Ben Franklin: In Search of a Better World

An engraving of Ben Franklin found on a French snuff box

When he was just 7 years old, Benjamin Franklin was given a few coins. With his money in his pocket, young Franklin visited a store where he became fascinated with a toy whistle. He gave all his coins to the clerk and hurried home to play with his new toy. However, as he began whistling around the house, his brothers and cousins stopped him and asked him how much his whistle had cost. When he told them, they began laughing, telling him that he spent at least 4 times more than the whistle was worth. Young Franklin began to cry as his pleasure with his new whistle was replaced by the chagrin of his overpayment.

Throughout his life, Franklin, who was immensely concerned with both personal and community rightness, was to use that story of "giving too much for the whistle" time and again whenever he encountered anyone not valuing the right commodity or placing too much value on something they did not need.

The story of Ben Franklin and his whistle serves as the introduction to the exhibition Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World now on display at the National Archives. The exhibit traces Franklin's extraordinary life from his birth in 1706 to his death in 1790 as one of the Founding Fathers of America and the greatest statesmen/scientist in United States History.

Although he received little formal schooling, Franklin was a voracious reader. "Often I sat up in my Room reading the greatest part of the Night, when the Book was borrowed in the Evening, and to be return'd early in the Morning," Franklin wrote.

After serving as an apprentice, Franklin opened his own printing shop in Philadelphia, a move which provided him with enough financial success that he was able to retire at 42 and spend the rest of his life inventing ideas, civic organizations, and indeed the country that was to become the United States. It also gave him the perfect platform to disseminate his important writings such as Poor Richard's Almanack and the Pennsylvania Gazette.

Franklin always contended that civic groups could perform far more good than individuals. "The good particular Men may do separately ... is small compared with what they may do collectively," Franklin wrote in 1751. In Philadelphia, Franklin played a pivotal role in establishing the Library Company of Philadelphia, the 1st fire insurance company, the Philadelphia Academy (now the University of Pennsylvania), and the Pennsylvania Hospital.

In his role as a scientist, in addition to his well-known role in the story of electricity, stoves, and spectacles, Franklin was credited with several other inventions. Several replicas of a chair with an attached fan that stirred air when you pumped a pedal are spread throughout the exhibit. Also on display is a musical instrument called the armonica, which produced songs featuring the sound made by wet fingers running around a glass. Both Mozart and Beethoven composed pieces for that instrument. However, believing that all inventions should benefit society, Franklin never patented any of his creations.

Arguably, Franklin's most important role came in the 3 decades he served as America's 1st great statesmen. In total, he made 8 crossing of the Atlantic to represent the interests of first the colonies and later the fledgling country in both England and France.   Here at home, he was instrumental in drafting both the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

The exhibit on Franklin will run at the Archives until May 6. However, you may view the website by clicking here.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Franklin's powers of persuasion were legendary. This is the way John Adams, also one of America's Founding Fathers and the 2nd president of the United States, describes one of his encounters with Franklin's way of thinking. In 1776, Franklin and Adams were forced to share a bed in a crowded boarding house in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Franklin, who believed you needed fresh air to sleep even on the coldest of nights, opened the bedroom window. Adams rose out of bed and closed the window. Whereupon, Franklin left the bed, reopened the window, and began a long, detailed rationale on why open windows were always best. Franklin's argument droned on so long that Adams says he fell into a fitful sleep despite the cold.