, 2002.

Fischer, David Hackett, Paul Revere’s Ride. Oxford University Press, 1994.

Forbes, Esther, Paul Revere and the World He Lived In. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1942, 1969.

Greenburg, Michael M., The Court-Martial of Paul Revere — A Son of Liberty & America’s Forgotten Military Disaster. University Press of New England. 2014.

Goss, Elbridge Henry, The Life of Colonel Paul Revere. Two Volumes. Boston: Joseph George Cupples, Publisher, 1891. Antiquarian-style biography, quotes many documents in full.

Leehey, Patrick M., What Was the Name of Paul Revere’s Horse: Twenty Questions About Paul Revere-Asked and Answered. Paul Revere Memorial Association, 2019.

Robert Martello, Midnight Ride, Industrial Dawn — Paul Revere and the Growth of American Enterprise, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.

Paul Revere’s Boston: 1735-1818. Museum of Fine Arts, 1975.

Paul Revere’s Three Accounts of His Famous Ride. Massachusetts Historical Society, 1968. Copies of Revere’s three handwritten accounts of the ride with transcriptions, the Longfellow poem, and an excellent introduction to the primary sources.

Paul Revere-Artisan, Businessman and Patriot: The Man Behind the Myth. Paul Revere Memorial Association, 1988.

Steblecki, Edith J., Paul Revere and Freemasonry. Paul Revere Memorial Association, 1985.

Tourtellot, Arthur B., Lexington and Concord. Norton, 1963.

Triber, Jayne E., A True Republican: The Life of Paul Revere. University of Massachusetts Press, 1998.

The following books will answer most of your questions about Paul Revere:

  • What Was the Name of Paul Revere’s Horse? Twenty Questions About Paul Revere – Asked and Answered, by Patrick Leehey, 2019.
  • A True Republican: The Life of Paul Revere, by Jayne E. Triber, 1998 — the most recent full biography of Paul Revere.
  • Paul Revere and the World He Lived In, by Esther Forbes, 1942 — literary biography, won the Pulitzer Prize in history for 1943.
  • Paul Revere’s Ride, by David Hackett Fischer, 1994 — excellent study of the events surrounding Paul Revere’s famous 1775 messenger ride.
  • Midnight Ride, Industrial Dawn: Paul Revere and the Growth of American Enterprise, by Robert Martello, 2010 — interesting new insights into Revere’s many business ventures.

Other Useful Resources