Norton Bequest to College Library

The College Library has received a very valuable and interesting early portrait of Chaucer, painted in oil on an oak panel, by bequest of the late Professor Charles Eliot Norton. The inscription on its back states that this picture was presented to Benjamin Dyke in 1803, at which time it had been preserved in the family of its donor, Miss Frances Lambert, for more than three centuries. In recent years, it has been known as the Seddon portrait. It was bought, after Mr. Seddon's death, by Mr. Fairfax Murray, who later sold it to Mr. James Loeb. Mr. Loeb presented it to Professor Norton. Professor Norton bequeathed it to the Library, with the request that it be inscribed as a memorial of two lovers of Chaucer, Francis James Child and James Russell Lowell.