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Science on Stage

Wednesday 26 May, 1.30pm-2.45pm BST. Register here for this virtual event.

Science on Stage is a science enrichment event for upper Key Stage 2, run jointly by Benjamin Franklin House and The Royal Institution. Both our charities have a rich historical and scientific heritage and hold science events with school-age students to inspire the next generation of scientists. During this year’s online event, students will learn all about Benjamin Franklin, the science of sound and the invention of the glass armonica. They will be awe-struck by electrical demonstrations, as they find out how scientists at the Ri have contributed to our understanding of electricity.

Programme:

1.30pm-1.35pm – Welcome and Introductions

1.35pm-2.05pm – Benjamin Franklin House’s presenter Eleanor Hamblen will tell you all about famous scientist Benjamin Franklin and his invention of the glass armonica. What is sound? How do you invent a musical instrument? Eleanor will answer these questions through demonstrating Franklin’s magical instrument and showing you how to make your own music using bottles and water!

2.05pm-2.10pm – Movement Break

2.10pm-2.40pm – The Royal Institution’s presenter Dan Plane will tell us some stories from the history of electricity. How did Ri scientists, such as Humphry Davy and Michael Faraday, explore and experiment with electricity? What discoveries did they make? And do any of them still matter today? Dan will answer these questions through live demonstrations, feature surprising sources and uses of electricity from 200 years ago, some of which we still use today.

2.40-2.45pm – Questions and Farewell

Schools: We invite Year 5/6 classes to participate. Each class teacher should sign up separately, so that they receive their own joining link.

Families: We invite parents/carers to sign up on behalf of their children. Participants should be supervised and the recommended age range is 9-11.

Online Safety Protocols: The event will be held via Zoom Webinar. Only the presenters will appear on screen and be able to speak over the microphone. Participants will be able to type in the chat, but this will only be seen by the presenters and not by other attendees. All presenters are DBS checked. Please note that the event will be recorded.

All participants will also receive resources for optional follow-up activities. For more information, contact our Education Manager.

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Franklin in Portraits: Charles Willson Peale and His Museum

To celebrate the launch of our virtual exhibition, Franklin in Portraits, join us for a series of talks about Benjamin Franklin’s most famous portraits. We continue our series with a discussion on this Charles Willson Peale portrait painted in 1785. It was ultimately made for his collection of portraits of Famous Americans for his museum in Independence Hall. Karie Diethorn, Senior Curator and Chief of Museum Branch of the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, will discuss with Dr George Boudreau the significance of this portrait and the Peale Museum. Franklin and Peale first met in London in 1767 and formed a friendship over their shared interest in natural sciences.

Watch here:

Karie Diethorn has a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and medieval studies from Penn State University and a Masters degree in American history and a certificate in museum studies from the University of Delaware.

Since 1994, she has managed Independence National Historical Park’s museum operation as chief curator.  She has taught historic site management as an Associate Professor in the University of Delaware graduate museum studies program and museum collections management as a Visiting Lecturer in Philadelphia’s University of the Arts graduate museum studies program.  She is co-author of the catalog History of the Portrait Collection, Independence National Historical Park (2001) and a contributor to the anthology of essays in Quaker Aesthetics, Reflections on a Quaker Ethic in American Design and Consumption (2003).  Her most recent exhibit project is “People of Independence 1750 to 1840”, the permanent fine arts at Independence National Historical Park.

Dr George Boudreau is a cultural historian of early Anglo-America, specializing in the history of Philadelphia, the work of Benjamin Franklin, material culture, and public history. Boudreau was the founding editor of the journal Early American Studies, and has won six major grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was a fellow at Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington in 2019-20 and has previously completed fellowships at the Jamestown Rediscovery and the Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture at Williamsburg, the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello, the Library Company of Philadelphia, Winterthur Museum and Library, the American Philosophical Society, and the David Library of the American Revolution. A 1998 Ph.D. from Indiana University, he is currently senior research associate at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and is a member of the Academic Advisory Panel for Benjamin Franklin House.

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Digital Book Launch: The Howe Dynasty by Julie Flavell

Join us for a very special digital book launch and Q&A with Julie Flavell to celebrate her newest book The Howe Dynasty: The Untold Story of a Military Family and the Women Behind Britain’s Wars for America.  

In December 1774, Benjamin Franklin met Caroline Howe, the sister of British Admiral Richard and General William Howe, in a London drawing-room for “half a dozen Games of Chess.” As Julie Flavell reveals, the games concealed a matter of the utmost diplomatic urgency, a last-ditch attempt to forestall the outbreak of the American War of Independence. Aware that the Howes, both the men and the women, have seemed impenetrable to historians, Flavell investigated the letters of Caroline Howe, which have been overlooked for centuries. Using Caroline’s correspondence and other revelatory documents, Flavell provides a compelling reinterpretation of England’s famous family over four wars, centering on their enigmatic roles in the American Revolution. The Howe Dynasty interweaves action-packed stories of North American military campaigns—including the Battle of Bunker Hill and Long Island—with parlor-room intrigues back in England, creating a riveting narrative and a long overdue reassessment of the entire family. The Howe Dynasty forces us to reimagine the Revolutionary War in ways that would have been previously inconceivable. 

Born in Massachusetts, Julie Flavell has pursued a lifelong interest in Anglo-American relationships as reflected in her first book, When London Was Capital of America. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Flavell lives in Britain. 

Watch the full talk below:

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Live History Class: Georgian Health and Medicine

Join our virtual history classes on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month at 4:30pm BST to learn about key aspects of the Georgian period, when Benjamin Franklin was living in London. Together we will uncover the past and develop historical skills!

In this class, we’ll explore health in the Georgian era and the development of modern medicine. We’ll find out why it was common for women to faint and why there was an anatomy school at Craven Street. We’ll even have a go at making our own smelling salts!

Activity materials: Epsom salts, essential oils (available at low cost at most pharmacies), course sea salt, small container or pouch

Most suitable for KS2 and KS3 (US Grades 2-8) but all ages welcome!

Watch the full class below:

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Live History Class for Kids: Education and Etiquette

Thursday 22 April 2021, 4:30pm BST/11:30am ET. Register here.

Join our virtual history classes on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month at 4:30pm BST to learn about key aspects of the Georgian period, when Benjamin Franklin was living in London. Together we will uncover the past and develop historical skills!

In this class, we’ll find out how education varied for boys and girls across different social classes during the Georgian era. We’ll even have a go at some cursive handwriting 18th century-style!

Activity materials: paper, pen, cursive template

Most suitable for KS2 and KS3 (US Grades 2-8) but all ages welcome!

For more information, contact our Education Manager.

Watch the class below:

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Virtual Talk: The Trials of James Graham in the Revolutionary Atlantic World

During the final years of the American Revolution, the Royal Navy tried to impress a formerly enslaved man named James Graham into military service. Graham’s legal battle to avoid conscription made its way to the Court of Session, Scotland’s supreme civil court, where the judges had to decide whether or not Graham’s past life as an enslaved mariner could be used to justify service as a free man to king and country.

In this talk, Dr. James P. Ambuske, Digital History at George Washington’s Mount Vernon and co-director of the Scottish Court of Session Digital Archive Project at the University of Virginia Law Library, will discuss Graham’s journey from slavery to freedom and the questions that his case raised in an increasingly complicated revolutionary world.

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Live History Class: Discover Georgian Ceramics

Thursday 8 April, 3pm BST/ 10am ET. Register here.

For this special holiday edition of our virtual history class series, we are delighted to welcome Anya Naumovic from the Newington Green Meeting House to introduce us to 18th century ceramics and show us how to make our own pinch pots!

Activity materials: 500g of air-dry clay

Optional decoration: acrylic paints, paint brush

(You will need to leave your pot to dry for 24 hours before decorating)

Most suitable for children aged 7-11 but all ages are welcome!

For more information, contact our Education Manager

Watch the class below:

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Live History Class: Georgian Easter Celebration

Thursday 1 April 3pm BST/ 10am ET. Register here.

Join us for this special Easter edition of our virtual history class series. During these sessions, we explore key aspects of the Georgian period, when Benjamin Franklin was living in London.

This week, we’ll learn how the Georgians celebrated Easter and even find out how to make our own Easter bonnets! 

Activity Materials: a paper plate, a paper bowl, scissors, tape, felt tip pens

Optional decorations: tissue paper, ribbons, stickers, Easter chicks, PVA glue 

Most suitable for children aged 5-11 but all ages are welcome!

By registering, participants agree to follow our Online Safety Agreement

For more information, contact our Education Manager

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Franklin in Portraits: Charles Willson Peale after David Martin

To celebrate the launch of our virtual exhibition, Franklin in Portraits, join us for a series of talks about Benjamin Franklin’s most famous portraits. We continue our series with a discussion on the differences between two versions of the same portrait: Benjamin Franklin by David Martin and the copy made by Charles Willson Peale in 1785, given to the American Philosophical Society. The original portrait by Martin was commissioned by Robert Alexander of the firm of William Alexander & Sons, in Edinburgh. It is meant to represent Benjamin Franklin as an Enlightenment figure and English gentleman. It is also one of the rare portraits done during his time in London while he was living at 36 Craven Street (Benjamin Franklin House). Join Dr. Janine Yorimoto Boldt and Dr George Boudreau for a discussion on the differences between the two paintings and what these differences symbolize for Early American portraiture.

Dr George Boudreau is a cultural historian of early Anglo-America, specializing in the history of Philadelphia, the work of Benjamin Franklin, material culture, and public history. Boudreau was the founding editor of the journal Early American Studies, and has won six major grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was a fellow at Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington in 2019-20 and has previously completed fellowships at the Jamestown Rediscovery and the Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture at Williamsburg, the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello, the Library Company of Philadelphia, Winterthur Museum and Library, the American Philosophical Society, and the David Library of the American Revolution. A 1998 Ph.D. from Indiana University, he is currently senior research associate at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and is a member of the Academic Advisory Panel for Benjamin Franklin House.

Dr. Janine Yorimoto Boldt is art historian and cultural historian specializing in early American visual culture. She is currently the Associate Curator of American Art at the Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. From 2018-2020 she was the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow at the American Philosophical Society where she was the lead curator for the exhibition Dr. Franklin, Citizen Scientist and co-curator for the 2019 exhibition Mapping a Nation: Shaping the Early American Republic. Boldt received her PhD in American Studies from William & Mary and her scholarship focuses on the social and political functions of colonial portraiture. She is the researcher behind ColonialVirginiaPortraits.org, a digital project produced in collaboration with the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture. Her research has been supported by fellowships from Colonial Williamsburg, the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Winterthur Museum and Library, the Decorative Arts Trust, and the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts.

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House Talk: Benjamin Franklin and the Art of Diplomacy by Dr Márcia Balisciano

Printer, philosopher, author, scientist and inventor.  These are among the guises of the famous Dr. Franklin.  But Benjamin Franklin House Director, Dr. Márcia Balisciano, will argue his role as a diplomat was among his most important and lasting contributions. She will trace the beginnings of his diplomatic career in Philadelphia, to his presiding over the first de facto American embassy at 36 Craven Street, before leading at the French Court and building consensus, toward the end of his life, at the Constitutional Convention.