In response to a correspondent, let’s say S.S. writing to M.M., I’ve located the letter from A.A. regarding fire protection. This document happens to be the source of a famous Franklin phrase, An ounce of Prevention is worth a Pound of Cure, which was the subject of another recent inquiry. Franklin wrote over the pseudonym …
Maybe the most wonderful item I’ve seen come up for auction has appeared, coming up in California on July 3, 2025. It is this letter, pictured above, written by Benjamin Franklin to William Strahan on July 23, 1762. The full text of Franklin’s letter, as posted on the auction site, with some spacing, is: London, …
At long last, I have read Benjamin Franklin’s Printing Network: Disseminating Virtue in Early America by Ralph Frasca (University of Missouri Press, 2006). The author covers his topic well: the various people Franklin worked with in the course of repeated attempts to start subordinate businesses around North America. The importance of bookkeeping, especially keeping track …
The Letters Library has done a data analysis on 150,000 letters in the Founders Online Library, including all of Benjamin Franklin’s known correspondence. The graphics of his network of correspondents at three different periods of his life is beautiful. Congrats!
The Library Company of Philadelphia is in a two-year project to develop the Library’s Graphic Arts Department. The project is called Imperfect History: Curating the Graphic Arts Collection at Benjamin Franklin’s Public Library. I found this American version of the Ages of Man interesting: Benjamin Franklin Bache’s one-penny specie (one ninetieth of a dollar) from …
This month’s Franklin Celebration in Philadelphia will be held Friday, January 18, 2019 (apologies for this late posting), and is entitled Liberty and Justice for All? Reforming America’s Criminal Justice System. The Inquirer published an excellent Opinion piece by Bill Keller, What would Benjamin Franklin think of today’s criminal justice? on January 4, 2019. UPenn’s …
The Papers cites an article in the New Colophon, A Book-Collectors Miscellany published in 1950: “For an exhaustive discussion of the sources, variations, and sequels of the Epitaph, see L. H. Butterfield, “B. Franklin’s Epitaph,” New Colophon, III (1950), 9–30, where eleven variants are considered. ” This New Colophon article is beautifully available online from …
Continue reading ‘Epitaph for a Printer – The New Colophon’ »
The Announcement in Philly.com is a nice introduction to The Benjamin Franklin Papers collection at the Library of Congress. Nice timing on the announcement, on April 17, 2018, the 228th anniversary of Dr. Franklin’s death. Announcement on Fine Books & Collections Here is coverage by Smithsonian Magazine.
Announced at the U.S. Capitol on February 13, The Quill Project is a research platform on the Constitutional Convention.
Hosted and administered by the Phillips Museum of Art at Franklin & Marshall College, the Franklin Artifacts database is a museum without walls; an electronic catalogue of known surviving objects with a close association to Benjamin Franklin. The site is online at www.benfranklin300.org/frankliniana
