John Trumbull (1756-1843). Trumbull, a Harvard graduate, was the preeminent painter of the American Revolution. He was the son of Connecticut governor Jonathan Trumbull, namesake of Trumbull College. In 1831 Yale purchased about 100 of his paintings, and with them established the first university art gallery in the United States.

Several of Trumbull’s paintings have appeared on stamps. One is a detail (above) of Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill, issued in 1968. The white man in front is Lieutenant Thomas Grosvenor, Class of 1765. The black man almost hidden behind him is generally identified as Peter Salem, a free black soldier credited with shooting Major John Pitcairn, who commanded the British.