Franklin in Boston
There’s plenty to talk about, so it’s time to start a list.
Armonica Articles
Some of the better articles on Franklin’s armonica:
Art in the Capitol
The Washington Post today published an exclusive report surveying the works of art in the U. S. Capitol showing slaveholders and supporters of the Confederacy as well as enslaved people. It begs the wearying search for the location of the new line, to be drawn somewhere between the Robert E. Lee statue erected in a …
Keep Thy Shop
Keep Thy Shop, a stained glass panel installed in my library/office October 2022 in honor of Benjamin Franklin’s career as a printer. Images edited and screen printed from J. G. Chapman’s engravings for Rev. H. Hastings Weld’s 1849 edition of BF’s Autobiography, texts from Poor Richard, including “Keep thy Shop, & thy Shop will keep …
Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet
This book would be fine as a first book on Franklin, because the author starts from not knowing much about him, and touches meaningfully on every fundamental facet of Franklin that I can think of. He goes on to cover his topic very well. Most Franklin fans are not particularly interested in what happened to …
White Box Theatre
Roy Goodman has introduced me to this wonderful theatrical piece performed at Franklin & Marshall College in 2006. Bravo, Sebastienne Mundheim! Source:White Box Theatre website
The Young Benjamin Franklin
From my Goodreads review of Nick Bunker’s wonderful book: Without question, my Book of the Year, so far. One of the best books on Franklin, this takes many episodes one reads right past in his Autobiography (and standard biographies) and goes deeper.The definition of “young” is generous: Franklin is forty years old before this author …
Somersett
I’m cross-posting my review in GoodReads here of Phillip Goodrich‘s 2019 book, Somersett – Or Why and How Benjamin Franklin Orchestrated The American Revolution. It’s a darn good story, with a lot of lively historical matters presented, but unreliable while asking us to believe all of it. The author spins an engaging tale of a …
Franklin and Broomcorn
I enjoyed this story out yesterday for a lovely new piece of public art, pictured above, and what I sense is the good-natured whimsy of the town of Arcola, Illinois. Arcola is embracing its history as The Broomcorn Capital of the World, and has privately commissioned a statue by Jerry McKenna honoring Benjamin Franklin for …
Vaccination, Inoculation and BF
A substantial historical review of vaccination and its predecessors, inoculation and variolation, is provided by MedPage with valuable links in the article. Thanks to Bernie Steutz for suggesting it. The article ends with an interesting overview: But above all, it is notable that 300 years ago, the strongest vaccine advocate was a religious fanatic, and …