The Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary

Market Street, Philadelphia, installation 2005

A house without woman & Fire-light, is like a body without soul or sprite.

—Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1733

Franklin and his common-law wife, Deborah, lived simply and frugally. Only after Franklin had established himself with a dependable income did they buy more extravagant possessions, often from Europe. Many of these objects are still owned by Franklin’s descendants.

Franklin and Deborah’s relationship was affectionate and loyal, if not particularly romantic. Deborah was involved in all aspects of the daily business, keeping the shop and its accounts. She raised William, Francis, and Sally in a crowded home typical of 18th-century artisans, sharing their space with Deborah’s mother and the family servants and slaves.

Though William was Franklin’s illegitimate son, Deborah brought him up as part of the family. Francis, their first child together, contracted smallpox as a toddler and died, which caused his parents deep and lasting grief. Their youngest child Sally was only 14 when Franklin was dispatched to London by the Pennsylvania Assembly, but she adored him and looked after him when he returned to Philadelphia as an old man. She would ultimately bear all but one of the Franklins’ eight grandchildren.

Floor plan of Franklin Court, ca. 1765

Tall case clock, 1750

Tankard, 1733–1752

Over the course of their marriage, Deborah and Benjamin Franklin shared their house with Deborah’s mother Sarah Read their children, grandchildren, and an evolving mixture of relatives, houseguests, boarders, slaves, and servants.

The Franklin family moved several times before settling in “Franklin Court” on Market Street, Philadelphia, in 1765. References to the house and a few rough sketches in Franklin’s papers portray some details, but in the 1970’s the National Park Service decided that not enough was known to reconstruct it accurately.

Famille Rose bowl, 1760-1770

Silver spoon, 1771-1772

Early in their married life, the Franklins’ lived frugally, but gradually they acquired fine furnishings and clothing. In his Autobiography, Franklin described one of the first of his fashionable household acquisitions—a china bowl and a spoon of silver. They are reunited in this exhibition for the first time in over 100 years.

Produced by A More Perfect-Union for the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary, with detail from portrait of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Wilson; Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C.

All Slave-Keepers That keep the Innocent in Bondage, 1737

Benjamin Franklin was a slaveholder for most of his life. The enslaved Africans who are mentioned in Franklin’s correspondence include Peter, Jemima, Othello (who died young), King, and George. While he wrote in his 1757 will “that my Negro Man Peter, and his Wife Jemima, be free after my Decease,” they died before Franklin, who did not own any slaves at the end of his life. In his later years Franklin became an ardent abolitionist, and in his final will Franklin stipulated that his son-in-law, Richard Bache, should not receive his inheritance unless he freed his slave, Bob.