West, Benjamin (1730 - 1813)
Role: Professor of mathematics, Astronomy, and Natural PhilosophyDates: 1786 - 1799
Portrait Location: John Hay Library 122
Artist: Unknown Artist ()
Portrait Date:
Medium: Watercolor silhouette
Dimensions: 3 1/2
Framed Dimensions: 7 1/2
Brown Portrait Number: 156
Brown Historical Property Number: 1853
The subject of this miniature portrait is not the renowned eighteen-century artist of the same name, but a self-taught scientist and mathematician in Providence who was a contemporary of the painter.
Benjamin West was born in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, and moved to Providence at age 23 in 1753. Before the Revolution he supported himself as a bookseller, published an almanac, and taught himself astronomy. His work in plotting and recording the transit of Venus across the sun in 1769 was recognized in 1770 when he was awarded an honorary Degree of Letters from the College of Rhode Island, then newly established on College Hill.
During the Revolutionary War West manufactured clothing for soldiers in the Continental Army while continuing to publish his almanac and pursuing his scientific studies. His paper on the transit of Venus and Mercury was published by the Royal Society of London.
In 1781 West was made a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1786 began to each mathematics and astronomy at the college. In later years he added natural philosophy to the curriculum.
The painter of this miniature portrait is unknown. It was a family portrait during Benjamin West's lifetime and after his death in 1813 it was prized by his descendants for generations until it was ultimately donated to Brown. The telescope he used to plot the transit of Venus is also in the John Hay Library at Brown.