Why benjamin franklin was famous

Born into a Boston family of modest means, Franklin had little formal education. He went on to start a successful printing business in Philadelphia and grew wealthy. Franklin was deeply active in public affairs in his adopted city, where he helped launch a lending library, hospital and college and garnered acclaim for his experiments with electricity, among other projects. He also negotiated the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War In , in his final significant act of public service, he was a delegate to the convention that produced the U.

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, , in colonial Boston. His father, Josiah Franklin , a native of England, was a candle and soap maker who married twice and had 17 children. In , at age 12, he was apprenticed to his older brother James, a Boston printer. By age 16, Franklin was contributing essays under the pseudonym Silence Dogood to a newspaper published by his brother.

At age 17, Franklin ran away from his apprenticeship to Philadelphia, where he found work as a printer. In late , he traveled to London, England, and again found employment in the printing business. Benjamin Franklin returned to Philadelphia in , and two years later opened a printing shop. The business became highly successful producing a range of materials, including government pamphlets, books and currency. In , Franklin became the owner and publisher of a colonial newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette , which proved popular—and to which he contributed much of the content, often using pseudonyms.

In , Franklin began living with Deborah Read c. Franklin and Read had a son, Francis Folger Franklin , who died of smallpox at age 4, and a daughter, Sarah Franklin Bache Franklin had another son, William Franklin c. William Franklin served as the last colonial governor of New Jersey , from to , and remained loyal to the British during the American Revolution.

He died in exile in England. Franklin also organized the Pennsylvania militia, raised funds to build a city hospital and spearheaded a program to pave and light city streets.

Additionally, Franklin was instrumental in the creation of the Academy of Philadelphia, a college which opened in and became known as the University of Pennsylvania in Franklin also was a key figure in the colonial postal system.

In , the British appointed him postmaster of Philadelphia, and he went on to become, in , joint postmaster general for all the American colonies.

In this role he instituted various measures to improve mail service; however, the British dismissed him from the job in because he was deemed too sympathetic to colonial interests. In July , the Continental Congress appointed Franklin the first postmaster general of the United States, giving him authority over all post offices from Massachusetts to Georgia.

He held this position until November , when he was succeeded by his son-in-law. The first U. In , Franklin, then 42 years old, had expanded his printing business throughout the colonies and become successful enough to stop working. Federal Reserve and central banks around the world. Franklin is the only founding father that signed all four key documents that led to the formation of the United States. With all of his accomplishments, contributions and innovation, it is hard to imagine that Ben Franklin only had two years of formal schooling.

His influence on America is still profoundly evident, and is evidenced in the fact that when he died in , more than 20, people attended his funeral. While Franklin was fond of tea, he did not agree with the extreme measures taken during the Boston Tea Party. He was in London at the time and wrote a letter to several leaders in Boston, including Samuel Adams and John Hancock , explaining his feelings.

Ask about our Virtual Tour programming! Tour Hours: 10am - 4pm. English French German Italian Spanish. Join Our Cast. Shop Merchandise. Search for: Search. Close search. His training as a craftsman made him more accomplished as an inventor. As a journalist his most important journalistic influence was his brother James who is considered the first fighter for journalistic freedom in America.

This legacy is framed and hanged in many newsroom walls in America. Franklin was an ambitious entrepreneur, disciplined and industrious, working hard until late at night. He used the skills he had learned to open his own printing business. As a politician he was the first one to propose the union of the colonies for common defense.

He was accused as a royalist but when the time came he stood up for freedom becoming one of the Founding Fathers. Franklin negotiated the end of the war with England and was one of the signers of the Treaty of Paris. Benjamin Franklin genius is centered on the use of his network of business and social connections. He leveraged this network to the benefit of his variety of interests from science and politics to business and journalism.