Thomas Hopkinson

Thomas Hopkinson wears a full-bottomed wig and a sword, and he stands before a balustrade and a grove of pruned cypresses. But these European props do not tell the whole story. Hopkinson was also an ambitious citizen of a new society interested in new discoveries. He studied law in England but carved out a career for himself in Philadelphia, where he attained the rank of judge and, when he was not in court, helped Benjamin Franklin in his experiments with electricity.Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006