Richard Bache, Former Postmaster General

The second Postmaster General, Richard Bache (1737–1811), was born in Yorkshire, England, and immigrated to New York in 1760 at the age of 23.  In 1762, Bache moved to Philadelphia, where he met Sarah (Sally) Franklin, daughter of Benjamin Franklin and Deborah Read.  The two were married on October 3, 1767.  After being appointed as the first Postmaster General, Franklin named his son-in-law as secretary, comptroller, and registrar-general for the newly created Postal Service.  Bache held those positions until November 1776, when he became Postmaster General upon Franklin’s appointment as the first U.S. Ambassador to France.  Bache served until January 1782, when he was succeeded by Ebenezer Hazard.

Russian-American sculptor Gleb W. Derujinsky was born to aristocratic parents in Smolensk, Russia, in 1888.  A student of Rodin, Derujinsky studied at the Académie Julian in Paris and the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg.  After the Russian Revolution, he departed Crimea as a sailor on a ship bound for America.  Derujinsky arrived in the U.S. in 1919, and soon established himself as a prominent sculptor in New York.  Among his best known works are portrait busts of presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy.