Benjamin Franklin 1779 framed sleigh The Berninghaus Chair Patent —

The Berninghaus Chair Patent — a Study in Victorian Innovation and the Art of Transformation reads as a study in restraint — the close

the old Marion Hotel

a commemorative document compiled in the long shadow of the war — the republic taking stock of itself at the Exposition

his burin tracing the quiet revolution by which American books finally learned to illustrate themselves

Benjamin Franklin 1779 framed sleigh The Berninghaus Chair Patent —Benjamin Franklin 1779 the printer philosopher rendered mid mission in Paris, charming a court whose alliance would decide the war. An engraving from the years when Franklin was less a man than a diplomatic instrument, his fur cap and spectacles doing the quiet work of a republic still arguing for its own existence. About the Source Bella Frye sources artifacts from the great American historical archive the Library of Congress, the National Archives,