B. Krist Benjamin Franklin is one of the Founding Fathers featured in the PECO Energy Lights of Liberty show in Philadelphia's Independence Park each evening from April through October.

By Monica Haynes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PHILADELPHIA -- There are any number of well-known Bens.

Ben Roethlisberger.

Ben Affleck.

Ben E. King.

In Philadelphia these days, however, there's only one Ben on people's minds.

		Related coverage Ben Franklin's resume Favorite Franklin aphorisms

Ben Franklin: inventor, philosopher, author, scientist, diplomat, Founding Father.

Although he was born in Boston on Jan. 17, 1706, Franklin's adopted hometown of Philadelphia will throw him the biggest birthday bash any 300-year-old guy's ever had. Actually, Philly has been celebrating the American Big Ben's tercentenary since last year with tours, events, hotel packages, restaurant specials and more.

The Tercentenary Consortium made up of the American Philosophical Society, the Franklin Institute, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the University of Pennsylvania began planning this celebration in 2000 with a lead $4 million grant from the Pew Charitable Trust.

The centerpiece of all this birthday hoopla is the exhibition "Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World," which opened last month at the National Constitution Center, 525 Arch St., between Fifth and Sixth streets. This is just a couple of blocks from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell Center.

The exhibition runs in Philadelphia through April 30, after which it will travel, over the next two years, to St. Louis, Houston, Denver and Atlanta. Its last stop will be Paris in 2008.

Anyone whose knowledge of Franklin is limited before entering the exhibition won't be able to make that claim when departing. Just outside the exhibition space is a 25-foot model ship visitors can climb aboard to learn how Franklin charted the course of the Gulf Stream. Inside the exhibition are more than 250 original items, including five of America's founding documents -- the Albany Plan, The Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Amity, the Paris Treaty and the Constitution -- all signed by Franklin. His copy of the Constitution includes his handwritten notes and signature "B. Franklin."

The exhibition represents the largest collection of historic items related to Franklin ever gathered in one place. Items in the exhibition came from 76 lenders in 16 states and four countries. Many of the artifacts belong to Franklin's descendants and had never been seen in public before.

While I spent about an hour and a half in the exhibition, I could have easily lingered twice as long trying to absorb the breadth of Franklin's incredible life.

He was a self-made man with only a few years of formal education, but was a voracious reader. The skills he gained as a printer and entrepreneur, coupled with his natural curiosity and commitment to community served both him and the soon-to-be new country well.

In France, he used his charm and diplomacy to garner that country's support in fighting the British. The exhibition includes pewter and rhinestone shoe buckles from King Louis XVI presented to Franklin for his appearance at the Court of France.

He's known for his inventions such as bifocals (the exhibition has a pair of Franklin's specs) and the lightning rod (a portion of one is also there). Franklin's civic-mindedness led to the creation of a number of organizations and institutions, including:

The Library Company of Philadelphia, established in 1731, the oldest lending library in the country.

Pennsylvania Hospital, America's first public hospital.

The first political cartoon in North America, published by Franklin in 1747.

The Philadelphia Academy, which later became the University of Pennsylvania.

Union Fire Company, Philadelphia's first volunteer fire brigade. One of the company's leather fire buckets from the late 18th to early 19th century is in the exhibition.

The Philadelphia Contributorship, the country's first property insurance company. In the exhibition is one of the wood and lead seals silversmith Philip Syng Jr. designed for the company. When affixed to a house, this seal, composed of four hands united, indicated that the owner was insured.

Portions of the exhibition are designed for children, and they are designated by an illustrated squirrel named Skuggs. Franklin made a habit of giving American squirrels, named skuggs, to his friends in Europe. But the first person to whom he ever presented a squirrel was Polly Stevenson, the daughter of one of his landlords. When the creature died, Franklin wrote in the squirrel's epitaph that Skuggs was "snug as a bug in a rug."

The exhibition has 49 interactive segments, which start off showing Franklin as a youngster growing up in a large family in Boston. When visitors push a button, an animation relates the story of him buying a whistle and voluntarily turning over all the money he had for it. His siblings chided him about paying too much. When he got older, Franklin often used stories to make a philosophical or moral point.

When he was 16 and working as an apprentice printer for his older brother at the New England Courant, Franklin wrote and published a series of letters under the pseudonym of Silence Dogood. Dogood was thought to be a 42-year-old widow. In the exhibition, Dogood's first letter is displayed. Open a door and you see an illustration of a woman as she reads the letter. But pull a lever and the shade in the illustration rises to reveal Franklin, the true author, and the voice changes to that of a man.

In 1723, Franklin left his apprenticeship and ran away to New York but, finding no work, pushed on to Philadelphia, arriving there Oct. 6 at the age of 17. The legend relates that he first stepped onto Market Street with three pennies and some damp socks. The following year, Franklin moved to London to continue his printing education, but he returned to Philadelphia in 1726 and opened his own print shop. He did printing jobs for others in addition to publishing The Pennsylvania Gazette and the much-quoted "Poor Richard's Almanack."

In another interactive segment, a visitor can touch letters in a type case on the screen. The letters are dragged to a composing stick and "printed" onto the front of a newspaper displayed on the screen.

Among the artifacts in the exhibition are ink balls circa 1740 owned and used by Franklin. Pressmen used these balls to pick up ink and apply it to the metal type. There's also a printing press that Franklin used while working as a young man in England.

While Franklin is famous for his "Poor Richard" quote of "a penny saved," he credited his wife, Deborah, with being the frugal one in the family. Another of the exhibition's animations recalls a very cute story about one of the Franklins' first trendy household purchases, a china bowl and silver spoon. Deborah Franklin bought the items for no other reason than that she felt her husband deserved them. The bowl, which belongs to the Franklin Institute, and the spoon, owned by the University of Pennsylvania, are together again for the first time in more than 100 years.

Another animation relates the episode when Franklin and John Adams once had to share a room and bed in an overcrowded inn. The two spent all night bickering over the window. Franklin, a proponent of cool night air for good health, wanted the window open. Adams wanted it closed.

Like other founding fathers such as Washington and Jefferson, Franklin owned slaves. In later years, however, he worked toward abolishing slavery. The exhibition displays one of the anti-slavery medallions produced by Wedgwood .

In 1787, Franklin was president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. Three years later he became the first person to petition the U.S. Congress to abolish slavery.

Franklin died in Philadelphia in 1790 at the age of 84, leaving a legacy difficult for a person of any century to live up to. Still, visitors to the exhibition can be inspired by Franklin's life and work. The exhibition's final feature is a giant pair of spectacles made of wooden tiles sitting atop a pile of large leather bound books. The tiles move to reflect the image of the visitor. The feature is called "Do You See Yourself in Franklin?"

Explaining this portion of the exhibition, assistant curator Melissa Clemmer said, "We are all capable of life-long curiosity, discovery, and doing well by our fellow humans while improving ourselves."

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If you go: Ben Franklin celebration

As if a four-month international exhibit, tours and sundry other activities weren't enough, the five days leading up to Ben Franklin's actual birthday on Jan. 17 are filled with revelry. Some of the events taking place include the following:

Jan. 13

Ben's Birthday Pajama Party, 7 to 11 p.m., the National Constitution Center. Music, games, food, movies and admission to the "Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World" exhibition. 1-215-409-6700; www.constitutioncenter.org.

Philadelphia Orchestra Concert -- Enchanting Baroque, 8 p.m. at the Kimmel Center, Bernard Labadie of Quebec's Violons du roy leads a baroque ensemble from the Philadelphia Orchestra in the music of Bach, Metropolitan Opera star David Daniels in Handel arias and works by Vivaldi, all music from Franklin's time. 1-215-893-1999; www.philorch.org.

Jan. 14

Benjamin Franklin's 300th Birthday Bash, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Franklin Institute's annual party held on the closest Saturday to his birthday. This year there will be cake, a giant birthday card signing, reenactments of some of Ben's most famous experiments. 1-215-448-1200; www.fi.edu.

Franklin Family Fun Day, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the National Constitution Center. Games, crafts and birthday activities.

Self-guided Tour: "Finding Franklin." Special discovery tour at the Mercer Museum. Features artifacts representative of Franklin's various achievement in science, technology and social innovations including only surviving original Franklin stove. 1-215-345-0210, ext. 123; www.mercermuseum.com.

Jan. 15

Ben's Birthday Breakfast, 10 a.m. to noon at the National Constitution Center, 1-215-409-6700; www.constitutioncenter.org.

Family Drop-In Art Making: Drawing Together, American Art, noon to 2:30 p.m., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Artist will give materials and assistance.

Ben Franklin's Colonial Kitchen, 1 to 4 p.m. Food historian Susan Plaisted prepares several of Franklin's recipes in the Mercer Museum's Log House. Learn about Franklin's early years as a vegetarian and the foods he enjoyed.

Armonica Recital, 3 p.m. at Field Concert Hall. Cecilia Gniewek performs on the armonica, a musical device invented by Franklin in 1761. 1-215-893-7902.

Jan. 16 to Jan. 22

Colonial Fare at Pennsylvania Hospital, lunchtime. Patrons can get a taste of the kind of food Franklin enjoyed at the hospital he founded. Birthday cake available Jan. 17. 1-215-829-5434; www.uphs.upenn.edu.

Jan. 17

300 Years and Still Current: America Celebrates Franklin's 300th Birthday, 10 a.m. The party at the National Constitution Center will feature a cake topped by candles that will be "lit" by 300 representatives who embody facets of Franklin in the 21st century. 1-215-409-6700; www.benfranklin300.org.

For more on Franklin activities and events, visit www.gophila.com or www.benfranklin300.org.