Abstract
VISITOBS to the recent exhibition of “Frankliniana” at New York City's Grolier Club (March 16-April 16) were impressed alike by the incomprehensible versatility of Benjamin Franklin's genius and by the fascinating rarity of many of the exhibits displayed. Printer, journalist, statesman, advocate of inoculation, inventor, and the most widely travelled American of his day, Franklin crossed the Atlantic Ocean eight times. That he was not unaware of the perils of travel is revealed by an obsolete will “written by my own hand while waiting for a passage to England” in 1757. By his classic kite experiment in 1748 he proved the identity of lightning and electricity, and his book “Experiments and Observations on Electricity”, London, 1751, with a preface by his physician and friend Dr. John Fothergill, carried his fame over the civilized world. “Some Account of the Pennsylvania Hospital”, Philadelphia, 1754, recalls that Franklin was instrumental in founding what is regarded as the oldest hospital, in the modern sense of the term, in the present United States. He served as the first clerk to the board of management and later as president. “Proposals for Promoting useful Knowledge among the British Plantations”, 1743, is believed to be the earliest suggestion in printed form for an American Philosophical Society, to which the author offers his services as secretary. The pamphlet shown is described as one of two copies known. His first book, “Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain”, London, 1725, the young Franklin grew to dislike so violently that he destroyed all remaining copies except one. Other exhibits included a selection of his famous almanacs, so rare to-day, though originally issued in editions of 10,000 copies.
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Rare Frankliniana. Nature 143, 888 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143888c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143888c0