Posted by:

Robert H. Smith Lecture in Democracy

 

 

 

Márcia Balisciano is founding Director of Benjamin Franklin House. She is also founding Chief Sustainability Officer at RELX. She holds a PhD in Economic History from LSE and serves on the board of the Foundation for the (UN) Global Compact and the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens.

Michael Cox is a Founding Director of LSE IDEAS. He was Director of LSE IDEAS between 2008 and 2019. He is author or editor of several books, including Agonies of Empire: US Power from Clinton to Biden, a collection of essays titled The Post-Cold War World (2018), a centennial edition of J.M. Keynes’s The Economic Consequences of the Peace (2019), and a new edition of E. H. Carr’s 1945 classic Nationalism & After (2021).

Get Tickets via Eventbrite

Posted by:

Thanksgiving at Benjamin Franklin House

Join us on Thanksgiving Day!

 

9-11am: FREE drop-in social for postgraduate students

Whether you’re an American studying abroad, you have an interest in American studies, or you’re just hoping to celebrate Thanksgiving in the home of one of the United States’ most preeminent founding fathers, we hope you’ll join us a hot drink and a Thanksgiving treat! We’d love you meet you and hear about your research interests and experiences.

 

1-2:30pm and 3-4:30pm: Architectural Tour & Talk

Join us for a tour of Benjamin Franklin House, which will include autumnal refreshments and a talk on Benjamin Franklin and Native American relations in pre-Revolutionary Pennsylvania by Dr. Megan King (University of Kent).

 

Tickets for the Tour & Talk should be pre-booked here.

 

Posted by:

2024 US Election Debate with Justin Webb

Join moderator Justin Webb, the BBC’s first North America Editor, Host of the Today Programme, and BFH’s Journalist in Residence, for a debate between Kristin Wolfe of Democrats Abroad UK and Greg Swenson of Republican Overseas!

Attend in person or online on Thursday, 24 October, with a chance to ask your own questions on who is best placed to lead the United States over the next four years: Kamala Harris or Donald Trump.

BOOK TICKETS

Posted by:

Family Event: Halloween!

Trick or treat! Join us at Benjamin Franklin House for a FREE fun-filled day as we explore the history of America’s spookiest holiday and craft some terrifyingly good decorations to take home!

Discover where Halloween comes from and why we celebrate it! Ever wonder why we carve pumpkins, dress up in scary costumes, and eat lots of candy? You’ll learn the answers to these questions and more as we uncover the mysteries behind this frightfully fun festival!

Create your very own Halloween-themed decorations to take home and decoration your coffins with. Glue sticks at the ready! There will be lots of arts and crafts happening throughout the session. Make your very own Halloween card, a garland of ghosts to hang from your rafters, and a wickedly wonderful witch ornament for your window.

Our Halloween event will be running twice on 29th October so BOOK NOW to secure your free ticket.

BOOK TICKETS

Tuesday 29th October – 11:00am-12:30pm

Tuesday 29th October – 1:30pm-3:00pm

This event is most suitable for families with kids ages 5-12. However, everyone is welcome dead or alive! This a FREE event, but donations are most welcome.

Posted by:

Frankly Speaking Debate Competition 2025- Applications Open

A Benjamin Franklin House debate competition in collaboration with the US Embassy London and the DAR Walter Hines Page Chapter.

Frankly Speaking 2025 will take place on Thursday 6th February 2025 and will be hosted by the United States Embassy London. 

Benjamin Franklin exemplified Enlightenment beliefs like the primacy of reason and critical thought. In his role as a colonial agent, and later as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, Franklin regularly had to advance his opinions in the face of challenge and criticism, which he did with careful argument and wit.

In that spirit, and to encourage tomorrow’s thinkers today, Benjamin Franklin House proudly holds the annual Frankly Speaking Debate Competition for upper secondary school students, in collaboration with the US Embassy London. The winner joins students from across Europe and the United States at the Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellows Summer Institute.

We run two debate competitions on the day. Our Junior Competition is for students in Years 10 and 11; our Senior Competition is for Years 12 and 13. All participants must be in the relevant year groups to participate in each respective competition.

Applications for the 2025 competition will open on Monday 30th September at 9am and close on Wednesday 20th November at 5pm. If you would like more information or would like to apply, please email education@benjaminfranklinhouse.org and request an application form.

Applications must be completed by a staff member. If you are a student and wish to participate – please inform a member of staff at your school.

Frankly Speaking 2025 will take place on Thursday 6th February 2025 and will be hosted by the United States Embassy London. 

The individual winner of the Year 10/11 category will receive a private tour of the Houses of Parliament. The individual winner of the Year 12/13 category will join students from across Europe and the United States for an all-expenses-paid Summer school at the prestigious Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellowship Summer Institute. In 2024, this was held at Purdue University, Indiana, over 4 weeks in June/July.

The 2024 competition took place on Wednesday 28th February. The heats, finals and awards ceremony were all be held at the United States Embassy London. The debates followed an ‘Extended Mace’ format with 2 students in each team. There is a Year 10/11 category and a Year 12/13 category.

For information about the 2025 competition and for an application form please contact our Education Manager.

Posted by:

Benjamin Franklin House Literary Prize 2024 – SUBMISSIONS OPEN

2024 Competition Announcement

Each year a question or quote exploring Benjamin Franklin’s relevance in our time is open for interpretation in 1000-1500 words.  The competition is open exclusively for young writers, aged 18-25, with a first prize of £750, and a second prize of £500. Winning entries will be published online at www.BenjaminFranklinHouse.org  and https://www.telegraph.co.uk/

The Franklin quote for interpretation in 2024 is;

“Truth will be Truth tho’ it sometimes prove[s]… distasteful.” A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain. (1725).

Please find details of how to enter below:

  • Deadline: Saturday 30th November at 23:59
  • Entries of 1000-1500 words must be sent to education@benjaminfranklinhouse.org
  • Entrants must be aged 18-25 years and living in the UK
  • Each Entrant is asked to provide their name, preferred email, postal address and phone number within the email and the entry attached as a word document. In addition entrants should provide their age and place of study (if applicable; if they are not in education, they should provide a biographical note explaining their current activities)
  • Entrants may submit only one entry; fiction or non-fiction
  • This is a free-to-enter competition.
  • Please ensure your email subject is: Literary Prize 2024 Entry – [YOUR NAME]

The 2024 Literary Prize Judges are;

  • Márcia Balisciano, Director of Benjamin Franklin House
  • Lord Guy Black, Executive Director of the Telegraph Media Group
  • Wendy Moore, English journalist, author, and historian
  • Huw David, Development Director at Wolfson College, University of Oxford
  • Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy Group and Board Member of Benjamin Franklin House

Please contact our Education Manager with any queries.

Posted by:

Ben’s Book Club Returns!

We’re proud to be hosting an array of accomplished historians who have kindly donated their time to walk us through some of Franklin’s practical lessons and words of wisdom, fascinating friendships and connections, and contributions to American literacy.

Book your free tickets here.

 

Buy a copy of our featured works below:

Posted by:

Summer Family Events @ Benjamin Franklin House

Join us throughout August for an exciting line-up of fun-filled family events at Benjamin Franklin House!

Every Wednesday in August we will be running a series of FREE historical skills workshops at the House. We will be holding two sessions per workshop with limited tickets available in the morning and afternoon. All family events are most suitable for families with children aged 5-12, but all are welcome!

Our Summer Family Events will be;

Wednesday 14th August – Portrait Workshop

Portrait Workshop

Examine the fascinating details and hidden meanings buried within some of the most famous paintings in the world as well as those featuring Benjamin Franklin himself!

Create a fantastic self-portrait of yourself and fill it with your very own hidden meanings and messages!

BOOK TICKETS for 11am-12:30pm

BOOK TICKETS for 1:30pm-2pm

 

Wednesday 21st August – Archaeology Workshop

Archaeology Workshop

Unearth the secrets of 36 Craven Street. Why are there human bones in the basement? How did they get there? Who were they? We will explore the history of the undercover secret school that operated in the house whilst Franklin was in residence!

Examine real artefacts from the past to work out what they are and how old they might be!

Create your very own model of a human skeleton as we learn all about the anatomy and explore medicine in the 18th century.

BOOK TICKETS for 11am-12:30pm

BOOK TICKETS for 1:30pm-2pm

 

Wednesday 28th August – Calligraphy Workshop

Calligraphy Workshop

Learn all about Benjamin Franklin’s life as a successful printer, author and the first US Postmaster General! You will even get a chance to see one of Benjamin Franklin’s hand-written letters up close!

Create your very own letter from the 18th century as we roll up our sleeves for some good old fashioned dip pen writing! Write a letter using parchment paper and our collection of brightly coloured quill pens! Use Georgian handwriting guides to help create some beautiful writing!

BOOK TICKETS for 11am-12:30pm

BOOK TICKETS for 1:30pm-2pm

Posted by:

Summer Family Events: Untold Stories – Visualising History

Learn about 36 Craven Street’s lesser-known 18th Century young resident and help us tell their story.

 

FREE August Events in the heart of London at Benjamin Franklin House, 36 Craven Street. BOOK TICKETS BELOW;

Thursday 8 August 2024 at 1-3pm

Friday 9 August 2024 at 10am-12pm

Friday 23 August 2024 at 10am-12pm

Friday 30 August 2024 at 10am-12pm

Saturday 31 August 2024 at 10am-12pm

 

These creative and collective storytelling workshops are designed primarily for ages 10-16. However, all are welcome to take part.

 

Group size: Up to 15 participants per workshop

Themes: Transatlantic slave trade, migration, freedom, child narratives

Meet our illustrator in residence, Kremena Dimitrova, and learn about her research related to the museum. Kremena is a London based illustrator-as-historian who specialises in public history through visual storytelling – children’s illustration, comics, murals, public art installations, maps/trails. Co-creating with children and young people, Kremena interweaves text and images, creative writing, characters, and humour to bring hidden and forgotten archives/narratives to life. www.kremenadimitrova.com

Explore how illustration can be used to visualise history by practicing your existing creative skills and by learning new artistic techniques.

Help us co-create a research comic and co-curate an exhibition at Benjamin Franklin House on 2-18 December 2024.

“Creative and collaborative work helps to uncover and communicate marginalised and diverse stories. But, it is essential to acknowledge how much we do not – and will never – know about children’s lives in the past. This offers valuable scope to engage visitors in the practice and ethics of research and story-telling.” (Lamb & Pooley, 2023, p. 2). Traversing histories and geographies across time and space, these workshops draw on R.G. Collingwood’s (1946/1994, p. 245) theory and approach to re-constructing knowledge about the past that relies on the historical imagination, or in Collingwood’s own words “… the historian’s picture of the past is… in every detail an imaginary picture…”.

 

We look forward to meeting you!

 

FREE August Events in the heart of London at Benjamin Franklin House, 36 Craven Street. BOOK TICKETS BELOW;

Thursday 8 August 2024 at 1-3pm

Friday 9 August 2024 at 10am-12pm

Friday 23 August 2024 at 10am-12pm

Friday 30 August 2024 at 10am-12pm

Saturday 31 August 2024 at 10am-12pm

Posted by:

Children’s Summer Fair

Get ready for a day of creativity and fun with activities for the whole family!

Join a fun-filled summer craft fair at Fulham Palace, featuring Benjamin Franklin House, the William Morris Society and Leighton House!

With hands-on craft activities from each historic site, offering a variety of creative fun for all ages. Recreate the iconic Strawberry Thief bird with the William Morris society, make peg dolls and Victorian thaumatropes with Fulham Palace, design your very own Georgian home with Benjamin Franklin House and more! There’s something for everyone, designed to delight children and their families.

GET TICKETS HERE

Event details:

  • This is a free event in partnership with Benjamin Franklin House, Leighton House and The William Morris Society.
  • This event is a drop-in event taking place throughout the Palace’s historic rooms.
  • This event is suitable for ages 3+.
  • Children must be accompanied at all times.

GET TICKETS HERE