The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Resources

Websites

The Benjamin Franklin Tercentary

This project at the Franklin & Marshall College celebrates 300 years of Franklin's life and work.

Franklin Remixed

This site's run by and for middle school students, and "remixes" our understanding of Franklin.

Franklin in His Own Words

Franklin's works brought to you by the Library of Congress.

Franklin on PBS

This companion site to the PBS mini-series offers extra fun facts and info.

Movie and TV Productions

Benjamin Franklin, 2002

A mini-series from 2002 that won an Emmy for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special.

Benjamin Franklin, 1974

This four-part mini-series showed four actors as Franklin and won five Emmys.

1776, 1972

Franklin shows up as a character played by Howard Da Silva in this film based on the musical.

Historical Documents

The Autobiography's French Title Page

The original, French title page of the Autobiography.

The Autobiography's English Title Page

See an original title page of the English version.

The Autobiography, Edited by John Bigelow

Read a digital copy of the 1869 published version.

Audio

Happy 300th Birthday, Ben!

An special celebrating Benjamin Franklin's 300th birthday

Ben Franklin Music

Apparently, Franklin was really into music. As part of NPR's celebration of Franklin's birthday, they put together a collection of some of the music from Franklin's time.

Audio Autobiography

Listen to an audio book version of the Autobiography here (LibriVox).

Ben Franklin's Science

From NPR: "In his time, Ben Franklin was one of the world's most famous scientists. But was his famous kite experiment a hoax? In this special Fourth of July edition of Talk of the nation/Science Friday, we'll take a closer look at the life of founding father and scientist Benjamin Franklin, with Nobel laureate Dudley Herschbach."

Images

Franklin's Portrait

Curious to see what Franklin looked like? Check this out.

Franklin at the French Court

This painting by Hobens shows another side of Franklin.