Our Revolutionary Tea Party went off with hardly a hitch. Forty-nine people enjoyed lemon cake, gingerbread, graham cracker cake, macaroons, fruit and tea or lemonade. Entertainment was provided by local actor J Chachula and librarian Katy Neville who presented “Benjamin Franklin In His Own Words”. Susan Neilson, the librarian in charge of the party, worked overtime making the room look just right with white tablecloths, fresh flowers, colorful napkins, and all appropriate condiments.
“Dost thou love Life? then do not squander Time; for that’s the Stuff Life is made of.”
This week our main focus is on getting ready for the Tea Party we are hosting this Sunday. My boss, Susan, loves tea parties so she has been planning this one for weeks. She has researched the type of foods that would have been eaten in America in Ben Franklin’s time. She has recruited help from the Caswell-Nash chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She and I have worked together to develop a script for actor J Chachula to read: “Benjamin Franklin In His Own Words”. The library’s own Katy Neville will be the narrator for the script.
Susan has also created place cards for each participant. Since we have space for only 48 people, you must have a reservation to attend the tea party. Susan has been confirming all reservations and calling people on the waiting list to offer them seats when possible. There are a few seats available right now. Call 856-6703 to reserve a place. The tea party is this Sunday, March 9, at 2 PM.
Last night Dr. Elgiva Watson told us about Franklin’s years in Paris as our major representative during the American Revolution. Franklin was successful in persuading the French government to recognize the United States as a country separate from England. He also convinced the French king to support our war effort with supplies and, eventually, with soldiers and ships.
Of course, when most people think about Franklin in Paris they imagine him cavorting with the French ladies and living the life of a party animal. According to Dr. Watson, while Franklin did indeed attend many parties and he did flirt with the ladies, he was not the lothario that many believe him to have been. He was a hard worker who accomplished important tasks under difficult circumstances.
Over the weekend we hosted a presentation by Louise Benner, the Curator of Costume and Textiles at the N.C. Museum of History. Benner chose a young woman from the audience and dressed her in colonial-era clothing. After the program, this woman paraded around the library to show her finery to the other patrons. It sounds like fun–I wish I could have been there!
Did you know that Franklin wrote to, and received mail from at least 650 different correspondents, spanning an astonishing range of men and women of different classes and professions in America, Great Britain, and Europe? Since 1954, a team of scholars at Yale University has been collecting, editing, and publishing Franklin’s complete writings, with 38 volumes published to date, and the entire edition projected to reach 47 volumes. Visit The Papers of Benjamin Franklin online at http://www.yale.edu/franklinpapers/ to find out more about the project.
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
During Franklin’s return from England to America in 1775 he and his grandson Temple, studied the ocean temperature. Several times a day they lowered a homemade thermometer into the Atlantic Ocean, and recorded the temperature on a chart, and mapped the Gulf Stream. The maps and temperature measurements can be found on the NASA web site.
http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/oceanography_currents_4.html
Now that the exhibit is open, I’ve been scheduling groups to come see it and to learn more about Ben Franklin. My touring groups fall into 2 categories: groups of seniors from independent living or assisted living homes, or groups of homeschooled kids and their parents.
Either way, it’s fun to show them the exhibit and give them an introduction to the life of the amazing Ben Franklin. I like to tell them some of the interesting things I’ve learned while preparing to host the exhibit. For instance, everyone knows about Franklin’s experiments with electricity, but did you know that he was the most well-known and well-respected scientist of his time? In today’s terms, he would be a Nobel Prize winning scientist.
Franklin wanted the American colonies to remain a part of England, but only if the rights of the colonists were recognized. When he was convinced that England would not comply, he became one of its most formidable opponents, convincing the French to fight with America in the Revolutionary War.
(from http://reference.aol.com)
