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Title: Medallion of Benjamin Franklin
Description: Medallion by Nini after a drawing by Thomas Walpole (1755-1840). Bas-relief profile portrait of Franklin facing to the left wearing a fur cap. Inscription around the circumference, “B. Franklin. Americain.” Stamped on the truncation under the shoulder, “Nini / F 1777” and shield bearing a lightning rod and thunderbolt, with a crown as its crest; below the truncation, “1777.”, Gift of Michael Robinson, 2014.
Creator: Nini, Jean-Baptiste, 1717-1786
Date: 1777
Location: OBJ 896

Title: Benjamin Franklin
Description: In the late spring of 1777, Caffieri completed a terra cotta bust of Franklin from life. It was said to be the best likeness of Franklin. Thereafter, the sculptor made a number of casts., LCP Minutes vol. 4, Jan. 17, 1805, p. 186: "A bust of Dr. Benjamin Franklin was presented to the Company by Walter Franklin, Esquire.", Gift of Walter Franklin, 1805., Exhibited in the Library Company's exhibitions, Quarter of a Millennium (1981) and Benjamin Franklin: Writer and Printer (2006)., Photograph courtesy of Linda Lennon Objects Conservation.
Creator: Caffieri, Jean-Jacques, 1725-1792
Date: Ca. 1779-1784
Location: OBJ 526

Title: Benjamin Franklin
Description: The Lambdin portrait is a copy of an original painted by David Martin in 1766., Purchased by the Library Company, 1880., LCP Minutes vol. 8, April 1, 1880, p. 311: "A letter was recd from JR Lambdin offering for sale a portrait of Dr. Franklin, which was declined, the price being $200." Vol. 8, November 11, 1880, p. 343: "On motion it was decided to purchase from Mr. J.R. Lambdin a portrait of Dr. Franklin, provided it could be obtained for $150.00." Vol. 8, December 3, 1880, p. 352: "The following orders were drawn upon the Treasurer... No. 527, JR. Lambdin. Portrait of Dr. Franklin 150.00."
Creator: Lambdin, James Reid, 1807-1889
Date: Ca. 1880
Location: OBJ 180

Title: Benjamin Franklin
Description: Larger-than-life statue of Franklin originally placed in a niche over the entrance to Library Hall at Fifth Street in 1792., Universal Asylum and Columbian Magazine, April 11, 1792, p. 284: "The statue of Dr. Franklin was last Saturday fixed in its niche over the front door of the new library in fifth-street----Francois Lazzarini is the sculptor, and Carrara the name of the place where it was executed. If the intrinsic merit of this master-piece of art did not speak its value, the name of the artist, where he is known, would evince it. Here perhaps price may give the best idea of its worth. We have heard that it cost above 500 guineas.----The statue of Dr. Franklin is a full length figure, erect, clad with a Roman toga--the position easy and graceful--in the right hand is a scepter reversed, the elbow resting on books placed on a pedestal--the left hand, a little extended, holds a scroll. This elegant piece of sculpture is executed in the finest white marble, and is the donation of William Bingham esq. of this city, to the library-company.", Several newspapers reported the arrival of the statue. See Object file for the list., Gift of William Bingham, 1792., LCP Minutes vol. 3, various entries from Aug. 6, 1789-May 3, 1792. See Object file for transcriptions.
Creator: Lazzarini, Francesco, d. ca. 1808
Date: Ca. 1791
Location: OBJ 596

Title: Benjamin Franklin
Description: Anne Leslie was the sister of Eliza Leslie and Charles Robert Leslie. She was a portrait painter and copyist. Written on the back of the canvas, “Benjamin Franklin a copy by Miss Anne Leslie from the original by the French artist J.S. Duplessis when Franklin was in Paris. The first proprietor of Gruese’s picture of Franklin was Thomas Jefferson, by whose grand-daughter, Mrs. Coolidge, it was presented to the Boston Athenaeum.”, LCP Minutes vol. 7, April 29, 1858, p. 121: “A letter was received from Mrs. Haven stating that she had authority from Major Leslie to say that a portrait in oil of Dr. Franklin copied by Anna Leslie from the original by Greuze in the Boston Athenaeum and deposited by the late Miss Eliza Leslie in this Library was intended by Miss Leslie as a gift to this Institution. The Librarian was directed to return thanks.”, Gift of Eliza Leslie, c. 1858.
Creator: Leslie, Anne, 1792- after 1860
Location: OBJ 043

Title: Philadelphia as it is in 1852
Description: Red, blue and yellow flowering vines surround colored vignettes of Benjamin Franklin reading and the seal of Philadelphia. A solid gilt border encloses the vignettes., Title page in R.A. Smith's Philadelphia as it is, in 1852: being a correct guide to all the public buildings; literary, scientific, and benevolent institutions; and places of amusement; remarkable objects; manufactories; commercial warehouses; and wholesale and retail stores in Philadelphia and its vicinity. With illustrations, and a map of the city and environs (Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1852)., Not in Wainwright., Philadelphia on Stone, POSP 173
Date: [1852]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1852 Smith [68527.D.title page], Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1852 Smith [(2) 10006.D.title page], Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1852 Smith [(3) 10006.D.title page]

Title: Franklin Bifocal Sesquicentennial, 1784-1934, Medal
Description: Profile of Franklin holding bifocals in his hand. Back states, “Commemorating the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Benjamin Franklin’s Invention of the Bifocal Lens in 1784.”, Gift of Donald Oresman, 2000.
Creator: Bausch and Lomb Optical Co.
Date: 1934
Location: OBJ 855

Title: Benjamin Franklin portrait miniature pendant
Description: Portrait of Benjamin Franklin set into a gold frame with ribbon surmount, the foliate pierced and enameled border set with enameled urns and basket decorated with seed pearls, the reverse glazed to reveal the counter-enamel. The portrait is one of five extant versions and the jeweled setting is most likely contemporary and commissioned so that the image could be worn as a pendant. Weyler painted this portrait as a part of a series of miniatures he called “Panthéon Iconographique,” which included famous men he wanted to preserve for posterity in enamel. Franklin was the most popular of the series’ subjects. The original portrait for which the enamel was based on has not been traced, but it is believed to be a pastel taken from life., See accession file for more information about provenance., Purchase of the Library Company, 2013.
Creator: Weyler, Jean Baptiste, 1747-1791
Date: ca. 1785
Location: OBJ 895

Title: Franklin prints Philadelphia
Description: Textile label containing a bust-length portrait of Benjamin Franklin enclosed within a border of filigree., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Gift of Madelyn Wolke, Lucianne Reichert, and Clifford A. Mohwinkel Jr.
Date: [ca. 1860]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums - Serz [P.9773.38a]

Title: Snuffbox with Portrait of Benjamin Franklin
Description: Tortoiseshell snuffbox with a portrait of Benjamin Franklin on the lid. Miniature portrait is framed with a simple ovolo moulding of gold. It was commissioned by Franklin as a gift to Georgiana Shipley (1756-1806), the daughter of Jonathan Shipley, bishop of St. Asaph. Georgiana Shipley wrote to Franklin on May 1st requesting a portrait miniature, “Numberless are the prints & medals we have seen of you, but none that I quite approve, should you have a good picture painted at Paris, a miniature copied from it, would make me the happiest of beings, & next to that, a lock of your own dear grey hair would give me the greatest pleasure…” Franklin sent the snuffbox and lock of hair to which Shipley replied on Feb. 3, 1780, “How shall I sufficiently express my raptures on recieving (sic) your dear delightfull & most valuable present. The pleasure I felt was encreased if possible at the sight of the beloved little lock of Hair, I kissed both that & the picture 1000 times: the miniature is admirably painted, the Artist (whose name I wish to learn) appears inferior to none we have in England: as for the resemblance, it is my very own dear Doctor Franklin himself…”, Gift of Stuart Karu, 2009., Exhibited in: University of Pennsylvania's exhibition, The Intellectual World of Benjamin Franklin (1990); Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World (2005-2007); Patriots and Presidents: Philadelphia Portrait Miniatures, 1760-1860 (April 2009).
Creator: Dumont, François, 1751-1831
Date: 1779
Location: OBJ 879

Title: Poor Richard Club pin
Description: Pin for the Poor Richard Club, which was a private club in Philadelphia founded in 1906, whose members were mostly in the advertising industry. Reads on the front, “Poor Richard Club, Philadelphia,” with a left facing profile of Benjamin Franklin. Name in ink filled in on the front “E.H. Peterson.” Marked on the Back “W&H Co.” and “The Whitehead & Hoag Co. Newark, NJ”, Gift of Chris Neopolitan, 2017.
Creator: Whitehead & Hoag Co
Date: [20th c. [After 1906, before 1965]

Title: Dr. Franklin erhalt, als Gesandter des Americanischen Frey Staats, seine erste Audienz in Frankreich, zu Versailles. am 20ten Martz 1778
Description: Franklin bows before the French King Louis XVI., Inscribed upper left corner: S. 121., Plate 8 from Matthias Sprengel. Historisch-genalogischer Calendar oder Jahrbuch... (Leipzig: bey Haude und Spener Von Berlin, 1783). (LCP Am 1783 Spre, Log 5059.D)., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., Chodowiecki was a prominent German engraver and painter who specialized in prints of historical subjects.
Creator: Chodowiecki, Daniel, 1726-1801, etcher
Date: [1783]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - American Revolution [P.8935.8]

Title: Franklin's experiment, June 1752 Demonstrating the identity of lightning and electricty, from which he invented the lightning rod
Description: Depicts Benjamin Franklin during his kite experiment in a meadow near a dwelling in Philadelphia in 1752. Shows Franklin holding the string of the kite on which a key is tied. His twenty-one year old son, William, anachronistically shown as a boy, assists him. A lightening bolt crosses the sky., Not in Wainwright., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 278, Library of Congress: PGA - Currier & Ives--Franklin's experiment ... (A size) [P&P]. LOC holds two copies, one tinted.
Date: c1876
Location: Library of Congress | Prints and Photographs Division LOC PGA - Currier & Ives--Franklin's experiment ... (A size) [P&P], Library of Congress | Prints and Photographs Division LOC PGA - Currier & Ives--Franklin's experiment ... (A size) [P&P] Tinted

Title: W.H. Rease. Lithographic artist. No. 17 South Fifth Street, Philadelphia Drawings & designs of every description, executed in the best style and on the most reasonable terms. Foundries, factories, stores, machinery, portraits, views, anatomical drawings &c &c
Description: Print containing two variant specimens of advertisements for the prolific Philadelphia lithographer of mid-19th century advertising prints. Top specimen contains a central vignette and three border vignettes adorned with ornamental details. Central vignette shows a semi-bare breasted Columbia with the shield of the United States and the American eagle. Border vignettes show classical-style portraits of a woman and girl, and an artist at an easel, and a lithographer drawing on stone. Lower specimen contains a central vignette and two border vignettes adorned with ornamental details. Central vignette shows a man sketching next to a tree at the bank of a river. Border vignettes show bust portraits of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. Each specimen contains different style lettering., Price calculations, including figures for mounting, binding edges,and printing inscribed on verso., Philadelphia on Stone, POSA 109, Smithsonian Institution: Archives Center - Warshaw Collection - Lithography - Vertical File 2 - Rease, Rease operated a lithographic establishment from 17 South Fifth Street 1844-1854.
Creator: Rease, W. H.
Date: [ca. 1850]
Location: Smithsonian Institution | Archives Center Warshaw Collection SI NMAH Archives Center - Warshaw Collection - Lithography - Vertical File 2 - Rease

Title: The United States Centennial International Exhibition
Description: Share certificate issued by the Centennial Board of Finance containing a series of historical and allegorical vignettes, scenes, and figures. Vignettes depict a view on a coastline showing a white man, attired in colonial dress, reaping with a sickle beside a white man driving a plow in front of a steer-drawn conestoga wagon, a moving train, and sailing ships; the signing of the Declaration of Independence; and a scene depicting a Native American man, attired in pants and moccasins with a feather in his hair and a quiver of arrows on his back, covering his face from the sight of a dilapidated windmill near rows of industrial buildings spewing smoke. Along the sides figures include: tradesmen; laborers; soldiers; frontiersmen; inventors, including Benjamin Franklin; Native Americans; and an African American man reading. In the top center, allegorical figures of Liberty, Art, and Peace, portrayed as white women, accept offerings from representations of people from across the world, including African women; a woman attired in a turban, a person with a parrot on their shoulder, and an Asian man with a queue. Also contains: busts of George Washington and Ulysses S. Grant; an eagle holding an American flag; views of the State House and Capitol; and the printed seal of the Centennial Board of Finance. The Centennial Exhibition of 1876 celebrated the centennial of the United States through an international exhibition of industry, agriculture, and art., Title from item., P.2002.67.77 issued to Margaret R. Bringhurst for one share on October 20, 1875. Signed by Fred. Fraley, Treasurer; and John Welsh, President., 5788.F.10 issued to Mary Norris Logan for one share on November 10, 1876. Signed by Fred. Fraley, Treasurer; and John Welsh, President., Printed on recto: Shares $10. Each. Capital $10,000,000., P.2002.67.66 poor condition., Gift of Helen Beitler, 2002 [P.2002.67.66]., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of Centennial and Columbian Exposition views [5758.F.10. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Creator: United States, Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Date: [ca. 1872]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *Philadelphia certificates - Centennial [P.2002.67.77], Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **Philadelphia certificates - Centennial [5758.F.10]

Title: Engravings by William Humphrys Scrapbook
Description: Scrapbook of print specimens and proofs engraved by Philadelphia and London engraver William Humphrys. Contents include postage stamp proofs, book and periodical illustrations, tile pages, portrait prints, advertisements, and cut outs of banknote and certificate vignettes. Majority of graphics depict allegorical imagery or illustrations of genre, religious, sentimental, and literary scenes, some from the plays of Shakespeare. Illustrations include scenes of courtship; female friendship; children with animals; a ghoulish-looking woman with a torch; a European man smoking a hookah; Jesus Christ; Adam & Eve; and imagery from Edmund Spencer's "Faery Queen", John Milton's "Palemon's Story," and John Gay's "Thursday: or The Spell." Allegorical works depict the figures of Columbia, Minerva, Mercury, Neptune, Bounty, Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Hope, and Apollo, as well as scenes with the American eagle; caducei for the "Liverpool Apothecaries Company"; citizens fighting a fire; cherubs charting a globe; Native Americans; a family; sailing ships; and symbols of farming, trade, and industry. Vignettes also show a portrait of Benjamin Franklin; Pocahontas saving John Smith; and a female warrior slaying a man of royalty captioned "Sic Semper Tyranus."

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