Benjamin Franklin
Web Guide

• Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary Online Exhibit - This private, non-profit alliance was established to mark the three-hundred-year anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's birth (1706-2006) with a celebration dedicated to educating the public about Franklin's enduring legacy and inspiring renewed appreciation of the values he embodied. It contains great resources and will remain a rich and multi-faceted treasure-trove on Franklin's life and times long after the exposition closes.
• The Papers of Benjamin Franklin (from Yale University) - All of the papers available on this website were collected and edited by a team of scholars at Yale University beginning in 1954. Yale University Press has so far published thirty-seven volumes of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin. Invaluable for the serious researcher.
• Benjamin Franklin: A Documentary History - Leo Lemay, a veteran Franklin Scholar, has created this wonderful site. Here you will learn about the different stages of Franklin's life from Printer to Elder Statesman. Each chapter in his life is broken down by year. Each year is fascinating.
• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - Considered to be the best autobiography written in Colonial America, this classic was originally written for Franklin's son William. It covers Franklin's life to 1757 when he was 51. Note Franklin's list of what he calls 13 Virtues in his project "aiming at moral perfection."
• The Silence Dogood Letters - In 2004 Walt Disney Pictures released a movie, National Treasure, in which the Silence Dogood letters served as a central plot device. The movie suggested that Benjamin Franklin used the Silence Dogood letters as the basis for a secret code. This code, when solved, would supposedly lead one to the site of a fabled hidden treasure trove. In truth National Treasure is fiction. In reality, the Silence Dogood letters contain no secret clues relating to a hidden treasure. But for fans of the movie here is the link to the text of these letters from Yale University.
• The World of Ben Franklin - From Philadelphia's Franklin Institute, there's a QuickTime movie called "Glimpses of the Man," a very useful Franklin timeline, family tree, glossary, and pages devoted to the many people that Ben was: scientist, statesman, philosopher, inventor, printer, musician, and economist. Check out the excellent frequently asked questions section, too.
• Benjamin Franklin's Sayings:
  • Franklin's Sayings - from U.S. Dept. of State
  • Benjamin Franklin Quotations - from Bartlett's Quotations
  • The Quotable Franklin - from USHistory.org
• Ben's Guide to U. S. Government for Kids Learn why this site was named in honor of Franklin and learn more about his own life as well. This site provides learning tools for K-12 students, parents, and teachers. These resources will teach how our government works. Don't let the "for kids" label deter you from looking at all of the great information presented here.

• The Amazing Adventures of Benjamin Franklin - The July 7, 2003 print issue of Time Magazine was a special issue devoted to Franklin. In this online version, read about Franklin's life in an essay written by historian Walter Isaacson. Franklin's relationships with women, including his wife Deborah, were complex. See how Time Magazine reports it.
• "The Many Faces of Ben Franklin" - U. S. News and World Report: "The Many Faces of Benjamin Franklin." June 15, 2003.

• + Brands, H.W. The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin. New York: Doubleday, 2000. There are many published versions of Franklin's Autobiography. Franklin concluded his Autobiography, which he called his Memoirs, in 1757 when he was 51 years old. It was first published in French in 1791. The first English translation was published in 1793.
• Franklin, Benjamin. Autobiography and Other Writings. 1961. Reprint, selected and edited with an introduction by L. Jesse Hemisch, New York: Signet Classic, 2001.
• + ---. Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. New York: Vintage Books, Library of America, ed., 1990.
• + ---------. The Way to Wealth: and Other Writings on Finance. Edited and with an introduction by Walter Isaacson. New York: Sterling Pub. Co., c2006.
• + Isaacson, Walter. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.
• + Lemay, J.A. Leo. The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volumes 1 and 2. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.)
• Lemay, J.A. Leo, ed. Reappraising Benjamin Franklin: A Bicentennial Perspective. (Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, Inc., 1993).
• + Morgan, Edmund. Benjamin Franklin. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.
• + Wood, Gordon S. Americanization of Benjamin Franklin. New York: Penguin Press, 2004.
• + Wright, Esmond. Franklin of Philadelphia. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1986.

• Aliki. The Many Lives of Benjamin Franklin. New York: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1988.
• + Fritz, Jean. What's The Big Idea, Ben Franklin? New York: Coward-McCann, 1976.
• + Lawson, Robert. Ben and Me: A New and Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin as Written by His Good Mouse Amos. Boston: Little, Brown and Company,1939.