This portrait, which the donor’s family had always known as the friends ‘Mr Harper and Mr White’, was accepted in 1947 on the assumption that ‘Mr White’ (right) was the person who in 1823 made a major bequest to the Museum, subsequently used for the construction of the White Wing in the 1880s. However, since White lived 1800–1823 this cannot be correct. It was then suggested that ‘Mr Harper’ (left), who had some family connection with the donor, might be a relative of the Revd Samuel Harper (c.1732–1803) who joined the Museum in 1756 as an Assistant Librarian and became Keeper of Printed Books in 1765. The eventual consensus was that ‘Mr Harper’ (left) may have been his father Robert Harper (c.1700–1772). Samuel Harper’s son, Robert John (1764–1846), was deputy clerk to the Council of the Duchy of Lancaster.