Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
June 21, 1808
Primary Source Reference:
Peale Museum Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, p. 31
Additional Source Text:
"Was found in digging the foundations of the American Consuls house in the Kingdom of Fez and in commemoration of the two Officers who fell in Venetian Army (in the time of Hannibal) who invaded that country
Dis Manibus Sacrum.
Lucius Lucretus, Vincestus Eques, Excelsi Ingenii
Vixit Annos XXI.
Lucius Aelius Lucretianus Vixit Annoz XVIIII
H.S.E.S.T.T.L."
Notes:
The U.S. ratified a treaty with Morocco on 18 July 1787, its first treaty with any Arab, Muslim, or African state. Ten years later English merchant James Simpson (d. 1820), who had been in business at Gibraltar, where he served as consul for Russia and the U.S., took up the post of U.S. consul at Tangier.
The marble tablet commemorated Lucius Lucretius, who lived for 21 years, and Lucius Aelius Lucretianus, who lived 29 years. The abbreviation H.S.E.S.T.T.L stands for hic situs est sit tibi terra levis, which translates as "On this site may the earth rest lightly on you."
"Peter Kuhn, Jr., son of a Philadelphia merchant, operated a commercial house in Gibraltar. In 1803, he expanded his business to Genoa and formed the partnership Kuhn, Green & Co., which on a few occasions filled Thomas Jefferson’s orders for items such as wine and macaroni. The president named Kuhn the American consul in Genoa in 1804, a post he retained until being arrested and exiled by the French in 1807 under suspicion of spying for the British. After returning to the U.S., he advertised for publication by subscription his treatise A System of Exchange Operations between the Principal Places of Europe (apparently never published), which advised American merchants on how best to negotiate currency exchange rates in Europe." Jefferson Papers, Founders Online, National Archives / https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-38-02-0572
