You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.

Hello and welcome to Ben Franklin's World Revisited, a series of classic episodes that bring fresh

perspective to our latest episodes and add deeper connections to our understanding

of early American history. And I'm your host, Liz Covart. What did it mean to be caught

between two worlds? Between loyalty and liberty, artistry and commerce, and between the colonies

and the British Empire? This week, we're revisiting our exploration of the life of John Singleton

Copley, one of early America's most celebrated portrait artists. Copley's story reveals much about

the upheaval of the American Revolution and the choices that everyday people had to make as events

unfolded around them. In episode 106, we spoke with Jane Kamenski, who is now the president and

CEO of Mondicello and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. In 2016, Jane published a book

about Copley's life, called A Revolution in Color, the world of John Singleton Copley.

Now, during our exploration of Copley's life, Jane revealed

how Copley rose from modest beginnings in Boston to become a sought-after portraitist and painter,

what Copley's letters and paintings reveal about life in colonial and revolutionary Boston,

and how Copley's decision to leave Boston in 1774 captured the conflicted loyalties that many

everyday Americans felt on the eve of the American Revolution. Revisiting this episode helps

us set the stage for next week when historians are Annas Hansland joins us in episode 423

to dive into the details of the lives and work of lesser-known artists

from the revolutionary era. The painters, poets, and wax artists that Zara explores

lived in the same world as John Singleton Copley. And like Copley, they demonstrate how artists

and artisans use their crafts to shape how early Americans saw the revolution and themselves.

But first, a quick word from our sponsors.

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