Benjamin Franklin
Who was Benjamin Franklin?
American polymath and statesman (1706–1790)
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Benjamin Franklin (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790) was an American expert in many areas, including science, politics, diplomacy, journalism, and philosophy. He was born in Boston in what was then the Province of Massachusetts Bay. He was one of seventeen children of Josiah Franklin, a candlemaker, and Abiah Folger. Although he attended Boston Latin School, his formal education ended at age ten due to financial difficulties, leading him to work in his father's trade. He later became an apprentice to his older brother James, a printer, which influenced his early career and lifelong interest in writing.
Before Fame
Franklin grew up in the bustling commercial and intellectual environment of colonial Boston. As a teenager, he was apprenticed to his brother James and taught himself to write by studying essays in The Spectator. He secretly wrote articles for his brother's newspaper, the New-England Courant, under the pseudonym Silence Dogood. These articles showed a talent for satire and a mastery of prose well beyond his years. Frustrated with his brother's control, he broke his apprenticeship contract and moved to Philadelphia at age seventeen, arriving with almost no money. Within a few years, thanks to his ambition, skills, and strategic connections, he became a leading printer and public thinker in the most important city in the American colonies.
Key Achievements
- Co-drafted and signed the Declaration of Independence as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States
- Negotiated the Treaty of Alliance with France, securing essential military and financial support for the American Revolution
- Invented the lightning rod following his electrical experiments, providing a major advance in public safety
- Founded and led foundational institutions including the American Philosophical Society and the Academy and College of Philadelphia
- Received the Copley Medal in 1753 for his scientific contributions, one of the highest honors in the scientific world at the time
Did You Know?
- 01.Franklin invented bifocal glasses to spare himself the inconvenience of switching between two pairs of spectacles for reading and distance vision.
- 02.He conducted his kite experiment in 1752 to prove that lightning was electrical in nature, leading directly to his invention of the lightning rod.
- 03.Franklin published Poor Richard's Almanack annually from 1732 to 1758 under the fictional persona of Richard Saunders, and it sold on average ten thousand copies per year.
- 04.He was the first postmaster general of the United States, a role that grew from his earlier appointment as deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies in 1753.
- 05.Franklin was the only person to sign all four of the key documents that shaped the founding of the United States: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Paris, and the U.S. Constitution.
Family & Personal Life
Awards & Honors
| Award | Year | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Copley Medal | 1753 | — |
| honorary doctor of the University of St Andrews | — | — |
| Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences | 1781 | — |