Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 (Old Style January 6, 1705) and died on April 17, 1790. He was an American polymath, meaning he had many talents and worked as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Franklin was one of the most important thinkers of his time and helped create the United States. He helped write and sign the Declaration of Independence and was the first postmaster general of the United States.
Franklin was born in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. He became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the largest city in the American colonies. At age 23, he published The Pennsylvania Gazette. He also wrote Poor Richard's Almanack under the name "Richard Saunders." After 1767, he worked with the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper that criticized British laws. He helped start the Academy and College of Philadelphia, which later became the University of Pennsylvania. He also helped create the American Philosophical Society and was its president in 1769. In 1753, he was appointed deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies, which allowed him to build the first national communication network.
Franklin was active in local, state, and national politics. He became a hero in North America when he helped British Parliament remove the unpopular Stamp Act. As a diplomat, he was the first U.S. ambassador to France and helped improve relations between the United States and France. His work was important in getting French support during the American Revolution. From 1785 to 1788, he was President of Pennsylvania. Between 1735 and the 1750s, Franklin owned at least seven enslaved people and advertised enslaved individuals for sale in his newspaper. By the late 1750s, he began opposing slavery, became an abolitionist, and supported the education and rights of African Americans.
As a scientist, Franklin studied electricity, which made him an important figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics. He also mapped and named the Gulf Stream current. He invented the lightning rod, bifocals, the glass harmonica, and the Franklin stove. He helped start many civic groups, including the Library Company, the University of Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia’s first fire department. Franklin is called "The First American" for his work to unite the American colonies. He is the only person to sign the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris, and the U.S. Constitution.
Franklin’s scientific and political achievements have made him a respected figure for over 200 years. He has been honored on the $100 bill, in the names of towns, schools, and companies, and in many cultural works. His writings, including over 30,000 letters and documents, are collected in The Papers of Benjamin Franklin. A French official once said of him: "He snatched lightning from the sky and the scepter from tyrants."
Ancestry
Benjamin Franklin's father, Josiah Franklin, worked as a tallow chandler, soaper, and candlemaker. Josiah Franklin was born on December 23, 1657, in Ecton, Northamptonshire, England, to Thomas Franklin and Jane White. Benjamin's father and all four of his grandparents were born in England.
Josiah Franklin had seventeen children with his two wives. He married his first wife, Anne Child, around 1677 in Ecton and moved to Boston, Massachusetts, with her in 1683. They had three children before moving to Boston and four after. After Anne's death, Josiah married Abiah Folger on July 9, 1689, at the Old South Meeting House by Reverend Samuel Willard. They had ten children together. Benjamin, their eighth child, was Josiah Franklin's fifteenth child overall and his tenth and final son.
Benjamin Franklin's mother, Abiah, was born on August 15, 1667, in Nantucket, Massachusetts Bay Colony, to Peter Folger, a miller and schoolteacher, and Mary Morrell Folger, who had previously worked as an indentured servant. Mary Folger came from a Puritan family that was among the first Pilgrims to move to Massachusetts for religious freedom. Her family traveled to Boston in 1635 after King Charles I of England began punishing Puritans for their beliefs. Peter Folger, Mary's father, was known as someone who challenged the rules and helped shape colonial America. He was arrested on February 10, 1676, and jailed on February 19 for not being able to pay bail. He remained in jail for more than a year and a half.
Early life and education
Benjamin Franklin was born on Milk Street in Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay, on January 17, 1706. He was baptized at the Old South Meeting House in Boston. As a child living near the Charles River, Franklin remembered that he often led the other boys in activities.
Franklin’s father wanted him to study with the clergy, but he could only afford to send Franklin to school for two years. Franklin attended Boston Latin School but did not graduate. Instead, he continued learning by reading many books. Although his parents considered a career in the church for Franklin, his schooling ended when he was ten years old. He worked with his father for a time, and at age 12, he became an apprentice to his older brother James, who was a printer. James taught Franklin how to print. When Franklin was 15, James started a newspaper called The New-England Courant, the third newspaper in Boston.
When Franklin was not allowed to write a letter for the newspaper, he used the name "Silence Dogood," pretending to be a middle-aged widow. Letters written by Mrs. Dogood were published and became popular in the town. James and the newspaper’s readers did not know it was Franklin, and James was upset when he learned the popular writer was his younger brother. Franklin supported free speech early in life. When James was jailed in 1722 for publishing something unkind about the governor, Franklin took over the newspaper and wrote, quoting Cato’s Letters, "Without freedom of thought there can be no wisdom, and no public liberty without freedom of speech." Franklin left his apprenticeship without his brother’s permission, making him a fugitive.
At age 17, Franklin ran away to Philadelphia, hoping to start fresh. When he arrived, he worked in several printing shops but was not happy with the jobs. After a few months, while working in one shop, Pennsylvania’s governor, Sir William Keith, convinced Franklin to go to London to get equipment for starting another newspaper in Philadelphia. Franklin later discovered Keith’s promises were false. He worked as a typesetter in a printer’s shop in what is now the Lady Chapel of the Church of St. Bartholomew-the-Great in London, which had been turned into a secular space. Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1726 with the help of Thomas Denham, an English merchant who employed Franklin as a clerk, shopkeeper, and bookkeeper.
In 1727, at age 21, Franklin created the Junto, a group of skilled workers who wanted to improve themselves and their community. The Junto discussed important issues and later inspired many organizations in Philadelphia. The group was modeled after English coffeehouses, which Franklin knew were places where Enlightenment ideas spread in Britain.
Reading was a favorite activity for the Junto, but books were expensive and rare. The group started a library using their own books. Franklin suggested creating a subscription library, where members would pool money to buy books for everyone. This idea led to the Library Company of Philadelphia, which Franklin helped establish in 1731.
After Denham died, Franklin returned to printing. In 1728, he partnered with Hugh Meredith to start a printing house. The next year, he became the publisher of The Pennsylvania Gazette, a newspaper in Philadelphia. The Gazette allowed Franklin to share ideas about local reforms and to build a positive image as a hardworking and intelligent young man. Even after becoming a famous scientist and statesman, Franklin often signed his letters simply as "B. Franklin, Printer."
In 1732, Franklin published the first German-language newspaper in America, Die Philadelphische Zeitung, but it failed after one year because other German newspapers quickly took over the market. Franklin also printed religious books in German for the Moravian community. He often visited Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, staying at the Moravian Sun Inn. In a 1751 pamphlet about population growth, Franklin referred to Pennsylvania’s German settlers as "Palatine Boors" and described "Blacks and Tawneys" as weakening the colonies’ social structure. He later removed these phrases from future editions, but some believe his views may have contributed to his political loss in 1764.
According to Ralph Frasca, Franklin saw the printing press as a tool to teach colonial Americans about moral behavior. Frasca explains that Franklin believed doing good deeds served God, as he viewed morality in terms of actions. Franklin tried to shape American values by creating a network of printing partnerships across the colonies, which became the first newspaper chain. He believed the press had a duty to serve the public, not just make money.
When Franklin settled in Philadelphia around 1730, the town had only two weak newspapers: The American Weekly Mercury and The Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences, along with The Pennsylvania Gazette. The Instructor only published weekly excerpts from a dictionary. Franklin took over the Instructor and turned it into The Pennsylvania Gazette, which became his main newspaper. He used it for satire, humor, and commentary. Franklin adapted his writing style from British models, such as the Spectator and Tatler, but made them fit American life. Characters like Ridentius and Cato reflected 18th-century classicism, while others, like the "Busy-Body," were used for satire.
Franklin had mixed results in his plan to create a network of newspapers across the colonies. He supported about two dozen printers in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, New York, Connecticut, and the Caribbean. By 1753, eight of the 15 English-language newspapers in the colonies were published by Franklin or his partners. He started in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1731. After the newspaper’s second editor died, the editor’s wife, Elizabeth Timothy, took over and made the paper successful. She was one of the first women printers in the colonies. Franklin had a long business relationship with Elizabeth and her son, Peter Timothy, who later took over the newspaper.
Public life
In 1736, Franklin started the Union Fire Company, one of the first groups of volunteers who helped fight fires in America. That same year, he printed new money for New Jersey using new ways to stop fake money. His political career began, especially as the Chief Clerk of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly. He held this job until 1751. Throughout his career, Franklin supported the use of paper money. In 1729, he wrote a book called A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency, and his printer made money. He helped create successful money-related plans in the Middle Colonies, which stopped prices from falling too much without causing prices to rise too quickly. In 1766, he explained the benefits of paper money to the British House of Commons.
As Franklin grew older, he became more interested in public matters. In 1743, he first planned an idea for the Academy, Charity School, and College of Philadelphia. However, the person he wanted to lead the academy, Rev. Richard Peters, refused. Franklin put his plan aside until 1749, when he published a pamphlet called Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania. He became president of the Academy on November 13, 1749. The academy and charity school opened in 1751.
In 1743, Franklin started the American Philosophical Society to help scientists share their discoveries and ideas. He began studying electricity, which would take up much of his time for the rest of his life, along with other scientific work and his political and business activities.
During King George's War, Franklin created a militia called the Association for General Defense because the city’s leaders decided not to build forts or warships to protect Philadelphia. He raised money to build earthwork defenses and buy cannons. The largest of these was the "Association Battery" or "Grand Battery" with 50 guns.
In 1747, Franklin (who was already very wealthy) stopped printing and started other businesses. He partnered with his foreman, David Hall, which gave Franklin half of the shop’s profits for 18 years. This arrangement gave him time to study and make new discoveries.
Franklin became involved in Philadelphia politics and quickly rose in position. In October 1748, he was chosen as a councilman. In June 1749, he became a justice of the peace for Philadelphia. In 1751, he was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly. On August 10, 1753, he was named deputy postmaster-general of British North America. He improved the postal system, sending mail every week.
In 1751, Franklin and Thomas Bond got a charter from the Pennsylvania legislature to create a hospital. Pennsylvania Hospital was the first hospital in the colonies. In 1752, Franklin started the Philadelphia Contributionship, the first homeowner’s insurance company in the colonies.
Between 1750 and 1753, Franklin, Samuel Johnson of Stratford, Connecticut, and William Smith created a new plan for American colleges, called a "new-model" plan by Bishop James Madison. Franklin helped print and promote a textbook called Elementa Philosophica by Samuel Johnson for use in these colleges. In 1753, Johnson, Franklin, and Smith met in Stratford and decided the new colleges would focus on professions, teach in English instead of Latin, have professors who were experts in their fields, and not require religious tests for admission. Johnson later founded King’s College (now Columbia University) in New York City in 1754, while Franklin hired Smith as provost of the College of Philadelphia, which opened in 1755. At its first graduation in 1757, seven men received degrees. The college later merged with the University of the State of Pennsylvania to become the University of Pennsylvania. Many of its graduates helped write the Declaration of Independence.
In 1754, Franklin led the Pennsylvania delegation to the Albany Congress. This meeting, requested by the British Board of Trade, aimed to improve relations with Native Americans and defend against the French. Franklin proposed a plan for colonial unity, though it was not accepted. Some parts of his plan influenced later laws like the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.
In 1753, Harvard University and Yale gave Franklin honorary master of arts degrees. In 1756, he received the same degree from the College of William & Mary. That same year, Franklin organized the Pennsylvania Militia and used Tun Tavern to recruit soldiers to fight Native American uprisings.
As a well-known printer and publisher, Franklin became postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737. He held this job until 1753, when he and publisher William Hunter were named deputy postmasters-general of British North America, the first people to hold this office. Franklin managed mail services for British colonies from Pennsylvania north and east to Newfoundland. In 1755, he opened the first regular monthly mail service in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Meanwhile, Hunter oversaw mail in Virginia and areas south of Maryland. Franklin improved the speed of mail delivery between Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. By 1761, the colonial post office made its first profits.
After the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which gave British control of New France, Franklin helped expand mail services between Montreal, Trois-Rivières, Quebec City, and New York. He spent much of his time in England (from 1757 to 1762 and again from 1764 to 1774) and eventually supported the American Revolution, leading to his dismissal in 1774.
On July 26, 1775, the Second Continental Congress created the United States Post Office and named Franklin as its first postmaster general. He had been a postmaster for many years and was a natural choice for the job. He returned from England and led a committee to set up a postal system. The committee’s report, which proposed a postmaster general for the 13 colonies, was approved by Congress. Franklin was appointed postmaster general, the first under the Continental Congress. His apprentice, William Goddard, felt Franklin’s ideas shaped the postal system and that he should have been chosen, but he let Franklin take the role. Franklin later made Goddard Surveyor of the Posts and sent him to investigate postal matters.
Death
Benjamin Franklin had obesity during his middle and older years. This caused several health issues, such as gout, which got worse as he aged. He was in poor health when he signed the U.S. Constitution in 1787. After that, he was rarely seen in public until he died.
Franklin died from a lung problem at his home in Philadelphia on April 17, 1790, at the age of 84. His last reported words, shared with his daughter, were, "a dying man can do nothing easy," after she suggested he change his position in bed to breathe more easily. His death is described in the book The Life of Benjamin Franklin, which includes an account from John Paul Jones.
About 20,000 people attended Franklin's funeral. Afterward, he was buried in Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia. When news of his death reached France, the Constitutional Assembly went into mourning for three days. Memorial services were held in his honor across the country.
In 1728, at age 22, Franklin wrote what he hoped would be his own epitaph. However, as he stated in his final will, his actual grave simply reads, "Benjamin and Deborah Franklin."
Inventions and scientific inquiries
Benjamin Franklin was a very talented inventor. He created many useful items, including the lightning rod, Franklin stove, bifocal glasses, and the flexible urinary catheter. He did not patent his inventions. In his autobiography, he wrote, "As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously."
Franklin, along with his contemporary Leonhard Euler, was one of the few major scientists who supported Christiaan Huygens's wave theory of light. Most scientists at the time believed Isaac Newton's corpuscular theory. It was not until Thomas Young's famous slit experiment in 1803 that most scientists accepted Huygens's theory.
In the 1740s, Franklin began studying electricity after meeting Archibald Spencer, who used static electricity in his demonstrations. Franklin proposed that "vitreous" and "resinous" electricity were not different types of "electrical fluid," but the same fluid under different pressures. He was the first to label them as positive and negative, replacing the earlier terms "vitreous" and "resinous." He also discovered the principle of conservation of charge. In 1748, he built a multiple plate capacitor, which he called an "electrical battery" (not a true battery like Volta's pile), by placing eleven glass panes between lead plates, suspended with silk cords and connected by wires.
Franklin wanted to find practical uses for electricity. In 1749, he planned a dinner party where a turkey would be killed using an electric shock and roasted on an electrical spit. He noted that the turkeys killed this way were very tender. During one experiment, he was shocked by a pair of Leyden jars, causing numbness in his arms for one evening. He wrote, "I am Ashamed to have been Guilty of so Notorious a Blunder."
Franklin briefly studied electrotherapy, including the use of the electric bath. This work helped make the field more widely known. In 1753, he received the Royal Society's Copley Medal for his work with electricity. In 1756, he became one of the few 18th-century Americans elected a fellow of the Society. A unit of electric charge, the franklin (Fr), is equal to one statcoulomb.
Franklin advised Harvard University on acquiring new electrical laboratory equipment after a fire destroyed its original collection in 1764. The collection he helped assemble later became part of the Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, now displayed in its Science Center.
Franklin proposed an experiment to prove that lightning is electricity by flying a kite in a storm. In 1752, Thomas-François Dalibard of France conducted Franklin's experiment using an iron rod instead of a kite and extracted electrical sparks from a cloud. Franklin may have performed his famous kite experiment in Philadelphia on June 15, 1752. He described the experiment in his newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette, on October 19, 1752, without mentioning that he himself did it. This account was shared with the Royal Society and printed in Philosophical Transactions. Joseph Priestley later added details in his 1767 book on electricity. Franklin was careful to stand on an insulator and stay dry under a roof to avoid electric shock. Others, like Georg Wilhelm Richmann in Russia, were electrocuted during similar experiments.
Franklin warned about the dangers of lightning experiments and suggested safer methods, such as using the concept of electrical ground. He did not fly a kite and wait for lightning to strike, as this would have been dangerous. Instead, he used the kite to collect electric charge from a storm cloud, proving that lightning is electrical. In a letter to England, he wrote detailed instructions for repeating the experiment.
Franklin's experiments led to the invention of the lightning rod. He found that sharp, pointed conductors could discharge electricity silently from a distance. He suggested attaching "upright rods of iron, made sharp as a needle" to buildings, connected to wires leading into the ground. This could protect buildings from lightning. After testing his ideas, lightning rods were installed on the Academy of Philadelphia (later the University of Pennsylvania) and the Pennsylvania State House (later Independence Hall) in 1752.
Although Franklin is famous for his lightning experiments, he also used kites to pull humans and ships across waterways. George Pocock wrote in his book A Treatise on The Aeropleustic Art that he was inspired by Franklin's use of kite power to move people and ships.
Franklin discovered a principle of refrigeration by noticing that wearing a wet shirt in a breeze made him feel cooler than wearing a dry shirt. To study this, he and John Hadley experimented in 1758 by wetting a mercury thermometer with ether and using bellows to evaporate the ether. The thermometer's temperature dropped to 7 °F (−14 °C), while the room temperature remained constant at 65 °F (18 °C). Franklin wrote that, "One may see the possibility of freezing a man to death on a warm summer's day."
In 1761, Franklin wrote to Mary Stevenson about experiments showing that darker-colored clothing absorbs more heat from sunlight than lighter-colored clothing. This was an early observation of black body thermal radiation. He tested this by placing colored cloth squares in the snow on a sunny day and measured how deeply each sank into the snow. Black cloth sank the deepest, indicating it absorbed the most heat.
Michael Faraday noted that Franklin's experiments on the non-conduction of ice were important, though the law of heat's effect on non-conductors is not attributed to Franklin. In 1836, Franklin's great-grandson Alexander Dallas Bache reported on this law at the University of Pennsylvania.
Views on religion, morality, and slavery
Benjamin Franklin, like other supporters of republicanism, believed that a new republic could only survive if its people lived virtuously. Throughout his life, Franklin studied the importance of public and personal virtue, as seen in the wise sayings of Poor Richard. He believed that organized religion was important for helping people treat each other kindly, though he rarely attended religious services himself. When Franklin met Voltaire in Paris and asked him to bless his grandson, Voltaire responded in English, "God and Liberty," saying this was the best blessing for Franklin’s grandson.
Franklin’s parents were devout Puritans. His family attended the Old South Church, a liberal Puritan group in Boston, where Benjamin was baptized in 1706. Franklin’s father, a poor chandler, owned a book called Bonifacius: Essays to Do Good, written by Puritan preacher Cotton Mather, a family friend. Franklin often credited this book as a major influence on his life. He later wrote to Mather’s son that the public benefited from the book’s teachings. Franklin’s first pen name, Silence Dogood, honored both the book and a famous sermon by Mather. The book encouraged people to form groups to help society, and Franklin used his skills to make volunteering a lasting part of American culture.
In 1728, Franklin shared his beliefs in a published work. By 1771, he no longer believed in key Puritan ideas about salvation or the divinity of Jesus. He called himself a deist, though he still considered himself a Christian. He believed in a God who inspired morality and guided history, including American independence.
During the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Franklin tried to suggest daily prayer in public meetings. However, the idea received little support and was never voted on.
Franklin admired George Whitefield, an evangelical preacher during the First Great Awakening. Though Franklin did not agree with Whitefield’s religious beliefs, he respected his call for people to act kindly and worship God through good deeds. Franklin published Whitefield’s sermons and writings, which earned him money and helped spread the Great Awakening.
Franklin wrote in his autobiography that he stopped attending church, but he always valued the non-religious Puritan virtues he grew up with, such as fairness, education, hard work, honesty, and helping others. These values, along with his civic and publishing efforts, helped shape American culture. Franklin’s devotion to equality, education, and community spirit became key parts of American identity. Thomas Kidd noted that Franklin promoted ethical behavior and kindness, even as he rejected traditional Christian beliefs.
During the Enlightenment, many believed in a government based on social classes like kings, nobles, and common people. However, Puritanism and the evangelical movement challenged these ideas by teaching that all people are equal and that moral behavior, not class, determines a person’s worth. Franklin, influenced by Puritanism and the evangelical movement, rejected religious dogma but supported the idea of equal democracy.
Franklin’s dedication to teaching these values came from his Puritan upbringing, which emphasized teaching virtue and character. These values became a key part of his identity and helped shape the nation. Max Weber believed Franklin’s writings reflected the Protestant ethic, which helped create conditions for capitalism.
Franklin respected and supported all religions. In his autobiography, he wrote that he contributed to building places of worship for any group, no matter their beliefs. He helped create a nation that valued religious diversity. Evangelical leaders like Whitefield promoted religious freedom, calling it an "inalienable right." Franklin supported this by helping build a hall where people of all beliefs could speak. Franklin’s focus on morality and civic virtue, rather than religious dogma, made him a leader in promoting tolerance. He wrote a story called A Parable Against Persecution, where God teaches Abraham about the importance of tolerance.
Franklin’s parents wanted him to become a preacher, but as a young man, he adopted deism, the belief that God’s truths can be found in nature and reason. In a 1725 pamphlet, he rejected Christian beliefs, though he later regretted this. He believed God was all-wise, all-good, and all-powerful. He argued that religious beliefs should be judged by their effects on people’s behavior. After seeing moral failures in himself and friends, Franklin realized that organized religion, not just deism, was better for promoting good behavior. Later in life, he was seen as a non-denominational Christian, though he did not believe Jesus was divine.
Scholars like Thomas Kidd argue that Franklin saw true religion as personal morality and civic virtue. He avoided traditional Christian beliefs but believed in a "moralized Christianity" without strict doctrines. David Morgan noted Franklin supported "generic religion," focusing on general spiritual ideas. Franklin prayed to "Powerful Goodness" and called God "the infinite." John Adams described Franklin as a reflection of people’s diverse religious beliefs, noting that different groups saw him as part of their faith.
Views on the future of technology
In a letter to Joseph Priestley, dated February 8, 1780, Benjamin Franklin wrote about his thoughts on the future. He suggested that "all diseases may by sure means be prevented or cured, not even old age, and our lives lengthened at pleasure even beyond the standard of very long ago." In the same letter, Franklin also described a technology he imagined in 1773 that was similar to cryonics, which involves freezing people after death to possibly bring them back to life in the future.
Interests and activities
Benjamin Franklin was known to play the violin, harp, and guitar. He also composed music, including a string quartet written in the early classical style. While in London, he created a better version of the glass harmonica. In this version, the glasses spin on a shaft, and the player keeps their fingers still, unlike earlier designs. He worked with a London glassblower named Charles James to make this improvement. Instruments based on Franklin’s design soon spread to other parts of Europe. Joseph Haydn, who admired Franklin’s ideas, owned a glass harmonica. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven wrote music for Franklin’s instrument. Gaetano Donizetti used the glass harmonica in his opera Il castello di Kenilworth (1821), and Camille Saint-Saëns included it in his 1886 work The Carnival of the Animals. Richard Strauss also used the glass harmonica in his 1917 opera Die Frau ohne Schatten, and many other composers used Franklin’s instrument as well.
Benjamin Franklin was an active chess player. He began playing around 1733, making him the first known chess player by name in the American colonies. His essay titled "The Morals of Chess," published in Columbian Magazine in December 1786, was the second known writing about chess in America. This essay praised chess and outlined rules for playing the game. It was widely reprinted and translated. Franklin and a friend used chess to help learn Italian, a language they were both studying. The winner of each game could assign a task, such as memorizing parts of Italian grammar, to the loser before their next meeting.
Franklin played chess more often against stronger opponents during his time as a civil servant and diplomat in England, where chess was more popular than in America. He improved his skills by playing against experienced players. He often visited Old Slaughter’s Coffee House in London for chess and socializing, where he met many important people. While in Paris, both as a visitor and later as an ambassador, he visited the famous Café de la Régence, a place where France’s top chess players gathered. No records of Franklin’s chess games remain, so it is unclear how strong a player he was by modern standards.
In 1999, Franklin was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame. The Franklin Mercantile Chess Club in Philadelphia, the second oldest chess club in the United States, is named in his honor.
Legacy
Benjamin Franklin left £1,000 (about $4,400 at the time, or about $125,000 in 2021 dollars) to the cities of Boston and Philadelphia. The money was placed in trusts to grow through interest over 200 years. The idea for the trusts began in 1785 when Charles-Joseph Mathon de la Cour, a French mathematician who admired Franklin, created a humorous imitation of Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack called Fortunate Richard. In this story, a character left 500 livres in his will to grow over one, two, three, four, or five centuries, with the large sums later used for grand projects. Franklin, who was 79 years old at the time, wrote to thank Mathon de la Cour for the idea and decided to leave £1,000 each to Boston and Philadelphia.
By 1990, Franklin’s trust in Philadelphia had grown to more than $2,000,000 (~$4.23 million in 2024). The money had been lent to local residents, mostly for home loans from 1940 to 1990. When the trust matured, Philadelphia used the funds for scholarships for high school students. Meanwhile, Franklin’s trust in Boston had grown to nearly $5,000,000 by 1990. Part of the money was used to start a trade school that became the Franklin Institute of Boston, and the entire fund later supported this institute.
In 1787, a group of ministers in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, proposed creating a college named after Franklin. Franklin donated £200 to help establish Franklin College, now known as Franklin & Marshall College.
Franklin is one of the most important Founding Fathers of the United States. He signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the Treaty of Alliance with France in 1778, the Treaty of Paris in 1783, and the U.S. Constitution in 1787. Because of his major influence in the nation’s early history, he is sometimes called “the only president of the United States who was never president of the United States.”
Franklin’s image appears on many U.S. currency and stamps. Since 1914, his portrait has been on $100 bills. From 1948 to 1963, his image was on the half-dollar coin. He also appeared on a $50 bill and several $100 bills from 1914 and 1918. Franklin’s likeness is also on the $1,000 Series EE savings bond.
In 1976, as part of a bicentennial celebration, Congress dedicated a 20-foot-tall marble statue in Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute as the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial. Vice President Nelson Rockefeller led the ceremony. Franklin’s personal items are displayed at the institute. In London, his home at 36 Craven Street, the only surviving house he lived in, was marked with a blue plaque and opened to the public as the Benjamin Franklin House. In 1998, workers restoring the building found the remains of 15 people buried beneath it. The Friends of Benjamin Franklin House, the group managing the site, believe the remains were placed there by William Hewson, a former resident who ran an anatomy school nearby. Franklin likely knew about Hewson’s work but did not participate in dissections, as he focused more on physics than medicine.
Franklin has appeared on U.S. postage stamps many times. His image, as the first postmaster general of the United States, is found on more stamps than any other American except George Washington. He was on the first U.S. postage stamp issued in 1847. From 1908 to 1923, the U.S. Post Office released a series of stamps called the Washington–Franklin Issues, featuring both men over 14 years, the longest series in U.S. postal history. Franklin also appears on some commemorative stamps. Some of the best depictions of Franklin are found on engravings on U.S. postage stamps.