Alex Beam: Boston Is Neglecting Ben Franklin on His 300th Anniversary
The "Bencentennial" the 300th anniversary of Franklin's birth on Jan. 17, here, on Milk Street approacheth, and Frankophiles complain that Boston Latin School's most distinguished graduate isn't feeling any love from his hometown.
Philadelphia, predictably, is going bonkers. Today, for instance, a 4 1/2-month-long exhibit, "Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World," opens at the National Constitution Center on the Independence Mall. From there it will travel to St. Louis, Houston, Denver, Atlanta, and Franklin's old stomping grounds: Paris. It is the capstone of a five-year, $10 million campaign funded mainly by private foundations (e.g. Pew, Annenberg, Templeton) to honor the inventor, writer, and diplomat. "We're not stealing him," says Rosalind Remer, executive director of the Franklin Tercentenary. "We spend a lot of time talking about Franklin's roots. We have him in his Boston context."
Perhaps. But in area code 617 the watchword is: Ben Who? Instead of lauding Franklin, Boston's Museum of Science opted instead to hail George Lucas and his "Star Wars" tchotchkes. To add insult to injury, Philadelphia is hyping its Bencentennial hoopla in our very own MBTA stations! It gets worse: The jazzy interactive media wizardry for the Franklin show hails from Milton-based digital gizmologists A More Perfect Union. "It's such an embarrassment," says Suffolk University historian Robert Allison. "In 1906 Boston had a tremendous celebration of Franklin's bicentennial. He was acknowledged as the city's greatest son. It's amazing that in 100 years we've forgotten about him."
Franklin's gifts to the republic were considerable; his gifts to Boston no less so. He endowed the still-operating Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology here and made a famous bequest of 1,000 pounds to Boston in his will. Worth $5 million 200 years after his death in 1790, the money was finally divvied up between Massachusetts and Boston by a Supreme Judicial Court ruling in 1993.
Yes, Boston is doing something. The Old South Meeting House, where Franklin was baptized, will be hosting some interesting Franklin events, starting on his birthday. (Call 617-482-6439 or visit www.oldsouthmeetinghouse.org.) And the Franklin Institute is having what it calls "a modest birthday bash"; call 617-423-4630 for details. But it appears that the city government and its leading cultural institutions are reminding Franklin's ghost why he left here in the first place. His most recent biographer, Walter Isaacson, writes that Franklin's Philadelphia neighbors "tended to be diligent, unpretentious, friendly and tolerant, especially compared to the Puritans of Boston."...
Philadelphia, predictably, is going bonkers. Today, for instance, a 4 1/2-month-long exhibit, "Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World," opens at the National Constitution Center on the Independence Mall. From there it will travel to St. Louis, Houston, Denver, Atlanta, and Franklin's old stomping grounds: Paris. It is the capstone of a five-year, $10 million campaign funded mainly by private foundations (e.g. Pew, Annenberg, Templeton) to honor the inventor, writer, and diplomat. "We're not stealing him," says Rosalind Remer, executive director of the Franklin Tercentenary. "We spend a lot of time talking about Franklin's roots. We have him in his Boston context."
Perhaps. But in area code 617 the watchword is: Ben Who? Instead of lauding Franklin, Boston's Museum of Science opted instead to hail George Lucas and his "Star Wars" tchotchkes. To add insult to injury, Philadelphia is hyping its Bencentennial hoopla in our very own MBTA stations! It gets worse: The jazzy interactive media wizardry for the Franklin show hails from Milton-based digital gizmologists A More Perfect Union. "It's such an embarrassment," says Suffolk University historian Robert Allison. "In 1906 Boston had a tremendous celebration of Franklin's bicentennial. He was acknowledged as the city's greatest son. It's amazing that in 100 years we've forgotten about him."
Franklin's gifts to the republic were considerable; his gifts to Boston no less so. He endowed the still-operating Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology here and made a famous bequest of 1,000 pounds to Boston in his will. Worth $5 million 200 years after his death in 1790, the money was finally divvied up between Massachusetts and Boston by a Supreme Judicial Court ruling in 1993.
Yes, Boston is doing something. The Old South Meeting House, where Franklin was baptized, will be hosting some interesting Franklin events, starting on his birthday. (Call 617-482-6439 or visit www.oldsouthmeetinghouse.org.) And the Franklin Institute is having what it calls "a modest birthday bash"; call 617-423-4630 for details. But it appears that the city government and its leading cultural institutions are reminding Franklin's ghost why he left here in the first place. His most recent biographer, Walter Isaacson, writes that Franklin's Philadelphia neighbors "tended to be diligent, unpretentious, friendly and tolerant, especially compared to the Puritans of Boston."...