Horace Walpole

This portraitback to top

This small-scale portrait was commissioned by Walpole with portraits of Richard Bentley and Thomas Gray and three others for the Blue Bedroom at Strawberry Hill (the house can be seen in the background). Walpole also owned the painted plaster bust of the actor, Colley Cibber, also shown in this room.

Events of 1754back to top

Current affairs

Death of the Prime Minister Henry Pelham. He is succeeded by his brother Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle.
General election increases the Whig party's majority

Art and science

Scottish chemist Joseph Black identifies carbon dioxide.
Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce (Society of Arts) is established in London.
Designer and cabinet-maker Thomas Chippendale publishes his first catalogue of furniture.
Philosopher David Hume's expansive and best-selling six-volume History of Great Britain begins publication.

International

Albany Congress: the British colonies negotiate with the native-American Iroquois in the face of the French threat in the Ohio valley. Benjamin Franklin proposes that the colonies should unite to form a colonial government. The pro-union woodcut he publishes of a snake cut into eight pieces, entitled 'Join or Die', becomes America's first political cartoon.
George Washington kills ten French troops at Fort Duquesne.

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