Join us on the 15th October for Ian Ruskin‘s one-man play exploring the life and achievements of the great Enlightenment figure and Founding Father, Thomas Paine.
“Our world would be a less enlightened place, were it not for this man.” – Ruskin
Run time: 1h 15 followed by Q&A session
Tickets £15 –> Book now
6 July 2023, 7pm
Join BFH Playwright in Residence, Michael London, and Royal Shakespeare Actor Keith Bartlett for an evening of bringing Benjamin Franklin alive in readings from the plays New World and Treason. Keith, who has played Franklin on stage and screen, will join together with Mike who has written several works on Franklin and his son William.
They will share their talents and a discussion of what it means to bring Benjamin Franklin alive to new audiences, followed by a Q&A with the audience.
Tickets cost £5. Secure your seat here.
Tuesday June 6 2023, 8:30-9:30am, Benjamin Franklin House.
“Great Scot! How Ben Franklin and Adam Smith Worked Hand in Hand to Create a New Model of Prosperity”
In celebration of Adam Smith’s tercentenary (he was born in 1723), Chapman Prof. Mark Skousen, a direct descendant of Ben Franklin, explores how the American diplomat influenced the Scottish philosopher in writing The Wealth of Nations in support of free trade, laissez faire government, and American independence.
About Mark Skousen
Mark Skousen, Ph. D., is a 6th generation direct grandson of Benjamin Franklin, and has appeared as Franklin on many occasions. He and his wife completed Franklin’s Autobiography from 1757 to 1790 (“The Compleated Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin,” Regnery, 2006). Skousen is known as “America’s Economist.” He is a university professor, investment expert, and author of over 25 books. In 2022, he was appointed the first Doti-Spogli Endowed Chair of Free Enterprise at Chapman University after receiving “My Favorite Professor Award.” In 2018, he was awarded the Triple Crown in Economics in 2018 for his work in theory, history and education. He has the unique distinction of having worked for the government (CIA), non-profits (president of FEE), and several for-profit companies. In 2004-05, he taught economics and finance at Columbia Business School and Columbia University. Since 1980, Skousen has been editor in chief of Forecasts & Strategies, a popular award-winning investment newsletter. He was analyst for the CIA, a columnist to Forbes magazine, chairman of Investment U, and past president of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) in New York. He is the editor of his own website, www.mskousen.com, and is the producer of FreedomFest, “the world‘s largest gathering of free minds,” which meets every July (www.freedomfest.com). He has written for the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Journal of Economic Perspectives, and has made regular appearances on CNBC and C-SPAN Book TV. He is the author of The Making of Modern Economics (Routledge) and The Maxims of Wall Street (Eagle Publishing). Based on his work The Structure of Production, the federal government began publishing in Spring 2014 a broader, more accurate measure of the economy, Gross Output (GO), every quarter along with GDP.
Missed out? Read about it here.
Lecture is now available for viewing on our YouTube channel.
Lecture outline:
The climate and ecological emergency is also a crisis of the imagination. We find ourselves in “a space between stories” (Charles Eisenstein), struggling to find language, symbols, and mythic images with the power to wake us up, clarify our existential situation, connect us with our love for the living world, and orient us toward action.
Coming one month after mass protests around Westminster by Extinction Rebellion and a coalition of environmental groups in late April 2023, this talk will examine the climate justice movement’s use of imagery and narrative to mobilize support and capture the collective imagination. It will also show how the media and general public often respond to the mythic outline of disruptive actions rather than to the message or intentions of the activists carrying them out.
The talk will take as its central reference point the ancient Greek myth of Erysichthon, the arrogant king of Thessaly who cut down the sacred grove of Demeter. The dynamics of the Erysichthon story can provide us with the foundation for an expanded definition of “eco-drama,” one that includes protest and nonviolent civil disobedience as modes of socio-dramatic action. The talk will also examine the rewards and risks in invoking that most potent of heroic narratives: the myth of “saving the world.”
The lecture will be followed by a Q&A session.
About the speaker:
DANIEL LARLHAM is a performance researcher and theatre maker with a PhD in theatre from Columbia University and an MFA in acting from NYU. He has held academic appointments at Yale University’s Theater Studies Program, the Freie Universität Berlin (as a Humboldt Foundation Research Fellow), and Saint Mary’s College of California. Daniel is spending the 2022-23 academic year as a visiting Fulbright Scholar at the University of Roehampton, London. His research project, “Heroism in the Anthropocene,” examines eco-activism in the UK from a mytho-dramatic perspective.
Location:
This is a hybrid lecture, hosted at both Benjamin Franklin House and live-streamed via Zoom. In person-attendees are invited to attend a pre-talk drinks reception in Franklin’s Parlour. Please arrive anytime after 4:30pm.
Tickets:
This lecture is free to attend in person or via Zoom, but a £5 donation is encouraged.
Booking is required.
Spend 4th of July at the home of Founding Father Benjamin Franklin!
As the only American statesman to have signed all four of the documents that created the new nation – The Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Paris, and The Constitution – Franklin’s contributions to American independence are unparalleled!
So, come visit us to see a star-spangled Benjamin Franklin House, enjoy refreshments, and pose for a picture with Polly Hewson, who became like a daughter to Franklin during his time at 36 Craven Street.
Through our self-guided tours, walking tours, and our flagship Historical Experience, you will discover what life was like for an American in London while the colonies were on the cusp of revolution!
Thursday, 4 July 2024
Join us for timed visits throughout the day!
Self-guided Tours – £12.50 (plus booking fees)
Available from 10-11:30am, 11:30am-1pm, and 1-2:30pm
Get your Self-guided Tour tickets here
Walking Tours – £12.50 (plus booking fees)
Available at 3:30pm
Get your tickets for the Walking Tour here
Museum Lates – £17.50 (plus booking fees)
Available from 5-6pm, 6-7pm, and 7-8pm
Get your tickets for the Museum Late here
Friday, 5 July 2024
Architectural Tours available on the hour between 11am-4pm
Come see the House in all its Independence Day glory, wandering from room to room to explore the fascinating history of 36 Craven Street and Franklin’s long residence here (1757-1775).
Saturday, and Sunday, 6-7 July 2024
Historical Experience available on the hour between 11am-4pm
Using a combination of audio-visual display and live acting, the Historical Experience dramatically tells the story of Franklin’s time in London through the eyes of Polly Hewson, the lady of the House.
Please note: the House will be decorated for Independence Day from the 28th of June forward, so pop in for a visit to see 36 Craven Street dressed for the occasion!
Join us in the heart of Westminster as we celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III, just as Ben would have done for George III in 1761!
Thursday May 4, 3pm
We are relaunching our walking tour, with an added coronation twist! Discover the sights, sounds and smells of Benjamin Franklin’s 18th Century London whilst retracing the steps Ben might have taken as an attendee to King George III’s coronation day!
£12/per person – More information and tickets
Friday May 5, Saturday May 6 and Sunday May 7, 12pm – 5pm
In honour of the event, we will be enhancing our standard Architectural Tours and Historical Experiences with coronation decorations and fun Benjamin Franklin facts all about his surprising relationship to the Crown.
From £7.50 per adult – Purchase tickets here
Discover the sights, sounds and smells of Benjamin Franklin’s 18th Century London in the re-launch of our walking tour! From famous thoroughfares to hidden streets, you’ll uncover a layer of London history and learn of its transformation over the last 200 years.
Starting at our doorstep, our expert guide will lead you around our local area to follow the steps Franklin would have taken whilst living and working here just prior to the American Revolution. As a witness to George III’s Coronation on September 22, 1761, we will also be retracing the steps that Ben might have taken on that fateful day!
Thursday 7th September 2023, 2.30pm.
Duration: 1.5 hours (approximate)
Location: Starting from 36 Craven Street.
Tickets: £12 per person
The garden has long been associated with this green and pleasant land. But who knew it could also germinate transatlantic politics?! Our Graduate Researcher in Residence, Alice Hopkinson, presents this online lecture on Benjamin Franklin and Peter Collinson in celebration of Royal Horticultural Society’s National Gardening Week!
Peter Collinson was an accomplished merchant, eager botanist, and one of Benjamin Franklin’s closest friends and allies. What was once initially quite a formal and respectable relationship quickly devolved into something more personal once the two came to realise their personal similarities, as well as their shared ambitions and interests. Throughout his life Collinson outwardly projected a noticeable selflessness, and like Franklin, became deeply interested in the intellectual culture of the American Colonies- seeing great potential in his fellow academics that were beginning to find their feet and settle their own intellectual authority in the evolving American Enlightenment. As such, he became Franklin’s Library Company’s greatest asset and heavily lent himself to supporting Franklin’s scientific pursuits.
Botany, both as a scientific discipline and hobby, was becoming increasingly popular in the eighteenth century and Collinson, as a merchant and a botanist, was one of the pioneers and instigators of a botany craze that shaped the state of British landscape gardening. By investing in his American colleagues and going to great lengths to promote the botanical prowess of the American Colonies, Collinson curated a reputation himself, and greatly contributed to a scientific correspondence exchange that would later lend itself to the minds of the American Revolution.
Despite his impressive list of achievements, Collinson was Franklin’s lesser known and less celebrated colleague. As such, this talk will acknowledge and give light to his often overlooked contributions, not only to Franklin’s career, but to botany, science and the promotion of American intellectualism as a whole.
Join us this Women’s History Month as we talk to Nancy Rubin Stuart about her book ‘Poor Richard’s Women: Deborah Read Franklin and the Other Women Behind the Founding Father’, which reveals the long-neglected voices of the women Ben loved and lost during his lifelong struggle between passion and prudence. The most prominent among them was Deborah Read Franklin, his common-law wife and partner for 44 years. Long dismissed by historians, she was an independent, politically savvy woman and devoted wife who raised their children, managed his finances, and fought off angry mobs at gunpoint while he traipsed about England. Nancy also shines a light on Ben’s relationship with Margaret Stevenson, the widowed landlady of 36 Craven Street who managed Ben’s life in London alongside her daughter, Polly.
Weaving detailed historical research with emotional intensity and personal testimony, what emerges from Stuart’s pen is a colourful and poignant portrait of women in the age of revolution. Set two centuries before the rise of feminism, Poor Richard’s Women depicts the feisty, often-forgotten women dear to Ben’s heart who, despite obstacles, achieved an independence rarely enjoyed by their peers in that era.
Nancy Rubin Stuart is an award-winning author whose nonfiction books focus upon women and social history. These include the acclaimed POOR RICHARD’S WOMEN; Deborah Read Franklin and the Other Women Behind the Founding Father published by Beacon Press in March 2022. A paperback version follows in March 2023 in honour of Women’s History Month. Earlier books include DEFIANT BRIDES, named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the best books on Revolutionary-era women, THE MUSE OF THE REVOLUTION, and the best-selling AMERICAN EMPRESS. Nancy’s journalistic work has appeared in the New York Times, Huffington Post, the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the New England Quarterly and national magazines. She is the executive director of the Cape Cod Writers Center.
Connect with her at www.nancyrubinstuart.com.
Buy your copy of ‘Poor Richard’s Women’ here.
To view all upcoming events for the year, please check out our Event’s Calendar via the button below!
