Join our series of weekly virtual classes to learn how Ben Franklin’s inventions and scientific discoveries illuminate the national curriculum! You can recreate all the featured science demonstrations at home using household materials.
Did you know that Ben Franklin invented a musical instrument called the glass armonica? Uncover his process of invention and how he harnessed the science of sound to play mesmerising music. Try making your own music with glasses and by creating a musical instrument!
Activity materials: 3 glasses, 1 jug of water, 1 spoon, 1 small plastic container/ cardboard box (e.g. and empty tissues box), rubber bands, 1 cardboard tube (optional)
Links to the Science Curriculum:
KS2: Sound (Y4)
KS3: Sound Waves
Most Suitable for KS2 and KS3 (US Grades 2-8) but all ages welcome!
https://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/BFH-armonica-2-resize.jpg11251125Henry Wilkinsonhttps://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/bfh_web_logo_white_retina.pngHenry Wilkinson2020-04-18 16:21:432020-04-30 13:36:50Live Science Class for Kids: Ben Franklin's Glass Armonica
Join our series of weekly virtual classes to learn how Ben Franklin’s inventions and scientific discoveries illuminate the national curriculum! You can recreate all the featured science demonstrations at home using household materials.
Did you know that Ben Franklin was one of the fathers of electricity? Learn about Ben’s famous kite and key experiment and how this led to the invention of the lightning rod. Try your hand at some practical activities to explore static electricity!
Activity materials: 2 balloons, 1 piece of paper, 1 spoon
Links to the Science Curriculum:
KS2: Electricity (Y4, Y6)
KS3: Static Electricity
Most Suitable for KS2 and KS3 (US Grades 2-8) but all ages welcome!
https://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/lighting-rod-slider-bgd_processed_70.jpg590590Henry Wilkinsonhttps://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/bfh_web_logo_white_retina.pngHenry Wilkinson2020-04-18 15:28:092020-04-24 16:44:55Live Science Class for Kids: Ben Franklin's Lightning Rod
For fifths of his long life, Benjamin Franklin regarded himself as British. In 1757 he arrived in London as one of the most celebrated scientists of his age and as a political representative who fiercely advocated a Great British empire of North America. From his London home in Craven Street, here in what is today’s Benjamin Franklin House, he fought to keep that ambition alive right up to March 1775, when he was forced to take ship for America to escape arrest by the British authorities.
George Goodwin, our Honorary Author in Residence at Benjamin Franklin House, captures the fullness of Dr Franklin’s life in the heaving metropolis of 18th century London. He describes Franklin’s friendship with men such as Joseph Priestley and the notorious Francis Dashwood, charts Franklin’s political cooperation with Prime Ministers William Pitt the Elder and the Marquess of Rockingham, and details the final antagonism with the ‘mangling ministers’ in Lord North’s administration which ultimately made Franklin the fiercest of American patriots. In a highly illustrated talk, George tells Benjamin Franklin’s London story with wit and verve.
As well as great friend of this house, George is an Eccles Centre Makin Fellow at the British Library, was the 2018/9 Busey Family Fellow at the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon, and has twice been a Fellow at the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello. George is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
George’s book, Benjamin Franklin in London: The British Life of America’s Founding Father (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, UK; Yale University Press, USA), was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week
Among the review praise was T H Breen’s comment, in the Times Literary Supplement, that “George Goodwin captures as well as any recent biographer just why Franklin’s contemporaries found him so captivating.”
You can order your UK copy here and US copy here or here.
https://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/BF-in-London.png523695Henry Wilkinsonhttps://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/bfh_web_logo_white_retina.pngHenry Wilkinson2020-04-17 10:40:302020-05-13 17:15:31Virtual Talk: Benjamin Franklin in London - the British life of America's Founding Father
Philip Davies, Professor Emeritus of American Studies, De Montfort University, discusses what the primary season holds and reflects on the months since the opening contests in Iowa and New Hampshire: both the winnowing of a huge field of Democratic hopefuls and the fortunes of those Republicans with the temerity to challenge President Trump. Looking forward he will speculate on what to expect from the Democratic and Republican Conventions, and anticipate the routes that might be taken to Election Day in November.
Watch the full talk and Q&A below:
https://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IMG_6011-3.jpg43282886Caitlin Hoffmanhttps://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/bfh_web_logo_white_retina.pngCaitlin Hoffman2020-04-15 14:20:512020-05-01 10:06:35Virtual Talk: Reflecting on the US Primaries
As both a publisher and postmaster, Benjamin Franklin frequently had to confront the vexing challenge of squaring the ideals of truth and liberty with the realities of immorality and the threat of harm to private and public interests. While he advocated fiercely for the rights of journalists, Franklin also committed himself to restricting material from his publications that “might countenance Vice, or promote Immorality,” as well as “such things as might do real Injury to any person.” Always, he worried that “an evil magistrate intrusted with power to punish for words would be armed with a weapon the most destructive and terrible.” As we ponder the prospect of greater censorship of social media, Franklin’s experiences and views shed necessary light on our best path forward in tumultuous times.
Amy Werbel, Fulbright Scholar to the United Kingdom and Professor at the State University of New York-Fashion Institute of Technology, is the author of Lust on Trial: Censorship and the Rise of American Obscenity in the Age of Anthony Comstock (Columbia University Press, 2018).
Watch the full talk and Q&A here:
https://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/B-Franklin-postage-stamp.jpeg488393Caitlin Hoffmanhttps://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/bfh_web_logo_white_retina.pngCaitlin Hoffman2020-04-14 17:53:072020-05-28 17:48:28Virtual Talk: What Would Benjamin Franklin Think About Facebook?
Join the House’s Operations Manager, Caitlin Hoffman, in exploring the savoury (and unsavoury!) 18th Century diet and how Benjamin Franklin might be considered an early foodie. Discover why the Georgians drank beer in the morning and how Franklin introduced some of his favourite foods from the colonies to his London hosts.
Watch the full talk and Q&A below:
https://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/6a00d8341bf71853ef0134882b9acc970c.jpg754600Caitlin Hoffmanhttps://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/bfh_web_logo_white_retina.pngCaitlin Hoffman2020-04-14 16:22:062020-05-07 10:39:01Virtual Talk: Franklin and the Joys of 18th Century Cooking
Join the House’s Education Manager, Eleanor Hamblen, for an exploration of Benjamin Franklin’s early years. From his childhood inventions to the time he spent as an apprentice to both his father and brother prior to his first visit to London in 1724. Uncover the formative experiences which shaped this Founding Father as we remember him today.
Watch the full talk and Q&A below:
https://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Young-Franklin-e1586268166890.png449749Henry Wilkinsonhttps://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/bfh_web_logo_white_retina.pngHenry Wilkinson2020-04-07 15:03:452020-04-23 10:45:32Virtual Talk: Benjamin Franklin, The Early Years
Join author and journalist Wendy Moore, who acts as a judge for the Benjamin Franklin House Literary Prize, as she discusses her latest book, Endell Street (published in the US as No Man’s Land). This military hospital was run entirely by women and played a key role in the treatment of injured British soldiers during World War One. It was situated just minutes away from Franklin’s former home on Craven Street.
When the First World War broke out on 4 August 1914 dozens of women doctors offered their services – but they were told by the British Army to “Go home and sit still”. Flora Murray and Louisa Garrett Anderson refused to sit still. Both qualified doctors and suffragettes – and also life partners – they took a unit of women doctors and nurses to Paris. They ran a hospital there so successfully that the army invited them to set up a second hospital in Boulogne and then – in May 1915 – to run a major military hospital in the heart of London. Endell Street was unique. It was the only hospital within the British Army to be staffed by women – all the doctors, nurses and orderlies were female apart from a dozen or so male helpers. The women of Endell Street treated 26,000 wounded – the vast majority of them men – who were shipped back from the frontline in France, Gallipoli and elsewhere throughout the war. After the war the hospital remained open for a further year to treat victims of the Spanish flu. Endell Street became renowned as the most popular hospital in the First World War – but that did nothing to help its women pioneers when peace came.
Endell Street is out now in the UK and will be released on 28 April in the US under the title ‘No Man’s Land’. You can order your (UK) copy here and the US book is available here.
Watch the full presentation and Q&A below:
https://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/ESHHodgson-WL-002-e1586267822174.jpg10431746Henry Wilkinsonhttps://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/bfh_web_logo_white_retina.pngHenry Wilkinson2020-04-07 14:58:272020-04-16 13:29:11Virtual Talk: Endell Street - The trailblazing women who ran a military hospital in WWI
Benjamin Franklin in the 18th century had an abiding faith in the power of good character to improve quality of life for an individual and society at large. As a young man, Benjamin Franklin identified 13 character virtues. What were they? Did they improve his character and are they instructive for ours? Join (founding) Benjamin Franklin House Director, Dr. Márcia Balisciano, for a fun and informative talk with virtual Q&A.
Watch the full talk and Q&A below:
https://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Benjamin_Franklin_by_Joseph-Siffred_Duplessis.jpg11251000Caitlin Hoffmanhttps://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/bfh_web_logo_white_retina.pngCaitlin Hoffman2020-03-30 10:49:122020-04-14 15:40:30Virtual Talk: Character virtues for the 21st century?
Our priority is protecting our visitors, staff, volunteers – and of course our precious, historic building. To do our part to discourage the spread of the COVID-19 virus, we will be closing Benjamin Franklin House for all offerings effective Tuesday, 17 March 2020.
We hope to reopen in June or earlier, in line with UK government guidance. If you have tickets between now and 15 June, you can re-book here, or if you prefer, we will refund the cost of your ticket(s). However, we would be grateful if you would consider donating the cost of your ticket(s) to help Benjamin Franklin House weather this difficult time. We are continuing to pay our staff and key suppliers to ensure their well-being.
We do not take this decision lightly as our mission is to bring history and innovation to life for a global public through the world’s only surviving home of Benjamin Franklin.
While we are closed, we will take time to progress a number of core and new projects and explore opportunities for more distance programming.
We will remember Benjamin Franklin’s advice: “it is in the first Place necessary to be careful in preserving Health (1786).”
Kind regards,
The Benjamin Franklin House Team
https://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/bfh_web_logo_white_retina.png00Caitlin Hoffmanhttps://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/bfh_web_logo_white_retina.pngCaitlin Hoffman2020-03-15 11:14:352020-04-27 09:58:25Temporary Closure of Benjamin Franklin House
