Creative History

  The home of the American Philosophical Society, known as Philosophical Hall, is located in Center City Philadelphia mere yards from Independence Hall. It has stood as an integral part of Old City Philadelphia for well over 200 years.   Philosophical Hall is now a part of Independence National Historic Park and in addition to still being home to the offices of the American Philosophical Society it is also visited by thousands of tourists and researchers with an interest in American history each year. Founded in 1743 the American Philosophical Society was, and continues to be, an organization dedicated to promoting learning in the sciences and humanities through research, discussion, community outreach and most importantly reading.  The father and founding member, some would even say the creator of the American Philosophical Society itself, was none other than the inventor of bifocals, and the man whose portrait graces our one-hundred dollar bill, Benjamin Franklin...

  “The bald eagle is a bird of bad moral character.  He does not get his living honestly.  He is too lazy to fish for himself.” Those are the words of legendary, larger-than-life, founding father Benjamin Franklin.  Ben Franklin, both as a scientist and as a statesman, was the most famous and well-respected American in the entire world at the end of the 18th century during the early days of our American republic.   He, perhaps more than anyone else, is responsible for framing and shaping the laws and ideas that are articulated in the United States Constitution which have endured for nearly two-hundred and fifty years.  He was America’s first diplomat and was instrumental in winning American independence from Great Britain by negotiating international treaties that brought France and Holland into the American Revolution on our side and thereby tipped the balance of power against the British.  Franklin invented bifocals and experimented with e...