Richard Pulteney (1730 - 1801) was born in Loughborough and became a well respected and eminent botanist. He went to school in Loughborough and was apprenticed to an apothecary. He later went to Edinburgh to become a surgeon. He introduced the Linnaean classification system (genus and species) to British science in 1790. He provided the first accounts of Leicestershire botany and left many plant collections for future botanists to study.
Thomas Beach (1738-1806) was a respected portrait painter who worked in both London and Bath and exhibited work at the Royal Academy. He painted this portrait in 1788 and the museum service have been looking after it since 1911.
