Giant lantern at Concord Museum honors key item from American Revolution

A 10-foot-tall lantern has popped up on the front lawn of the Concord Museum in Concord in honor of a key item from the American Revolution.

The Concord250 lantern is one example of how the city is commemorating the semi-quincentennial, or 250th anniversary, of the Revolutionary War this year.

The large art installation pays homage to one of the two original lanterns Paul Revere used to warn colonists about the British’s planned raid on Concord in 1775.

Only one of the two lanterns survived and is now housed at the Concord Museum. The museum wanted to highlight the lantern because of its historical significance and local ties.

“I think the most important part of it is to match that and have the Concord connection,” said Bill Crosby, owner of Crosby Design in Concord who also helped create the sculpture.

“I felt, just being from Concord, that’s the most important part,” he told MassLive. “That’s what we were trying to match.”

Crosby was instantly on board with building the lantern after the museum first approached him about it last summer. The statue consists of a massive lantern with an illuminated “candle” inside, sitting on top of a stone base.

The lantern was made through a method called die bonding — the process of attaching a die/chip to a substrate or package — that is also used for making signs or panels. This was done so that the sculpture could withstand the elements.

The lantern’s candle and frame were made with a blend of plastic and aluminum while its base is wood. Thanks to several layers of translucent colors and five lights, the solar-powered bulb appears to always be lit. The sculpture was finished with a faux patina coating to resemble a half copper/half bronze exterior, making it look incredibly authentic.

“It looks real, I think, pretty close,” Crosby said.

Revere’s lantern was capable of spreading light at about 7 mph due to the environmental conditions at the time, according to Concord Museum curator David Wood.

“Boston streets at that time were dark. There were no street lamps. That’s why the light of a single candle could carry across the river,” Wood told MassLive. “It was really extraordinary.”

Revere arranged to have a signal lit in Old North Church in Boston the weekend before April 18, 1775, Wood said.

One lantern meant the British would come to Concord from Boston by land via Roxbury Neck while two lanterns meant troops were coming by sea — or by rowing across the Charles River. This is where the phrase, “one if by land, two if by sea,” originated.

Revere began to make preparations for his famous ride on April 18, 1775 to alert the local militias and citizens about the impending attack. He rode to Lexington and convinced Samuel Adams and John Hancock to leave the city and evade possible arrest. Despite later being captured, Revere’s efforts prepared the Patriots for the impending attack.

The Revolutionary War would commence when the first shots were fired at the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775 — an instance later referred to as the “shot heard around the world” by poet Ralph Waldo Emerson in his poem “Concord Hymn.”

The Concord250 lantern will stay on the museum’s lawn until the city’s Patriots Day Parade on Saturday, April 19. Afterward, the piece will travel around to businesses and organizations in Concord.

The Concord Museum also has a collection that is dedicated to the events of April 19, 1775, featuring objects that played critical roles on that historic day. The gallery is open year-round.

The museum, along with the rest of the town of Concord, is hosting more special programming in honor of the 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War over the next few weeks. A full list of events being held in Concord can be found online.

This post was originally published on this site