Existing comment:
Benjamin Tappan and his granddaughter Mary Tappan Wright
A lawyer by training, Benjamin Tappan (1773–1857) moved beyond private practice to fashion a high-profile career as a jurist and public officeholder during the antebellum period. In 1799 Tappan settled in Ohio, where he established a law practice and won election to the state senate (1803). After service in the War of 1812, he was appointed to a circuit court judgeship and later rose to prominence as a political operative for the Jacksonian Democrats. Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1838, Tappan crafted the 1844 bill that laid the foundation for the 1846 legislation establishing the Smithsonian Institution.
Unidentified photographer, c 1854 |