American Revolutionary War paintings of Isaiah thomas in the Union Oyster House, Boston

Art and paintings of the
American Revolutionary War
by D. W. Roth

as Found in the Restaurant and Historical Landmark in Boston, Ye Olde Union Oyster House (Americas oldest restaurant)
View a copy of an article with these paintings from CNN.com

View Print Catalogue

Isaiah Thomas
Revolutionary War Printer and Publisher -
Prints of this painting are available for purchase.
This print is only available here and is signed by the artist D. W. Roth.

Isaiah Thomas

Please click image to see enlargements

The Sedition Foundry Catalogue No. 513 -

$20.00 (plus $5 shipping and handling, U.S. only)

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Who was Isaiah Thomas?

Print Catalogue

Israel Bissell

Who was Israel Bissell?

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Print of D. W. Roth's painting
"The Sedition Foundry":

13 x 19 in. giclee print on archival watercolor paper
signed in pencil by D. W. Roth

The Sedition Foundry

Painting by D W. Roth

The sedition Foundry was the name given to Isaiah Thomas's printing office by the British authority. Depicted is an interior view as it may have looked in 1771.

Between 1771 and 1775, when Isaiah Thomas operated his press from his home and office on Union Street in Boston, many radical revolutionaries met secretly within the walls of his printing office to draft their plans for liberty. Portrayed from left to right are Paul Revere, James Otis, John Hancock and various apprentices and assistants as they proofread the daring November 14, 1771 issue.

Isaiah Thomas' "Old No. 1 Press"

(Photo Copyright D. W. Roth)

22-year-old Isaiah Thomas at his Old No. 1 Press

Isaiah Thomas (above center) was born youngest of three into a poor Boston family on January 19, 1749. From the ages of six through sixteen, Isaiah was indentured as an apprentice to a Boston printer, Zachariah Fowle, where he learned his trade.

In 1767, Thomas lived in Halifax. He worked on the Halifax Gazette against the Stamp Act, a British Parliamentary tax law of 1765 and took such a strong stand against this measure, that he was fired. In 1767 at 18, Thomas settled for two years in Charleston, South Carolina, and worked as a journeyman printer.

On Christmas day of 1769, he married Mary Dill, and moved to Boston in the spring of 1770 where he began a partnership with his former master, Fowle. The first samples of The Massachusetts Spy were issued on July 17, 1770. By October 23, 1770 , Fowle sold his interest to Thomas.

At the end of October 1771, Isaiah Thomas moved his print shop to a house on the "south corner of Marshall Lane, leading from Mill bridge into Union Street"

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