A big project at work that will run through the end of the semester has taken me temporarily away from some of my other projects, but I’m doing what I can to keep my other irons in the fire. Today marks a significant moment in the history of British North America, even if no one recognized it at the time. How could they have? It was three hundred years ago today, October 6, 1723, that the seventeen-year-old runaway Benjamin Franklin arrived in Philadelphia. Several weeks previously he had fled Boston and the indentured servitude contract he had signed with his abusive older brother, unsuccessfully sought printer’s work in New York City, and finally made his way on that Sunday morning to Market Street. In his Autobiography, written in late middle age, Franklin remembered that “my whole stock of cash consisted of a Dutch dollar, and about a shilling in copper. The latter I gave the people of the boat for my passage, who at first refus’d it, on account of my rowing; but I insisted on their taking it. A man being sometimes more generous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps thro’ fear of being thought to have but little.”

I have a fairly firm grasp of Civil War historiography but I must say that I still have a steep learning curve when it comes to that of the Colonial and Revolutionary eras. One can’t understand the history without knowing the historiography behind it. Colonial and Revolutionary War memory is much more involved than that of the War of the Rebellion, and yet surprisingly thin. I don’t understand why. As for Franklin’s sojourn itself, it was not until 1980 that a historian proved conclusively that it was indeed on October 6 that Franklin arrived in Philadelphia. Apparently there had been talk after that discovery of designating October 6 “Ben Franklin Day” in Philadelphia, sort of like the annual Patriots Day in several New England states. That never came to pass, but later today the University of Pennsylvania is hosting a three hundredth anniversary celebration from 12:00-2:00 pm. Above we see an illustration by the noted children’s book illustrator E. Boyd Smith from a 1916 edition of Franklin’s Autobiography showing the young man starting his new life three hundred years ago today.

Addendum: There seems to be slate of events around Philadelphia later this morning, including one at the American Philosophical Society at which the document proving October 6 as the date of Franklin’s arrival will be on view.

People have been texting throughout the day with their thoughts on the life and death of Elvis Presley. I’ve attended Elvis Week a few times over the years, which conveniently fell during a time each year when I visited relatives who lived within driving distance but who have since passed away. August 16th has always been poignant to me, and always will be for interrelated reasons. Someone I knew from my high school years was in Memphis this past week and shared pictures with my family, including one of the resting place of Lisa Marie. Here is something from Elvis’s final album, Moody Blue, released in June 1977 just two before he died. Contrary to popular belief, Elvis was still very much bringing it in his final years. Contemplative songs like this and “Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues” comprised much of his later catalog, which tells you something.

I was on the subway this morning on my way to the Whitney Museum. As I stood up to get off at my stop a young girl of about five walked up to me and handed me the drawing you see above. She explained that she had drawn me during the ride and wanted me to have it. The object in my hand is a book. Being the good New Yorker that I am, I always make sure to have reading material handy when on the subway. The drawing is hanging now on the refrigerator. Re the Whitney, I had not been to the museum since it moved from the Upper East Side to the Meatpacking District several years ago. I was glad when I heard several years ago that they were moving. The Whitney always had something of an identity crisis when it was on East 75th Street, what with the Met ten blocks to the north and MOMA 20 blocks to the south. Now, on Gansevoort Street, not only does it stand alone, but closer to its roots in the Village where Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney founded the institution in the early 1930s.

Graveyards and cemeteries mean as much to me as historic sites themselves. When you see someone’s resting place they become more than just a figure in a book. Plus, they’re a good reminder of one’s own mortality. Hodie Mihi, Cras Tibi.

I took the image below of John Nixon’s resting place in Philadelphia’s Saint Peter’s Church cemetery in Society Hill last Saturday and knew immediately that I would post it today. His name may not be familiar, but it was he who read the Declaration of Independence for the first time. Colonel Nixon read the text from the State House steps on July 8, 1776 while couriers were racing to the other colonies to spread the word. The famous reading in New York City’s Bowling Green with its tearing down of the statue of George III was the following day. His table-design headstone was damaged by a fallen tree sometime in the past, as this unfortunately undated post on the St. Peter’s Church website explains. Diarist Christopher Marshall described the scene at the State House 247 years ago today as a “Warm sunshine morning. At eleven, went and met [the] Committee of Inspection at [the] Philosophical Hall; went from there in a body to the lodge; joined the Committee of Safety (as called); went in a body to [the] State House Yard, where, in the presence of a great concourse of people, the Declaration of Independence was read by John Nixon.” If one is Philadelphia today, the NPS is having its annual re-enactment at 11:45 this morning there at Independence Hall.

Archie and Edith Bunker’s original chairs are on display in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner, Sally Struthers, and Norman Lear were on hand at the ceremony in 1978 when those items were donated. Carroll O’Connor did not attend in person but telephoned in during the party the included the likes of Senator Barry Goldwater. As I understand it during later seasons the production unit used replicas of those originals. Everything else on set though remained essentially the same. Norman Lear originally had wanted the show to be shot in black and white, but the executives at CBS said no. Instead Lear went with the muted browns with which we are familiar. Well tomorrow the “All in the Family” original set goes on sale alongside Johnny Carson’s interview desk, the Cheers bar and much more.

I hope everyone’s Memorial Day Weekend is going well. I was up and out early yesterday to get the 7:17 train out of Moynihan Station for Philadelphia. I was there before 9:00 and got a coffee and croissant in the Old City waiting for the Betsy Ross House to open at 10:00. The more and more I visit Philadelphia the more I enjoy it. I pivoted to this era just five years ago. One of the maxims of his is: “Go there.” I made sure to walk the perimeter of Christ Church, which is where I took the photograph you see above. Philadelphia, or at least Historic Philadelphia, is much like Gettysburg in that people are visiting from across the country and world. Being the Chatty Cathy I am, I always strike up conversations with those around me. A family from Virginia, two women from California visiting the East Coast on a history road trip, and a visitor in the Museum of the American Revolution whose ancestor had served in Vermont’s Green Mountain Boys are just some of the figures I met along the way. I texted a relative with some photos and mentioned a close, late family member of ours who lived outside Philadelphia for much of her life. This person was a public school teacher for decades and took her classes to Independence Hall and the environs many times over the years.

I didn’t go in, but the line for Liberty Bell was long, which was great to see. I was especially moved by the archeological site that is now President’s House. To be there for part of Memorial Day Weekend was even more meaningful. When I got home in the early evening I texted a friend who is a retired NPS ranger here in the city and asked if he knew any of the backstory regarding that project. He did, and gave me a few insights. The memory of the Revolutionary War is fascinating and surprisingly understudied. I struck up a conversation with two of the extraordinary staff at the MOAR about the historiography of Philadelphia at the local level. They recommended a few titles, but we came to the consensus that the corpus of scholarship on Philadelphia itself is surprisingly thin.

Wherever you are, go get a little history on this weekend that kicks off the unofficial start of summer.

It is hard to believe Frank Sinatra has been gone a quarter century now. He died on this date in 1998. The late 1990s themselves feel like such a long time ago now, I suppose because they are. Here is a Sinatra’s song from one of his best and least appreciated albums, the 1967 bossa nova collaboration Francis Albert Sinatra & Antônio Carlos Jobim. It is the perfect complement to this Mothers Day. Enjoy the spring day.

The Morristown National Historical Park Museum and Library has posted my article about John Glover and Loyalist William Browne. I’m not going into it here, but the hows and whys of this writing project have an interesting backstory. There was even a Brooklyn connection that I didn’t quite together until starting the work. There are many themes to discuss in the choices that Loyalists and Patriots made before and during the war. I’m going to continue with this story. Above in John Trumbull’s The Capture of the Hessians at Trenton, December 26, 1776 we see Glover second from the top right. The guy got around. When the people at Morristown uploaded the article they noted that I’ll be speaking there on Saturday June 17. The talk is part of the ongoing commemoration of the park’s 90th anniversary. My talk will be based on an article I wrote for the Fall 2022 edition of The Federalist, the quarterly newsletter of the Society for History in the Federal Government. I’ll be speaking about a travel series sponsored by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in the 1910s and 1920s in which managing editor Hans von Kaltenborn annually led groups of 40-50 New Yorkers across the country, South America, North Africa, and Europe. National Park Service sites were the primary focus of the excursions. It’s a story I had always wanted to tell. I’ll tell it again in Morristown come June 17.