The signing of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and of Alliance between France and the United States

The French representative to the United States, Conrad Alexandre Gérard de Rayneval, signs a treaty opposite the three American ministers to France, Benjamin Franklin, Arthur Lee, and Silas Deane, in this mural painted by artist Charles Elliott Mills. Mills completed ten murals between 1900 and 1920 depicting significant scenes in the life of Benjamin Franklin for the entrance hall of the Franklin Union in Boston. The Franklin Union was a trade school built in 1908 from a bequest that Franklin made to the city of Boston to support artisan apprenticeships, which after 100 years Franklin specified could be put towards “public works.” The school, now called the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, is still operational.