[ Charles Henry Hart on the portrait of Benjamin Franklin at the Royal Society. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Charles Henry Hart') to Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts, discussing his discovery and attribution of the portrait.

2pp., 12mo, and 1p., 8vo. On a 12mo bifolium, with the opening written lengthwise as one page. In good condition, lightly aged, with the Society's oval date stamp. He regrets 'exceedingly' that he was not able to meet Wood on the previous day 'when I was at the Hall'. He thanks him for 'recalling to me the Whitefoord Correspondence which I had forgotten altho I used it in writing my monograph on the Unique Portrait of Franklin at the Royal Society that was presented by Caleb Whitefoord and which the Royal Society did not know by whom it was painted until I discovered it & wrote my paper'. He continues with reference to the artist Joseph Wright, the Dictionary of National Biography, the 1783 Paris peace treaty, Woodfoord's family, and his chairmanship of the 'Committee on Retrospective Art at Chicago in 1893'. 'My letter to last weeks Athenaeum will tell you what I am doing & why I want to find Stuart's portrait.'