John Wesley (1703-1791) was born in England three years before Benjamin Franklin and lived one year longer. He was the founder of Methodism, one of the largest groups of Protestants in the world. The label "Methodist" began as a nickname given to a group of serious-minded young Christians at Oxford University (1729-35). Because of their piety, regular devotions and acts of charity, conducted in a most methodical manner, this religious group, of whom John Wesley soon became the acknowledged leader, earned the nickname "Methodists." The word stuck and, from being a term of derision aimed at the group, "Methodist" became and was to remain their own accepted name.

Born at Epworth in Lincolnshire, son of an Anglican rector, educated at Charterhouse and Oxford, he was ordained an Anglican priest and became tutor at Lincoln College, Oxford. Unsuccessful as missionary to colonial Georgia in the middle 1730s, he returned to England in 1738 disillusioned. A deep conversion experience in London on 24 May 1738 changed his life. From then on Wesley led the Methodist movement with great confidence, using his tremendous talents and powers of organization. He died at age eighty-seven in 1791 after traveling an estimated 250,000 miles, frequently reading at the same time, preaching, forming Methodist societies and consolidating the work wherever he went. The societies were local groups, intended only to be supplementary to local parish churches, but they were to become the churches of Methodism as time progressed.

Wesley’s life and work became legendary even during the latter years of his own lifetime when he become a national figure venerated by many. He is remembered not only through his own private and public writings, of which there are many. Artists in many media during his lifetime, and for many years after his death and down to our own time, exploited a ready market for wares commemorating him. This exhibition aims to tell his story through his own self-chosen media—the print media—as well as the work of a wide range of artists, engravers and potters through three centuries.
 These materials, whether one-off originals or mass-produced—paintings and prints, medallions and plaques, teapots and busts communicate community affiliation. Wesley memorabilia did not transfer religious power through personal memory or collective feelings about the charismatic leader. Wesley never touched his teapots. What the teapots did was convey the message that their owners were good Methodists. For many generations, it would appear, no Methodist home would have been complete without some reminder of Wesley on or over the mantel piece.

It is said that, among famous British figures whose memory has been honored, only Queen Victoria has had more graphic portrayals than Wesley.