The first postmaster general of the United States is also the only non-president to be permanently featured on American money. He built his house in the middle of a courtyard in Philadelphia, making the museum tricky to find.
Franklin was one of 17 children and apprenticed under his brother, a printer. However, he fled his brother’s tight grip and started his own printing business. Before retiring to pursue science at age 42, he printed amusing newspapers, Pennsylvania’s provincial gazette, flyers, and small jobs for local businesses. After he retired, he founded Philadelphia‘s first fire brigade that put out fires using buckets, a library, and the country’s first public hospital.
He famously invented the office swivel chair and experimented with electricity by flying kites in thunderstorms. He also invented strange things like a maritime soup bowl that caught spills as the ship rocked and charted the Gulfstream on eight transatlantic voyages. He wears bifocal glasses in his later portraits, which he also invented.
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