Happy Birthday, Ben

1
Happy Birthday, Ben!

• The Man and the Cult Benjamin Franklin at 300

2
His Life

• Born in Boston to Josiah Franklin and Abiah
  Folger, January 6, 1706 (old style)
• Attends school from 1714-16
• 1716 he becomes his fathers assistant in his
  tallow-chandlery
• 1718 BF is indentured to his brother
  James(publisher of the New England Courant) as a
  printing apprentice

3
His Life-2

• 1722BF publishes Silence Dogood Letters
  anonymously in his brothers newspaper (modeled
  on Cotton Mathers Essay Upon Doing Good)
• 1723BF breaks his indenture and escapes to
  Philadelphia his work for Samuel Keimer
  (printer)
• 1724BF sails to London to buy type for printing
  press with worthless letter of recommendation
  from Pennsylvania governor Sir William Keith

4
His Life-3

• 1724BF returns to Phila. and returns to work
  with Keimer
• 1727BF founds the Junto Club (which continues
  until 1765)
• 1728BF starts printing house with Hugh Meredith
• 1729BF becomes owner and publisher of the
  Pennsylvania Gazette he buys out Meredith in
  1730
• Circa 1729 he becomes father of son William (see
  Autobiography!) out of wedlock identity of
  mother unknown

5
His Life-4

• 1730BF enters common law marriage with Deborah
  (Read) Rogers
• 1731BF founds the Library Company he sets up
  printing partners in South Carolina
• 1732BF first child with Deborah Franklin,
  Francis Folger Franklin first edition of Poor
  Richards Almanack published
• 1736BF becomes clerk of PA assembly and founds
  the Phila. Fire Company

6
His Life-5

• 1740sBF designs and advertises the Pennsylvania
  fireplace (aka Franklin stove)
• 1743BF founds the American Philosophical Society
• 1745his friend Peter Collinson in London sends
  BF a glass tube and descriptions of electrical
  experiments in Germany BF begins his electrical
  experiments
• 1747BF organizes a Voluntary Association
  (militia) for the defense of Pennsylvania from
  French and Spanish privateers
• 1749BF and others organize the Philadelphia
  Academy (later the University of Pennsylvania)

7
His Life-6

• 1750Franklin begins having problems with gout
  describes lightening rod in a letter to Peter
  Collinson later that year, BF is severely
  shocked while electrocuting a turkey
• 1751BF and others found Pennsylvania Hospital
  BF designs first fire insurance company (becomes
  member of PA Assembly til 1764)
• 1752In June, BF conducts his famous kite flying
  experiments, proving that lightening is
  electrical
• 1753BF appointed deputy postmaster general for
  North America

8
His Life-7

• 1754with rising fears of an attack on PA during
  French and Indian War, Franklin becomes more
  active in politics publishes what is considered
  the first American political cartoon, Join or
  Die (supporting the Albany Plan

9
His Life-8

• 1757BF appointed agent for the PA Assembly and
  begins long struggle with the Penn Family (PA
  proprietors) he later wanted to turn PA in to a
  Crown Colony under direct supervision of the
  English king
• BF goes to England as PA agent, where he remains
  until 1762
• 1764BF defeated in election for PA Assembly
  vicious attacks on BF
• 1769BF becomes President of American
  Philosophical Society
• 1771BF begins writing the Autobiography
• 1772BF writes first anti-slavery treatise (after
  having freed his own slaves)

10
His Life-9

• 1772BF beginning anti-British political course
• 1774BFs wife Deborah dies of a stroke
• 1775BF unsuccessfully trying to reconcile
  conflict with the British he becomes a delegate
  to the Second Continental Congress
• 1776BFs son William (former governor of New
  Jersey) imprisoned as loyalist BF refusing to
  intercede for him BF travels to France to
  negotiate for an alliance with the colonies in
  Revolutionary War
• 1783With John Adams and John Jay, BF signs
  Treaty of Paris, which formally ends the
  Revolutionary War
• 1785BF returns to Philadelphia greeted with
  great celebration

11
His Life-10

• 1785BF becomes president of the Supreme
  Executive Council (of the United States)
• 1787member of the Constitutional Convention
• 1789BF composed and submitted to Congress the
  first Congressional protest against slavery
• April 17, 1790BF dies at age 84, and is buried
  in Christ Church burial ground (only a few feet
  from where he first landed in Philadelphia!)

12
The Autobiography

• Stages of composition
• Part 1 1771 (in England)
• Part 2 1784 (in France)
• Part 3 1788 (in Pennsylvania)
• Part 4 1789-1790 (in Pennsylvania)
• Scope Ancestry-Birth-Upbringing in
  Boston-Philadelphia-London-Philadelphia (to circa
  1754)

13
The Autobiography

• Adventures of the Manuscript and Stages of
  Publication

14
The Ben Franklin Cult

• Images of Benjamin Franklin during his lifetime

15
The March of the Paxton Men, 1764
16
Charles Nicholas Cochin, Benjamin Franklin
(1777-1780). American Philosophical Society,
Portrait Collection. http//www.amphilsoc.org/libr
ary/gallery/
17
Charles Van Loo, Benjamin Franklin (before
1790). American Philosophical Society, Portrait
Collection. http//www.amphilsoc.org/library/galle
ry/
18
Charles Willson Peale, after David Martin,
Benjamin Franklin (1772, after portrait of
1767). American Philosophical Society, Portrait
Collection. http//www.amphilsoc.org/library/galle
ry/
19
Circa. 1805. Benjamin West (American,
1738-1820)Oil on paper on canvas, 13-1/4 x 10"
20
Anton Hohenstein (ca. 1823-?)Franklin's
Reception at the Court of France,
1778.Philadelphia John Smith, n.d.Hand-colored
lithographPrints Photographs Division (14)
21
The Ben Franklin Cult

• Later images of Franklin
• Please send me your submissions of Franklin
  representations, cartoons, lampoons, caricatures,
  etc.!

22
The Ben Franklin Cult

• The recent vogue for Franklin biographies (to
  name but a few)
• Edmund S. Morgan, Benjamin Franklin. New Haven
  Yale University Press, 2002.
• Walter Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin An American
  Life. New York Simon Schuster, 2003.
• Gordon S. Wood, The Americanization of Benjamin
  Franklin. New York Penguin, 2004.
• David Waldstreicher, Runaway America Benjamin
  Franklin, Slavery, and the American Revolution.
  New York Hill and Wang, 2004.
• J. A. Leo Lemay, The Life of Benjamin Franklin.
  Vols. 1 and 2. Philadelphia University of
  Pennsylvania Press, 2005.
• Stacy Schiff, A great improvisation Franklin,
  France, and the birth of America. New York
  Henry Holt, 2005.

23
The Ben Franklin Cult

• The birthday party
• The Franklin Tercentenary
• http//www.benfranklin300.org/
• Exhibition Benjamin Franklin In Search of a
  Better World
• ATLANTAJuly 4, 2007 October 14, 2007Atlanta
  History Center