Samuel Greene Wheeler Benjamin

Samuel Greene Wheeler Benjamin (February 13, 1837 – July 19, 1914) was an American statesman.

Portrait of S.G.W. Benjamin, 1887
Benjamin's former residence (right) in Washington, D.C.

His parents were American missionaries in Greece. He was born in Argos, Greece, but then educated in the United States, receiving an A.B. from Williams College in 1859.[1][2] He pursued careers as a journalist, author, artist, and diplomat. In 1883, he was appointed as the first American Minister to Persia (modern-day Iran), a post he occupied for two years, leaving in 1885; previously, he had been appointed as the Chargé D'Affaires to Persia but did not proceed to this post.[3]

It was he who first drafted the diplomatic code used by the American legation in Persia.

As a journalist, Benjamin served as American art editor for the Magazine of Art and covered the Crimean War with the London Illustrated News. He was also a marine painter and illustrator.[1] Benjamin wrote poetry and books on Persia, Greece, Turkey, and American and European art.[4] In his autobiography, "The Life and Adventures of a Free Lance," Benjamin commented on his friendships with artists in New York including William Holbrook Beard, Frederic Edwin Church, Sanford R. Gifford, and Launt Thompson.[5]

Benjamin died in Burlington, Vermont in 1914 and is buried in Lakeview Cemetery.[1]

See also
  • US-Iran relations

References
  1. "Samuel Green Wheeler Benjamin". Find A Grave. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
  2. "Portrait of S.G.W. Benjamin, 1859". Unbound: Williams Digital Collections. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
  3. "Samuel Greene Wheeler Benjamin". Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
  4. "S.G.W. Benjamin". The Online Books Page - University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
  5. Benjamin, S.G.W. (1914). The Life and Adventures of a Free Lance: Being the Observations of S.G.W. Benjamin. Burlington, VT: Free Press Company.


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