Antiques.(Biography)

 
The history of empires is, indeed, the history of men, not only of the 
nominal rulers of the people, but of all the leading persons who exerted 
a sensible influence over the destinies of their fellow-creatures, 
whether the traces of that influence survived themselves, or, as in the 
case of lesser minds, their power was confined to their own times. 
Henry, Lord Brougham, 
Historical Sketches of Statesmen Who 
Flourished in the Time of George III, 1839 

Benjamin Franklin's life nearly spanned the eighteenth century, during which the American people rose from colonial subordination to political independence and national union. In nearly every phase of this progression Franklin was a central figure. He was the fifteenth child and tenth son of Josiah Franklin, a Boston candlemaker. After a brief schooling the boy was put out to learn the printing trade, and after a few years took off for Philadelphia, where he became a prosperous printer and publisher. Retiring from business, he devoted himself to scientific investigation, provincial and imperial politics, and diplomacy. In each of these fields he became renowned on two continents and was courted by philosophers, courtiers, and kings. When he died at the age of eighty-four, twenty thousand people, the largest assemblage Philadelphia had ever seen, watched his funeral procession. The members of the United States House of Representatives and the French National Assembly voted unanimously to wear mourning for this son of a simple artisan from a provincial town. The three hundredth anniversary of Franklin's birth is being celebrated on January 17, 2006.

Printers still ...