Birth: Feb. 13, 1837, Greece
Death: Jul. 19, 1914, USA

Born in Argos, Greece, but then educated in the United States, he pursued careers as a journalist, author, and diplomat. In 1883, he was appointed as the first American Minister to Persia, a post he occupied for two years.

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

His paintings and books are well known. He was formerly art editor of the American Department of the Magazine of Art and was a marine painter and an illustrator. During the Crimean War he went to the front and for the London Illustrated News, and his illustration of that conflict attracted much attention at that time.

Mr Benjamin was Vice President of the Society of American Authors, a Member of the Sons of the Revolution, a Member of the Phi Beta Kappa, Member of Boston Art Club, The American Free Art Society, The American Forestry Association, The Society of Colonial Wars and the Navy League of the United States.

Among his literary works are Constantinople, Isle of Pearls and Other Poems, Ode on the Death of Abraham Lincoln, The Turk and the Greek, Tom Roper and Yarn for Boys, Persia and the Persians, The story of Persia.