Paul Revere's Midnight Ride
Thomas Ketchell
On the evening of April 18th 2014, to mark the 239th anniversary of Paul Revere's Midnight Ride, HSTRY teamed up with Paul Revere House to tweet the ride in real time. Via the Twitter account @PaulRevere1734, Paul Revere tweeted - from a first person perspective - over the course of ten hours, from his horse, as the number of followers increased. Some even stayed up until 5 am to mark "the beginning of the struggle for independence."
Our purpose in recreating this event was to bring attention to a remarkable feat and to mark Patriots’ Day. What better way than to commemorate the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord and the beginnings of the American Revolutionary War, by bringing to life the heroics of Paul Revere. Revere’s early warnings of British troop advancements gave the colonists time to assemble their militia and subsequently inflict heavy damage on the British forces. This, the first military engagement, set an early tone for the American Revolutionary War which would eventually lead to the founding of the United States of America.
Our approach for @PaulRevere1734 was similar to our previous re-enactments such as The Great Smog of London or The First Successful Ascent of Mt. Everest. We used social media (mainly Twitter) to share our historical posts and messages. We sent out a total of 112 tweets over the space of an evening and we must thank all of the followers who interacted with us and played along by tweeting 140 characters worth of encouragements while Revere attempted to avoid capture by the British. Our tweets from @PaulRevere1734 during the Ride received an impressive total of 716 retweets with our most successful tweet being this one about Revere getting the signal put together:
Before that though I must go to see a friend about the signals. Two lanterns, I tell him, as the troops go by water. #Revere
— Paul Revere (@PaulRevere1734) April 19, 2014We even managed to get trending on Twitter in Boston on Friday afternoon:
Paul Revere, @paulrevere1734 is now trending in #Boston http://t.co/OjkWzUjCCk
— Trendsmap Boston (@TrendsBoston) April 18, 2014This was thanks to the press we received by Boston Globe's Beta Boston and an interview by the EdTech Times.
The (Twitter) Ride of Paul Revere - http://t.co/wxrtxTqOx3 via @BetaBoston
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) April 18, 2014None of this would have been possible without the help from the Paul Revere House and their great support both before and during our reenactment. We are delighted to have supported them on this project and we are happy to report that their Twitter followers increased by 40% because of this event. We also hope that there will be an increase in the number of (physical) visitors to their museum. If you commented, favorited or retweeted any of our content during this event, we thank you! Here are some of our favorite tweets:
I am so excited for @PaulRevere1734 to tell me his story tonight!! #historynerd
— Julie Nilsson Smith (@julnilsmith) April 18, 2014Bruins game is crazy right now but damn I won't lie If I I'm not into @PaulRevere1734 ride tonight. #Revere
— Matt Johnson (@mwjohn1000) April 19, 2014You shouldn't tweet while riding a horse, Paul. RT @PaulRevere1734: My mission is of Capital importance. #Revere
— Mike (@truthaboutmike) April 19, 2014.@PaulRevere1734 live tweeted his midnight ride and the beginning of the Battle of Lexington last night/this morning. Really cool stuff
— Darren J. Costa (@DarrenJCosta) April 19, 2014If you are a teacher and would like to use HSTRY for your classroom, then don't hesitate to click the register button on the top right. You can also sign-up up to our newsletter by leaving us your email on the top right of this page and we will let you know when the next historical reenactment will happen.
Are you an organisation or a museum? Would you like HSTRY to organize a historical reenactment on social media for you? If you do, then please contact thomas@hstry.co and we can see how we can work together.