BEN FRANKLIN'S BONES : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW

BEN FRANKLIN's BONES : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW

 

The Benjamin Franklin connection is exploited for the title of this PBS video that is part of the Secrets of the Dead series. His 18th century residence in London, which was the home of a family at 36 Craven Street was also the home of Dr. Huston, a doctor who was probably more or totally responsible for the burial of human bones in the basement. Though Ben Franklin's experimental and scientific nature is well known, there is no way to prove he ever had anything to do with them. 

This film is about the state of the art of medical science in that era. It is about the "body snatchers," people who would sell dead bodies to doctors (science) so that autopsies and dissections could be performed. Check your gag reflexes because this is a time honored practice to learn about the human body and expected in medical schools. The "body snatchers" were not always the most moral and ethical people, however, and so by modern day standards they may be thought of as criminals.

But what else did those who wanted to understand and some day cure diseases that killed people like typhus and cholera have to work with if not the bodies of the dead?  Methods then were primitive compared to now, as were the tools to saw a skull in half.  In this society there was no concept of virus or germs and people were dying of kidney stones and gall stones, which we well understand today, as well as broken bones.  Today many people donate part or all of their bodies for organ transplants and skin grafts and there is huge debate over the ownership of sperm and eggs that are frozen for later use once the people who donated them don't want to or can't pay for them to be kept.

In the 18th century, men who were sentenced to death wrote begging letters to their families to claim their bodies before they were sold or given away, fearing the desecration even though they'd be dead.

So though Benjamin Franklin is one of my favorite most fascinating historical personages, perhaps what was more interesting was that when he returned to America, this "Second Family" he had lived with in London was brought here to live and their family tree is full of doctors, including a woman who will show you some of the family documents that link Ben Franklin and their family.

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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN- AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE. AN ELECTRIC MIND : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW

 

PBS VIDEO

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN - AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE.  AN ELECTRIC MIND.

 

Benjamin Franklin is one of my favorite American Historical Figures but before watching this film my reference for him came from a series about the Presidents of the United States, which he was never though highly involved in colonial history, and his time as an envoy for the Colonies in Paris, France, history classes, reading around him and reading one of his books.  The thing I most love about Franklin is his willingness to experiment and invent and his sense of humor.

 

This is a four part series that begins with his humble beginnings, covers an era from 1706-1753 when he became a printer and publisher in Philadelphia and his scientific experiments with electricity and lightening.  As a publisher wanting to sell newspapers he invented a much older woman character and wrote opinion from her point of view. His invention of the lightening rod is still used all over the world today.  A point well made is that our ideas about Franklin and our images of him come from his senior hood but was once a young handsome man about town and his genius was apparent early on.

 

Franklin was a bit promiscuous before he married but seems to have married well when it came to his choice of a wife, Deborah.  When his mind turned towards marriage and children, his mind turned towards making money as a necessity of life, rather than for grandeur. When he was successful he took a departure from the circumstances of his early life and became an influential person but you could say that he was never in any of it just for the money. 

 

From 1755-1776  Franklin lived separate of his faithful, loyal, and capable wife, Deborah.  He lived in London, never knowing when exactly he was coming back, and indeed she died before he got back to Philadelphia, so theirs was a long distance relationship kept together by letters.  His son went to London with him and distanced himself from his humble background in America, which increasingly caused a split between father and son in their world view, especially when it came to the independence of the Colonies from England.  His son was a Loyalist.  They never resolved their differences.

 

It wasn't until the American Revolution in 1776 that the Franklin that I most knew about, the diplomat to France during the American Revolution who hung out with aristocrats aiming to please him and attempted to get funding for the revolution from the French government/King, the one portrayed as enjoying the women, came to be.  He returned to the United States in 1790 but is credited with playing a very important role in creating our Constitution.  In this film the idea that in his last years of life he was a womanizer is questioned and downplayed.  Franklin is quoted at being amused by the way the French offered themselves and their women to him because they had heard he liked the ladies, as if he is surprised by it.  The indication is that his involvement was greatly exaggerated.  Perhaps a more Puritan or Protestant viewpoint of his behavior was in play.

All in all, one for my home collection.

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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN INSTITUTE and THE ARMONICA

Link above to the BENJAMIN FRANKLIN INSTITUTE

Ben is one of my favorite historical persons.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PAPERS FOUND IN LONDON - FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR !

As reported this morning in the Los Angeles Times, and in this on-line Science Daily article (click on the title above) important papers relating to Benjamin Franklin's diplomatic work in finding horses and wagons so that the British could take Pittsburgh from the French and Indians has been found in London by Alan Houston, professor of political science at UC San Diego.