BEN'S FRIENDS VISITED PHILADELPHIA IN APRIL

From left: Decorative Arts Trust Governors at the Philadelphia Symposium: in front, Hank Landon, North Wilksboro, NC, Nancy Iliff, Lexington, KY. 2nd Row Bobbie Carr, Cleveland Heights, OH, Penny Hunt, Director, Philadelphia, PA, Jonathan Fairbanks, Boston, MA, Jane Nylander, Portsmouth, NH, Dean Failey, NYC, John A. H. Sweeney, Wilmington, DE. 3rd Row Helen Scott Reed, Manakin Sabot, Virginia, Randy Schrimsher, Huntsville, AL, and Jim Sanders, Evansville, IN.

Many Trust members visited Philadelphia this past spring, in order to view some extraordinary exhibitions and hear thoughts about Franklin from several scholars.
The symposium was opened appropriately by Roger Moss, Director of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia, the member-supported library that has been a resource for readers and scholars since its founding in 1814. Dr. Moss provided an introduction to the architecture of Philadelphia during Franklin’s lifetime. Showing us Peter Cooper’s early view of the city, he commented that Franklin had shown great good sense in coming to Philadelphia “just as it was about to explode.” Few homes survive that Franklin knew: James Logan’s country seat, Stenton; Samuel Morris’ Hope Lodge; and John Bartram’s farm on the Schuylkill; later, Port Royal (1765), Mount Pleasant (1762–1765), and Cliveden (1760’s). But, by the mid-century the city was home to a spectrum of craftsmen who could reproduce the buildings and details in the great design books to create a landmark Georgian city.

Lunch at City Tavern. Table headed by Dean Failey, Christie’s, on the left and David Barquist, Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Three members of the team responsible for aspects of the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary celebration spoke to us in the course of the weekend. First was Page Talbott, Curator of the international exhibition, “Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better Life,” She talked about Franklin’s Philadelphia homes and their furnishings, showing us the significant survivors among those objects, and providing us with background that made our visit to the Franklin Tercentenary exhibition even more meaningful. Reminding us that Franklin was gone almost thirty years, she read excerpts from his voluminous correspondence that bring to life what we know about the house.

Franklin is very much in the news, and the speakers from our symposium are among those responsible for spreading the word. The exhibition catalogue is available, not only in the museums hosting the extraordinary exhibition, but in other bookstores. It can be ordered from your bookseller or bought online at “all the usual suspects,” like Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.

Bust of Ben with speakers Connie Hershey, of the Trust’s Newsletter and Organizer of the Frankliniana Data Base and Melissa Clemmer, Assistant Curator, Ben Franklin: In Search of A Better World.

Melissa Clemmer, Co-Curator of the exhibit, talked to us about the significance of art to Franklin, and showed us important images associated with him. Franklin was the subject of several powerful portraits painted throughout his public life; many of which were issued as prints, spreading his name and fame. Clemmer showed us both the portraits and the graphic images derived from them. Franklin was happy to use prints to his advantage, giving or sending them to family, friends and admirers.

Constance Hershey, Curator of the Frankliniana Database, talked about its design and construction. She showed us examples of entries for several significant objects, and talked about the steps taken to research them. The Database will continue to grow, and remain available to users of the internet long after the celebration of Franklin’s three-hundredth birthday is over.

An end of the day breather in the Officers Quarters at the 22nd Armory Antiques Show, provided by Barn Star Productions.

Page Talbott has authored articles about Franklin’s possessions for The Magazine Antiques (December ’05, pp. 64–73) and Antiques and Fine Art (January/February ’06, pp. 232–238). Melissa Clemmer’s article on portraits of Ben will appear in The Magazine Antiques in November of this year. Connie Hershey looked at Ben as a popular figure, in Antiques and Fine Art (December/January ’06, pp. 239-243), and will be examining the phenomenon again for Antiques. And, the whole August ‘06 issue of The Magazine Antiques is devoted to Franklin’s brainchild, Philadelphia’s Library Company, with one of its articles by James Green, who spoke to us about Ben’s (and James Logan’s) bountiful libraries.

Trust members going through the American collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Jim Willcox of Virginia directly in front of chair.

The Jonathan L. Fairbanks Lecturer, Robert McCracken Peck, Fellow of the Academy, Curator of Art and Artifacts and Editor of Scientific Publications of The Academy Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, founded in 1812. He oversees the publication of the oldest continuously published natural history journal in the U.S., The Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences. The collections of the Academy contain more than 17 million specimens, including Thomas Jefferson's fossils, Lewis and Clark's plants, and several hundred of the birds collected by John James Audubon on his 1843 expedition up the Missouri River. In short, the Academy has some of the largest and most important biological collections anywhere in the world. And, their library is a world center for books on natural history, travel and exploration. On Thursday afternoon, Trust members visited the library and were introduced to the impressive collection of natural science explorer

A very happy group, l. to r., The Jonathan L. Fairbanks Lecturer Robert McCracken Peck of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Penny Hunt, Trust Director, and Jonathan Fairbanks.

portraits by some of America’s most important 19th century portraitists—Charles Willson Peale, Rembrandt Peale, Thomas Sully, John Neagle. Trust members viewed a selection of works of art on paper by a wide range of artists known for their skill at combining art and science—from Titian Ramsay Peale to Alexander Stirling Calder. Naturalist artists who were also distinguished members of the Academy include Alexander Wilson (1766–1813), John James Audubon (1785–1851), John Gould (1805–1866), Charles Alexandre Lesueur (1778–1846) and Thomas Nuttall (1786–1859). Peck introduced us to all of these by way of illustrating the 19th century obsession for natural science discovery and identification, quite literally a continuation of Franklin’s scientific endeavors.

David Barquist, Curator of American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, gave us an overview of the great Philadelphia families and their collections. Philadelphia and the larger world have been enriched by the number of significant objects from those families that have come to the museum to live a new life in its galleries. Alexandra Kirtley, Assistant Curator of American Decorative Arts who spoke to us brilliantly in Annapolis about the Lloyd family collections, continued her study and presented the collections and associations of Elizabeth Lloyd who married Philadelphian John Cadwalader, a family famous for their hairy paw furniture among other things. This collection was also viewed at PMA later in the day.

Trust members being shown through the American collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Center through glass is Mary Meeks.

Sue Ann Prince, Curator of the American Philosophical Society, gave us a curator’s preview of her exhibition, “The Princess and the Patriot,” which we’d visit. The exhibit investigates the influence of Franklin on his Russian contemporary, the noblewoman, Ekaterina Dashkova. Dr. Prince detailed the ways in which the two were similar: the most striking of which is that both helped create an atmosphere of enlightenment around them.

James Green, Librarian of Philadelphia’s Library Company, told us the fascinating “back story” behind the library’s founding. As with many significant aspects of Franklin’s life, it began with a personal association. In this case, a glazier living with Franklin, working for Logan, wished to increase his mathematical understanding. Logan, impressed by the man, lent him Newton’s Principia, then other volumes. Logan and Franklin met, and became close associates. From that seed grew America’s first subscription library.

Cynthia Little, from the Atwater Kent Museum, whose collections preserve Philadelphia’s history, introduced us to Franklin’s extraordinary descendant Elizabeth Duane Gillespie. Mrs. Gillespie was a dedicated, skillful fundraiser and administrator, and one of the “iron-clad” Victorian women whose actions altered American social history. Active in hospital causes during the Civil War, she went on to supervise the efforts of women to get the Centennial up and running. Emphasizing the bond between the women of 1776 and those of 1876, they raised their own money, built their own building, sponsored publications, and—in the process—advanced the causes of preservation, education and suffrage.

Speaker Cynthia Little, Historian and Exhibit Manager of the Atwater Kent Museum, and Jonathan Fairbanks during Sunday morning lectures at the Philadelphia Symposium.

Traveling to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, members visited the galleries of the American Wing, viewing not only the objects about which David Barquist and Alexandra Kirtley had spoken, but dozens of others among the museum’s treasures.
Trust President Jonathan Fairbanks led members through some of the American furniture galleries pointing out connoisseurship details and highlighting the regional characteristics of Philadelphia.

1729 – Admiring 18th century Philadelphia furniture at the Philadelphia Museum of Art are (l. to r.) Martha Dippell, Chevy Chase, MD, Helen Scott Reed, Manakin Sabot, VA, and David Meeks, Wilmington, DE.

In search of Franklin, Trust members traveled to Germantown and visited Stenton, 1727, home of James Logan, surely visited by Franklin, and to Wyck, c. 1690 and 1824, very possibly visited by Franklin. Mount Pleasant, 1763, home of Capt. John Macpherson, has just been reroofed and is devoid of furnishings. David diMuzio, the Elaine S. Harrington Senior Conservator of Furniture and Woodwork for PMA, oversaw the project and explained interesting fines and challenging “opportunities” of the experience. Mount Pleasant, known for it extraordinary carving and woodwork, was just as magnificent without furnishings as with. Philadelphia is a goldmine for art and antique aficionados: we attended its great Philadelphia Antiques Show at the 33rd Street Armory as well as the smaller antiques show at the 23rd Street Armory. Both welcomed Trust members with good cheer! We dined in the reconstructed City Tavern; visited a cluster of great museums, and realized, as Jonathan Fairbanks pronounced, that Philadelphia is one of the top cities in the U.S. today for the arts and for museums. And, we felt we had barely scratched the surface.

Back to top