CHSI
Special Exhibition Gallery
Ben Franklin - A How-To Guide
Science and Sociability
June 5 - December 19, 2006
(*click on images to take a closer look)
What
do you know and how do you know it? Today we are surrounded by self-help literature and how-to guides. While Franklin did not create this how-to universe, this most celebrated of self-made Americans did much to shape it.
In recognition of the 300th anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin, three scholars - Joyce E. Chaplin, Sara J. Schechner, and Thomas A. Horrocks - have joined forces to curate a two-part exhibition that is simultaneously on display in two Harvard venues and explores the self-help theme
from two perspectives.
At Houghton Library, the exhibition examined the Circulation of Knowledge, focusing on how information was made public. At the Collection
of Historical Scientific Instruments, the focus is on Science and Sociability, exploring how science was part of a social context that prized human interaction and collaboration.
The exhibition features rare books, broadsides, manuscripts, scientific instruments, natural history specimens, art, and music. Topics
include How to...be Charming,...see Clearly, ...do an Experiment,... learn Things, ...get the Word Out, ...do Good,...be a Political Animal,...see the World,...win Friends and influence People,...be Benjamin Franklin.
Some of the books and pamphlets were written, printed, owned, or used by Franklin. These include Franklin's Plain Truth, Poor Richard's Almanac,
and works on electricity, swimming, and numerous topics. Other items influenced his life and work. Among them is the manuscript in which John Hancock appoints and instructs Franklin and Thomas Jefferson to make a treaty with France in 1776. Another is one of only 25 surviving copies of the first edition
of the Declaration of Independence. Personal letters between Franklin and Jefferson, David Hume, and various men and women round out the image of the man.
Notable scientific instruments include electrical apparatus that Franklin purchased for Harvard College in the 1760s, Franklin's maps of the Gulf
Stream, and early bifocal spectacles of his design. Also on display are scientific instruments owned by friends of Franklin, including Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier, the chemists who independently discovered oxygen; John Jeffries, a physician and balloonist who delivered the first air mail
letter to Franklin; and Charles Willson Peale, an artist who established a famous, national museum in Philadelphia. A wild turkey from Peale's museum - still stately after 200 years - is on display to help explain why Franklin wanted this bird to be our national symbol.
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Support for this exhibition is generously provided by:
- The Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Department of the History of Science, Harvard University.
Exhibitions
An exhibition commemorating the 300th anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin
Ben Franklin - A How-To Guide: Science and Sociability
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments
Special Exhibition Gallery, Science Center 251
June 5- December 19, 2006
Notice is hereby given to the Curious... (A humorous broadside)
