Discussion

By Jim Hamilton on Jul 10, 2020

Loved the video, Frank!

Visitors to the Museum of Printing in Haverhill, MA will enjoy a wide assortment of Benjamin Franklin memorabilia (including a jigsaw puzzle and a bobble-head doll), some of which I suspect you donated to the Museum.

Also, Nick Howard from the marvelous Howard Iron Works printing museum in Canada (near Toronto) reports on Twitter that the Gutenberg statue from the manroland Westmont, Illinois site is now at the manroland demo center in Offenbach, Germany.

By Mike Sternfeld on Jul 10, 2020

Hello Frank,
The Ben Franklin statue tour was wonderful! I was very fortunate to see the statue in Franklin, MA as I stayed with a nephew and niece who lived in the town about five years ago. I also viewed the book collection that Franklin donated to the library (supposedly the first public library in the U.S.).
Also, there is a fellow you probably know, Mark Barbour, the founder and executive director of the International Printing Museum in Carson, CA. He also does a great impression of Ben Franklin, and for many years has taken the Museum on Wheels to schools all around the L.A. area. He dresses up as Ben Franklin and puts on a wonderful talk and demonstration to students about Ben Franklin as a printer and also about his life. I really think that you and Mark know more about the history of printing than just about anyone else!
Thanks for you weekly presentations and rants. I love them!

By Dov Isaacs on Jul 11, 2020

IIRC, the headquarters of the Franklin National Bank in Franklin Square, New York (where I grew up) had a number of busts and plaques with relief portraits of Ben Franklin up through the late 1960s.

Hopefully, no one is pulling down Ben Franklin statues for whatever imagined sins he may have committed back in the 1700's.