Benjamin Franklin: Founding Father, Inventor, Author, Printer, Postmaster

Following up on the last post, “Charles Strite: Inventor of the Pop-Up Toaster” today’s LinkedIn newsletter features one of America's Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin. His accomplishments include authoring Poor Richard’s Almanack and the creation of the Library Company of Philadelphia where members pooled money to purchase books for everyone to read.

“Glass, China, and Reputation, are easily crack’d, and never well mended.”

---

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts, then a British colony inhabited by roughly 7,000 people. His birthplace is at 17 Milk Street. He was the 10th of 16 siblings born to Josiah Franklin and Abiah Folger.

Boston was the third-largest shipping center in the British Empire, its waterfront filled with ships and seamen loading and unloading cargo along the wharves.

His father, Josiah, wanting him to become a preacher, sent him to grammar school when he was eight years old.

Ben Franklin wanted to be a sailor, but having lost an older son who had gone to sea and never returned, Josiah didn't approve.

Benjamin Franklin left school and grew up working in his father's candle and soap shop and recalls his jobs of cutting wick, filling the dipping mold and molds for cast candles, attending to the shop and running errands.

He furthered his education from reading and lifelong conversation and debate with his friends.

Reading was a favorite pastime. Among his favorite books were John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Plutarch's Lives, Daniel Defoe's Essay on Projects, Cotton Mather's Bonifacius: An Essay to Do Good, Joseph Addison and Richard Steele's essays in the British publication The Spectator.?

In September 1721 his brother, James Franklin, began publishing his own newspaper, The New England Courant, one of the first privately-owned newspapers in the Colonies.?

There Ben Franklin learned the trading of printing; setting letters in trays, letter by letter, word by word, line by line, tray by tray. He rolled them with ink and set them on the printing press.?He continued this learning in Philadelphia and England.

In September 1730, Franklin entered into a common-law marriage with Deborah Read Rogers and they had three children; William, Francis and Sarah and 8 grandchildren.

As an adult, he lived and worked on the 300 block of Market Street in Philadelphia. He experimented with the idea of Deism, a belief that a higher being created the world and left humans to their own bidding.

He was the only person to have signed all four of the documents that helped to create the United States: the Declaration of Independence (1776); the Treaty of Alliance, Amity, and Commerce with France (1778); the Treaty of Peace between England, France, and the United States (1782); and the Constitution (1787). In addition, he helped to write parts of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Ben Franklin helped create the first subscription library in the Colonies. Called the Library Company of Philadelphia, members put their money together to buy books for everyone to read.

He started one of the first volunteer fire company in Philadelphia and helped create Philadelphia's first police force.

His testimony helped repeal the Stamp Act in 1766, one of the many laws passed by Great Britain and Parliament so that the Colonies would pay for the expense of the French and Indian War (1754-1756).

He founded the University of Pennsylvania, the American Philosophical Society, Pennsylvania Hospital, and Franklin and Marshall College. He was a member of the Royal Society of London, which in 1753 awarded him the Copley Medal for his work in electricity, and the American Philosophical Society, of which he was a founder.

He initially owned and dealt in slaves but, by the late 1750s, began arguing against slavery, became an abolitionist, served as president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and promoted education and the integration of African Americans into U.S. society.

He played several musical instruments, including the violin, harp, and guitar. He composed a quartet and built his own glass armonica.

In appearance, "No certain early likeness of him survives [...] strongly built, rounded like a swimmer or a wrestler, not angular like a runner, he was five feet nine or ten inches tall, with a large head and square, deft hands. His hair was blond or light brown, his eyes grey, full, and steady, his mouth wide and humorous with a pointed upper lip. His clothing was as clean as it was plain. Though he and others say he was hesitant in speech, he was prompt in action."

Ben Franklin was appointed postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737 and co-deputy postmaster of British North America. In 1775, he became the first postmaster general of the United States.

His inventions include bifocals, the lightning rod, a library chair, swim fins, the Franklin stove, and the catheter. He never patented his inventions, wanting them to be freely available to everyone.?

In his famous kite experiment, Franklin proved the connection between lightning and electricity. He is credited with charting and naming the current still known as the the Gulf Stream.

Benjamin Franklin authored several books pen names such as Silence Dogood and Polly Baker. He is best known for Poor Richard’s Almanack, a reference book for everyday life filled with information like calendars and weather forecasts. A yearly publication written under the pseudonym of Richard Saunders, Poor Richard’s Almanack was published from 1732 to 1758 and sold almost 10,000 copies per year.

He began his autobiography while on a visit to his friend, Bishop Shipley, in Hampshire, southern England. It was written from 1771 to 1790.

Benjamin Franklin died at age 84 on April 17, 1790 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is buried in the cemetery of Christ Church, Philadelphia next to his wife, Deborah.

---

Hope you enjoyed this week’s Notable People in History newsletter.?Subscribe to Notable People in History on your favorite podcasting platform.

Come along with me and explore the lives of Archimedes, Galileo Galilei, Albert Einstein, Wangari Maathai, Ctesibius, Valentina Tereshkova, Chiune Sugihara, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett… and others who’ve greatly influenced society.

What life choices led them to be so extraordinary… what can we learn from them?

About the Author: Lawrence Jean-Louis is the founder and creative behind beYOUteous, an eCommerce store offering a line of handcrafted beaded jewelry which aims to spread the message for embracing individuality, feminine strength, and empowerment. She’s recently published her latest book, She Sells Seashells by the Seashore: Biographies of 12 Entrepreneurial Women which explores the lives of?twelve entrepreneurial women.