Label
Benjamin H. Kinney (1821-1888)
Portrait Bust of Ichabod Washburn, 1869
Marble
Collection of Mulvane Art Museum, Washburn University
Born in 1798 in Kingston, MA, Ichabod Washburn founded the Washburn and Moen Wire Works in Worcester, MA, which by the middle of the 19th century was the world’s largest producer of wire. A deacon in the Congregationalist Church, an abolitionist and a philanthropist, Washburn, in 1868, gave $25,000 to Topeka’s Lincoln College, then just three years old and in financial trouble. In his honor, the institution’s name was changed to Washburn College. Washburn died in 1868, never having visited Kansas.
Benjamin Kinney of Worcester, MA, was a gravestone carver, cameo cutter and sculptor.