Before he invented the lightning rod, charted the Gulf Stream, or helped to draft the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin was a business man, printer, and Postmaster in Philadelphia. What can we learn from the colonial American ledgers he and his wife Deborah Read Franklin kept?
Click below to take a peek inside of Benjamin Franklin’s postal records!
The Franklins’ Philadelphia Ledgers Project digitzed and transcribed many of the Franklins’ ledgers kept at the American Philosophical Society. Now for the first time this material is available through a single point of access. The Franklin Ledgers Database conatins a wealth of information about Benjamin Franklin, his wife Deborah, and the lives of many other eighteenth-century Philadelphians. Click below to get started.
“The Franklins’ Philadelphia Ledgers Project” is a multi-year digital initiative by the American Philosophical Society's Center for Digital Scholarship intended to allow users unprecedented access to Franklin's ledgers. This project is a part of the Society's Open Data Initiative. The latest phase of the project makes the shop books and accounts kept by Benjamin and Deborah available and searchable to the public.