By age 42, Benjamin Franklin was at the height of his powers — an 18th century media mogul. He was simultaneously a successful bookseller; publisher of the best-selling Poor Richard’s Almanack; and a prolific writer for the Pennsylvania Gazette, which was considered colonial America’s best newspaper. Then he did something quite unusual. Franklin stepped away from all professional commitments to devote his energies to philanthropy.

“I would rather have it be said, ‘He lived usefully,’ than, ‘He died rich,’” Franklin wrote to his mother. On the eve of his 300th birthday, we remember Franklin for a great many remarkable things, but his considerable wealth, he’d be pleased to see, is not usually one of them.

“Benjamin Franklin is our first founding father to turn 300, but with him, we somehow are not talking about an historical figure. We are celebrating a living legacy. Look around you and there’s almost nothing that wasn’t affected by him,” says Dr. Rosalind Remer, executive director of the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary Commission. “What’s most inspiring, though, is his curiosity and how he allowed himself to believe in so many ways of improving the world.”

Remer offers a partial list of his “firsts.” Franklin established a university, a hospital, a library, a militia, a postal service, a firefighting company, a fire insurance company, and advocated for the lighting, cleaning, paving and policing of city streets. He also promoted smallpox inoculation and, at the end of his life, took a strong stand against slavery, the most controversial moral issue of his day.

The Tercentenary Commission is a non-profit organization that was established to plan the 300th anniversary of Franklin’s birth (1706-2006) and celebrate his lifetime of accomplishments. The John Templeton Foundation joined a consortium of foundations and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in support of the multi-year festivities that will feature a series of lectures, educational programs and promotions — including a huge birthday bash for Franklin, to be held January 17, 2006 in Philadelphia.

The manner in which the commission chose to honor Franklin’s life is linked closely with the mission of the Templeton Foundation, specifically in encouraging the importance of character development, spiritual principles and free market enterprise. “Thrift, curiosity, civic generosity, honesty and loyalty are epitomized in the life of Benjamin Franklin,” said John M. Templeton, Jr.

“This was a large investment for the Templeton Foundation which tends not to fund exhibits, or do historical things. But the enduring importance of Franklin’s values means we need to learn more about them,” said Arthur Schwartz, executive vice president.

Tercentenary festivities center on the world premiere of an international exhibition, Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World, a title that suggests Franklin’s achievements sprang from his life-long goal of both understanding and bettering the world around him.

The exhibit will open on December 14th at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and move to St. Louis, Houston, Denver, and Atlanta before traveling to Paris. It conveys the singular genius, wit and imagination of Benjamin Franklin through a series of interactive multimedia displays, combined with the largest collection of original Franklin artifacts ever assembled. Visitors see chronological periods of Franklin’s life titled “Character Matters,” “B. Franklin Printer,” “Civic Visions,” “The Search for Useful Knowledge,” “The World Stage,” as well as a concluding section that asks “Do You See Yourself in Franklin?”

The tongue-in-cheek aspect of the last question is appropriate with Franklin because he still “winks at us,” believes Walter Isaacson, author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (Simon & Schuster, 2003). George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson are all undeniably great men but, by comparison, a bit austere in their reputations.

“Ben Franklin, that ambitious urban entrepreneur, seems made of flesh rather than marble; addressable by nickname, he turns to us from history’s stage with eyes that twinkle behind those new-fangled spectacles,” Isaacson writes. “He speaks to us through his letters and hoaxes and autobiography, not with orotund rhetoric but with a chattiness and clever irony that is very contemporary, sometimes unnervingly so.”

These words are from Isaacson’s essay, “What Benjamin Franklin Means for Our Times,” that appears in a handsomely illustrated companion catalog to the exhibit. Published by Yale University Press, it also features contributions from leading Franklin scholars such as J. A. Leo Lemay, Edmund S. Morgan, and Page Talbott. Available in bookstores nationwide in November 2005, this book will be donated to every public library system throughout the United States, thanks to the John Templeton Foundation.

Both exhibit and book focus, whenever possible, on lesser known aspects of this extraordinary life. For example, although meritocracy is underappreciated today, it was a concept that Ben Franklin cared deeply about. He began a library system to increase literacy among those who couldn’t afford to buy books. And, he started an academic institution, now known as the University of Pennsylvania, for all who wanted further education, regardless of their social or financial standing.

“It was open enrollment; it was free. You didn’t have to come from a certain lineage to attend. Franklin wanted the best and brightest to rise to the top, and the way you do that is through competition,” said Arthur Schwartz. “This notion of competition is very important to Sir John Templeton, who is always looking for ways to increase competition for our grants.”

Additionally, Schwartz noted, the Templeton Foundation was enthusiastic to be involved because the Tercentenary doesn’t shy away from how profoundly affected Franklin was by his upbringing in Boston where he was steeped in Puritan teachings.

“There is clear and compelling evidence that Benjamin Franklin was on a spiritual journey, one based on religious traditions,” Schwartz said. “His ideas often changed and matured, he struggled with these questions, but Franklin never dismissed a theistic world view. People tend not to know this about him.”

Sir John Templeton shares with Franklin an enthusiasm for distilling complex realities into pithy quotations. Franklin, of course, stuffed the pages of his Almanack with mottos like “A penny saved is a penny earned” or “The early bird gets the worm.” Sir John, who recently authored a book entitled Worldwide Laws of Life, believes such phrases, or maxims, are a classical source of character education.

Indeed, from the way Franklin describes his study habits in his autobiography, it is clear that ambition, hard work, perseverance, and self-discipline were his fundamental characteristics. Franklin taught himself to read German, French, Spanish, Italian and Latin. Perpetually curious, as a youth he became a vegetarian so the money saved on meat could be used to buy books. Franklin’s self-improvement, however, was not selfish, or done only to better himself. He was a firm believer that as the individual rises, so does a community.

It is thus appropriate that the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary concludes its exhibition with two questions that were always linked in Franklin’s mind: “How can I improve myself today?” and “How can I make the world a better place tomorrow?”

Links of Interest
To learn more about Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary events, visit: www.benfranklin300.org

Stephen Henderson is a freelance writer based in New York and a frequent contributor to Milestones.

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