Ben Franklin's 300th Birthday Today

[mudbug]

One of my favorite Americanskys...........

Inquisitive, intelligent, fearless, hard-working, curious, and a rascal to boot.

You rocked, Ben.

 

[Barbara L]

All of my Social Studies lessons last week and today centered on Benjamin Franklin, in honor of his 300th birthday (and fortunately, it fit right in with what I have to teach anyway).

Barbara

 

[Andy M.]

Truly a man apart. One of my heros.

 

[Piccolina]

Indeed one of the best scientific minds to have graced the earth.

"A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body." Benjamin Franklin

 

[Ishbel]

There was an item in the newspapers and on TV recently re the opening of the Benjamin Franklin House in central London. It's been turned into a museum, at a cost of some millions of POUNDS!

Here's the website - I'm going to make a point of visiting when I'm next in London.
http://www.benjaminfranklinhouse.org/site/sections/default.htm

 

[Barbara L]

Thanks for the link Ishbel! I love what it said about the Historical Experience:

he Historical Experience at Benjamin Franklin House will stand alone among London attractions in its 'museum as theatre' approach, setting a new standard for historical interpretation.
The main character in the Historical Experience is Polly Hewson, daughter of Franklin's landlady who became a 'second daughter' to Franklin. Accompanied by Polly, who will assume visitors are there to see Franklin on his last night in London when he had to leave or risk arrest, the visitor will experience a sense of the complexity of the man and the times in which he lived: food, health, botany, and daily living in the basement kitchen; social and personal relationships, musical inventions and political tension on the ground floor; scientific work, political triumphs and woes, and a hurried return to America in the face of the looming War of Independence on the first floor.

Barbara

 

[Ishbel]

The item I saw on TV was that character talking about Ben F.... Not quite sure how 'stagey' it will be, but it's certainly worth a visit - particularly for any American visitors to London!