Paul Revere

Revere, Paul (1735–1818), American Revolutionary hero, immortalized by the poet Henry Wadsword Longfellow for “Paul Revere's Ride” from Boston to Lexington (April 18, 1775) to warn the Massachusetts minutemen that the British were coming. A silversmith and engraver, he joined in the Boston Tea Party in 1773. During the Revolutionary War he served the new government, designing and producing the first Continental money, casting official seals, and supervising gunpowder and cannon manufacture. After the War he became a prosperous merchant known for his copper and silver work, much of which is still copied today, and his bronze bells. Revere also was the first American to discover the method of rolling sheet copper, and constructed the first U.S. copper-rolling mill.

See also: Revolutionary War in America.