Recent research about the work of New Hampshire schoolmaster-artist George Melvill, known primarily for the family record art he produced from the mid 1780s to 1800, has revealed an important drawing of a late-eighteenth-century, non-commissioned New Hampshire militia soldier. The drawing (Fig. 1), inscribed A View of a Private in the first Regt. of N.H. Light-Horse on Duty/Done by the request of Serjent Henry Moore of said Regt., is a rare, early, and visually appealing military item. Based on stylistic similarities to signed family records (Figs. 2, 3), it is firmly attributed to Melvill, yet unique within the artist’s known productions.
