423 The Forgotten Artists of the American Revolution
Ben Franklin's World
Liz Covart
4.6 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 21 October 2025
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Have you ever noticed how conversations about the American Revolution often center on great battles, founding documents, and famous statesmen?
What if, instead, we explored that world through the eyes—and the hands—of everyday people who shaped it through art?
Zara Anishanslin, Associate Professor of History and Art History at the University of Delaware and Director of its Museum Studies and Public Engagement Program, joins us to uncover the hidden world of artists, artisans, and makers who painted, stitched, and crafted the Revolution into being. Drawing from her book The Painter's Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution, Zara helps us see how creativity and craftsmanship tell a fuller—and more human—story of America's founding.
Zara's Website | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/423
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:41.79 Welcome & Episode Overview
00:02:59 Meet Our Guest
00:07:11 The Transatlantic Network of Revolutionary Artists
00:11:28 Why Revolutionary Artwork Didn't Survive
00:14:13 Prince Demah & His Mother Daphny
00:21:21 How Art Patronage Worked in the 18th Century
00:24:01 Finding Prince Demah a Teacher in London
00:27:40 Life as a Black Artist in London
00:41:22 Prince Demah's Life in Revolutionary Boston
00:49:24 Robert Edge Pine: The English Artist Who Supported America
00:59:24 How Revolutionary Art Differs from Later Commemorative Art
01:04:55 What Artists Reveal About the Revolution
01:07:29 Closing Thoughts & Resources
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. |
| 0:04.1 | The other reason that a lot of this does not survive is just sort of the accidental |
| 0:09.4 | havocs of history, which is everything from being lost in the sense that they're destroyed |
| 0:15.7 | by fire. Two of the artists that I talk about in this book in a very weird twist of fate, proving that history is always stranger than fiction. |
| 0:24.1 | Most of their surviving collected works not only go up in flames, but go up in flames because they've been relocated to the same museum together. |
| 0:31.2 | This is something that happens to a lot of these works. Hello and welcome to episode 423 of Ben Franklin's World, |
| 0:47.5 | the podcast dedicated to helping you learn more about how the people and events of our early American past |
| 0:53.3 | have shaped the present |
| 0:54.6 | day world we live in. |
| 0:56.3 | And I'm your host, Liz Kovart. |
| 0:59.2 | Have you ever noticed how discussions of the American Revolution often focus on grand battles, |
| 1:04.4 | founding documents, or famous statesmen? |
| 1:07.0 | Have you ever wondered what it would be like to look at the American Revolution through the eyes |
| 1:11.9 | and hands of an everyday person? |
| 1:14.6 | Today, we're going to do just that. |
| 1:17.6 | We're going to explore the life and work of Prince Dima, an enslaved man who became a |
| 1:22.1 | professionally trained portrait painter, gained his freedom, and fought for the revolutionary |
| 1:26.6 | cause. |
| 1:29.6 | Our guide for this exploration is Zara Annas Hanselin, an associate professor of history and art history at the University |
| 1:34.8 | of Delaware, and the director of its Museum Studies and Public Engagement Program. |
| 1:40.1 | Zara is the author of The Painter's Fire, a forgotten history of the artists who championed |
| 1:45.0 | the American Revolution, a book that investigates the lives of artists like Prince Dima, |
... |
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