Benjamin Franklin Papers

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.

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    Franklin Papers
    Title
    To Benjamin Franklin from Harvard College, 4 January 1769
    Author
    Harvard College
    Recipient
    Franklin, Benjamin
    Date
    4 January 1769

    Reference

    Cite as
    “To Benjamin Franklin from Harvard College, 4 January 1769,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-16-02-0003. [Original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 16, January 1 through December 31, 1769, ed. William B. Willcox. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1972, pp. 6–7.]

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