Edward Savage had produced a mezzotint engraving after Franklin's 1767 portrait by David Martin in 1793, to be a companion to his engraved portrait of George Washington. Three years later he made this engraving of Rittenhouse, after Peale's painting, and advertised that "Subscribers may have their prints put into elegant and burnished frames, finished every way." The engraving of Rittenhouse was probably acquired by his friends, colleagues, and admirers. For instance, we know that George Washington paid three dollars for a copy of Savage's mezzotint on January 9, 1797, just one month after its publication. 
 Title image: Culpeper-type microscope/ Courtesy National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. |
David Rittenhouse 1732-1796