To Benjamin Franklin from Harvard College, 4 January 1769
From Harvard College
Reprinted from William C. Lane, “Harvard College and Franklin,” Colonial Society of Massachusetts Publications, X (1907), 236.
At a Meeting of the Presdt. and Fellows of Harvard-College
Jany 4. 1769.
Voted 4. That the Thanks of this Board be given to Dr. Benja. Franklin for his very acceptable Present, of a fine Bust of that great Assertor of American Liberties, Lord Chatham.4
[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]
4. The bust was presumably a copy of the only one known from this period, that executed by Joseph Wilton in 1759, for which see Margaret Whinney, Sculpture in Britain, 1530 to 1830 (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1964), pp. 137–41. Harvard had ordered a scientific instrument through BF, which was completed in the previous September (above, XV, 166–7); the bust was doubtless part of the same shipment.