Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
November 10, 1807
Primary Source Reference:
Peale Museum Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, p. 26
Notes:
Ca. 1807 medal engraved by John Reich (C. Wyllys Betts-546; R.W. Julian-CM-8). "This medal was first struck at the US Mint in 1807 as part of Philadelphia merchant Joseph Sansom's planned "Medallic History of the American Revolution" series. Only four were ever struck: the very rare Washington C.C.A.U.S. medal, the Washington Presidency Reliquished medal, the 1783 Treaty of Paris medal with jugate busts of Washington and Franklin on the obverse and an eagle above a map of the United States on the reverse, and this medal, depicting Franklin and the American beaver felling the British oak in 1776" / https://www.jkamericana.com/joseph-sansom-s-benjamin-franklin-american-…
Pennsylvania Quaker Joseph Sansom (1767-1826) was the brother and business partner of prosperous Philadelphia merchant and East India trader William Sansom. Self-described as a merchant, Joseph Sansom used his resources to further interests in literature, travel, and the arts. As an amateur artist, he mastered the silhouette profile, producing his “physiognomical sketches” of “remarkable persons” from 1790 to 1792. He recorded portions of his three-year tour abroad in Letters from Europe during a Tour Through Switzerland and Italy, in the Years 1801 and 1802 (Philadelphia, 1805). The following year, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society and, in 1808, contributed to it his mineral collections and Roman relics. (Jefferson Papers, Founders Online, National Archives / https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-40-02-0286 ; Charles Coleman Sellers, “Joseph Sansom, Philadelphia Silhouettist,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 88 (1964): 395–401)
