Prince Whipple is perhaps best known as the man at the front of the boat in Emmanuel Leutze's 1851 painting "Washington Crossing the Delaware," which today hangs in New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The painting was the basis for a commemorative postage stamp issued at Philadelphia, May 29, 1976.

Many of the things we thought we knew about Prince are incorrect (including, ironically, his presence at Trenton, N.J., when Washington crossed the Delaware). Hopefully these links (and future research) will clarify our understanding of who Prince Whipple was.

• Prince Whipple: Symbol of African Americans at the Battle of Trenton, by Richard S. Walling
• Walling's original document, in PDF format (Get Acrobat Reader)
• Commemorative postage stamp issued at Philadelphia, May 29, 1976.
• Prince's genealogy (what we know so far)
• William Whipple, Signer of the Declaration of Independence