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Ben Franklin

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America at 250: The Revolutionary Spark

Among All the Great Things Benjamin Franklin Invented or Discovered, His Alter Egos Gave Him the Most Freedom

Silence Dogood. Richard Saunders. Benevolus. Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim. All were pen names that allowed Franklin to say things he couldn’t have otherwise said

Libertas Americana medal 

America's 250th Anniversary

Benjamin Franklin Styled Lady Liberty’s Look in This Medal He Commissioned to Honor American and French Allies in the Revolutionary War

Franklin combined art with diplomacy to create the Libertas Americana. For the United States’ 250th anniversary, the Paris Mint is giving the design a refresh

The collection includes writings on Franklin’s experiments with electricity.

Before He Was a Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin Founded the Lending Library. Now His Belongings Are on Display There Before Heading to Auction

In 1731, book lover Franklin created the Library Company of Philadelphia, where this week visitors can see a collection of his papers worth an estimated $3 million to $4.5 million

An 1818 John Trumbull painting of the presentation of the draft Declaration of Independence to the Continental Congress

In 1776, the Declaration of Independence Was Breaking News. Here’s How the Founding Document Reached the American Public

A new book by historian Emily Sneff records the journeys of the Declaration’s first printed copies, tracking their reception in the Thirteen Colonies and overseas

The first episode of "Lucy Worsley Investigates: The American Revolution" premieres on April 7, with the second installment following on April 14. Note: The upside-down Union Jack as seen here was in the original publicity photograph provided by PBS.

America's 250th Anniversary

In a New Documentary, One of Britain’s Most Famous Historians Reframes the American Revolution as a ‘Messy Divorce’

Lucy Worsley’s PBS series highlights the emotional fallout of the conflict, with a focus on the British perspective

Michael Douglas as Benjamin Franklin in the Apple TV+ series "Franklin"

America's 250th Anniversary

What Are the Best TV Shows About the American Revolution? A Historian Outlines Five of His Favorites

The scholar’s picks include “Turn: Washington’s Spies,” “John Adams” and “Franklin”

Did Benjamin Franklin really fly a kite in a thunderstorm?

America's 250th Anniversary

What’s the Real Story With Ben Franklin and the Kite? And More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions, we’ve got experts

Karin Wulf's new book, Lineage: Genealogy and the Power of Connection in Early America, explores the many ways in which people of the past reflected on their family histories.

Why 18th-Century Americans Were Just as Obsessed With Their Genealogy as We Are Today

People living in British America and later the nascent United States recorded their family histories in needlework samplers, notebooks and newspapers

An engraving by Edward Savage, after Robert Edge Pine's 1784-1788 painting Congress Voting Independence

America's 250th Anniversary

These Daring Revolutionary-Era Artists Promoted the Patriot Cause From the Heart of Enemy Territory

A new book explores how painters, sculptors and writers, especially women and people of color, used their craft to advocate for American independence while living in George III’s capital city

The National Archives Museum is undergoing a $40 million renovation.

America's 250th Anniversary

The National Archives Museum Is Using A.I. to Take Visitors on an Immersive Journey Through American History

Called “The American Story,” the new permanent exhibition will guide museumgoers through two million historic documents and artifacts

A replica of Benjamin West's Reception of the American Loyalists by Great Britain in the Year 1783 appears in the background of this 1812 portrait of English judge John Eardley Wilmot.

America's 250th Anniversary

Meet the Defiant Loyalists Who Paid Dearly for Choosing the Wrong Side in the American Revolution

American colonists who aligned with the British lost their lands, their reputations and sometimes even their lives

“In postwar America, fast food was seen as a ladder to the middle class,” says journalist and author Adam Chandler. “If you were part of a familiar chain, banks were willing to lend you money, and people would come to your establishment right away because you were a proven entity.”

The Roots of U.S. Work Culture—and Why the American Dream Is So Difficult to Achieve Today

A new book examines the evolution of the American workplace, interrogating the idea that hard work is enough to ensure success

By age 16, “being on some occasion made ashamed of my ignorance in figures, which I had twice failed in learning when at school,” Benjamin Franklin wrote, “I took Cocker’s book of arithmetic and went through the whole by myself with great ease.”

After Failing Math Twice, a Young Benjamin Franklin Turned to This Popular 17th-Century Textbook

A 19th-century scholar claimed that “Cocker’s Arithmetick” had “probably made as much stir and noise in the English world as any [book]—next to the Bible”

An artist's rendering of gamma-ray glows observed during the research, with gamma rays colored purple for emphasis

Scientists Use Cold War-Era Spy Plane to Find Unexpected Gamma Rays in Thunderstorms

The new findings bring storm researchers one step closer to solving the mystery of how lightning forms

The Phrygian cap derives its name from the ancient region of Phrygia, in what is now Turkey. Also known as a liberty cap, it inspired revolutionaries in both the Colonies and France.

The Paris Olympics

The Paris Games’ Mascot, the Olympic Phryge, Boasts a Little-Known Revolutionary Past

The Phrygian cap, also known as the liberty cap, emerged as a potent symbol in 18th-century America and France

Looming large on Philadelphia’s Broad Street, a ten-foot-high statue—a gift to the city from the Pennsylvania Freemasons—shows young Benjamin Franklin at his printing press.

Benjamin Franklin Was the Nation’s First Newsman

Before he helped launch a revolution, Benjamin Franklin was colonial America’s leading editor and printer of novels, almanacs, soap wrappers, and everything in between

Michael Douglas stars as Benjamin Franklin in the Apple TV+ series "Franklin."

Based on a True Story

The Real Story Behind Apple TV+’s ‘Franklin’

A new limited series starring Michael Douglas as Benjamin Franklin revisits the founding father’s years as the American ambassador to France

The Library Company reading room on Juniper Street in Philadelphia c. 1935, one of the group’s main locations from 1880 to 1935.

How Ben Franklin Invented the Library as We Know It

Books were rare and expensive in colonial America, but the founding father had an idea

Princess Dashkova (center) exchanged letters with Benjamin Franklin and befriended Catherine the Great.

This Russian Noblewoman, Beloved by Catherine the Great and Benjamin Franklin, Embodied the Age of Enlightenment

Princess Dashkova led research institutes, wrote plays and music, and embarked on a Grand Tour of 18th-century Europe

The Bostonians’ “preferred outcome” was for the tea to be “peacefully sent back to London,” says historian Benjamin L. Carp. “It’s only when they find out … the governor is not going to let [that happen] that they say, ‘Well, we have no choice [but] to destroy [the tea].”

The Many Myths of the Boston Tea Party

Contrary to popular belief, the 1773 protest opposed a tax break, not a tax hike. And it didn’t immediately unify the colonies against the British

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