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"Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World" opens Friday at the Minnesota History Center 

Starting tomorrow, the Minnesota History Center is presenting an exhibition on the life and work of 

. And certainly no founding father is more deserving of his own touring show.

Exhibit developer Ros Remer put the show together originally in 2006 to mark Franklin's 300th birthday, and has retooled the exhibition for a second tour, beginning at the MHC. Remer says Franklin was several years older than his fellow founders (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, et al), and as such was really their elder statesman. He was not just a witness, but a player in both the political and scientific revolutions of the 18th century.

In his 84 years, Franklin was a master printer, a diplomat, a scientist and a philosopher. He improved how street lamps worked, developped a method for keeping boulevards clean, figured out how a city should respond to a house fire, came up with bifocals, established the first American lending library, created the "Franklin stove," and of course experimented with the properties of electricity 

Part of the interactive multimedia presentation from the Benjamin Franklin exhibition

Remer says Franklin was the consumate communicator, keeping numerous correspondants. She says if he were alive today he'd probably be a lover of Facebook and Twitter, allowing him to share his pithy quotes with the world on a moment's notice. Can't you just see it?

@PoorRichard: Hancock, might I remind you: Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.

@PoorRichard: Hey George! Don't throw stones at your neighbors if your own windows are glass.

So who is the modern day Benjamin Franklin? Remer says whoever he or she is, they're  probably not in the United States.

Franklin himself wished he could see the future, and just how much things would improve:

An excerpt from the front pages of "Poor Richard's Almanac"

Ros says she hopes visitors to the Benjamin Franklin exhibition at the Minnesota History Center come away with a better sense of all that Franklin accomplished and a better sense of the man. But most of all she hopes people are inspired by his life to look at how they can improve their own world.

Arts and Culture

State of the Arts Blog

Marianne Combs

Author

Benjamin Franklin was an innovator, an auto-didact and a lover of life. So what would he be up to if he were alive today?

WWBFD? (What Would Benjamin Franklin Do?)

Go Deeper.

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