Benjamin Franklin
1706 – 1790 American scientist, writer, statesman
The polymath founder who tamed lightning and helped build a nation.
- Religion
- A deist who subscribed to a rational, moral religion and doubted specific dogmas while respecting religion's civic value.
- Affiliations
- A Freemason initiated at St. John's Lodge, Philadelphia, in 1731 and elected Grand Master of Pennsylvania in 1735; later a member of the Lodge of the Nine Sisters in Paris.
Franklin proved lightning is electricity with his kite experiment and invented the lightning rod, bifocals, and more. As a writer, printer, and diplomat he helped found the United States and shape its ideals. He was a leading Freemason and a model of the practical Enlightenment.
Connections
- associate of George Washington — Fellow founder and fellow Freemason at the Constitutional Convention.
- associate of Voltaire — Franklin helped conduct his Masonic initiation in Paris in 1778.
- associate of Voltaire — Franklin's Paris lodge, the Nine Sisters, initiated Voltaire into Freemasonry in 1778.
In the timeline
- 1706 Birth of Benjamin Franklin central figure
- 1731 Benjamin Franklin becomes a Freemason central figure
- 1731 First Masonic lodge established in Philadelphia mentioned
- 1731 Benjamin Franklin joins the Freemasons central figure
- 1733 First organized Freemasonry in the American colonies mentioned
- 1734 Franklin reprints Anderson's Constitutions in America mentioned
- 1752 Franklin and the electric nature of lightning mentioned
- 1775 Founding of the United States Post Office mentioned
- 1776 Freemasons among the American revolutionaries mentioned
- 1778 Voltaire is initiated into the Lodge of the Nine Sisters mentioned
- 1779 Benjamin Franklin heads a Paris lodge during the alliance years central figure
- 1781 Congress ratifies the Great Seal of the United States mentioned
- 1782 The Great Seal's designers were not Freemasons mentioned
- 1787 Constitutional Convention delegate