| TITLE
| Benjamin Franklin (after Jean-Jacques Caffieri) |
| CREATOR | Unknown |
| DATE | 19th century |
| DIMENSIONS | 24 x 15 x 9 in. |
| ORIGINAL FORMAT | Sculpture |
| MEDIUM | Plaster |
| PHYSICAL NOTE | This plaster sculpture is one of the 16 that sit atop the bookshelves in the library’s main hall. |
| DATE OF ACCESSION | 2017 |
| LOCATION | Providence Athenæum: Main Library |
This bust of American statesman Benjamin Franklin [1706-1790] is one of sixteen that circle the Athenæum’s main hall.
Franklin was an author, printer, politician, scientist, inventor, and diplomat. He served as a member of the Philadelphia City Council in 1748, and as a justice of the peace the following year. He later traveled to England to negotiate long-standing trade disputes, and to France as an American congressional emissary. Most importantly to the Athenæum, he was the founder of the first membership library in America, the Library Company of Philadelphia.
This bust of Franklin is a copy of the well known Caffieri bust of Franklin by Jean-Jacques Caffieri [1725-1792], which belongs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The Athenæum owns two other works of art depicting Franklin: a second bust and a porcelain figure group of Benjamin Franklin and Louis XVI.