Francis Calley Gray

Francis Calley Gray, portrait by Francis Alexander

Francis Calley Gray (September 19, 1790 – December 29, 1856) was a politician from Massachusetts, United States. He was the son of Elizabeth and William Gray, he graduated Harvard University (1809) and went on to be John Quincy Adams's private secretary, a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and president of the Boston Athenæum. Gray was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1819,[1] and a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1820.[2] Gray was a member of Harvard Overseers.[3] When he died, he left many gifts to Harvard, including his collection of 3,000 engravings and $50,000 (equivalent to $1,695,556 today) to be put towards a museum of comparative zoology.[4]

Mount Auburn Cemetery, Francis Calley Gray

He died in 1856 and is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery, his tomb guarded by a sleeping dog.

  1. ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved September 13, 2016.
  2. ^ American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
  3. ^ Marjorie B. Cohn, Francis Calley Gray and an early Boston Daguerreotype, History of Photography (1985)
  4. ^ Bio data