The exhibition, entitled “Images of Benjamin Franklin: As Seen by Himself and Others,” will be on display in the Mamdouha S. Bobst Gallery in NYU’s Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South, beginning on February 2 and running through December, 2006. The conference, which coincides with the opening of the exhibit, will take place on Thursday and Friday, February 2 and 3, 2006.
New York University’s College of Arts and Science, in conjunction with its Division of Libraries, will host an exhibition and conference in honor of the 300th anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin. The exhibition, entitled “Images of Benjamin Franklin: As Seen by Himself and Others,” will be on display in the Mamdouha S. Bobst Gallery in NYU’s Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South, beginning on February 2 and running through December, 2006. The conference, which coincides with the opening of the exhibit, will take place on Thursday and Friday, February 2 and 3, 2006. This is the only major Franklin tercentenary celebration in New York City.
The exhibition features over 150 items from the collection of Stuart Karu. Beginning with the first publications that Franklin worked on as an apprentice printer, the exhibit tells the story of the multifaceted Franklin — as citizen, as politician, as founding father, as diplomat, and as the foremost media mogul of his time. Using documents, books, engravings, artifacts, and fine art pieces that are intrinsically valuable as well as informative, the exhibition creates a window into a period of history through the perspective of Franklin and his contemporaries.
Matthew Santirocco, dean of the NYU College of Arts and Science, said: “We are honored to be the only major institution in New York to celebrate this amazing event, the first 300th birthday celebration of one of America’s Founding Fathers. The diversity of Franklin’s life, like the diversity of a large university, provides endless opportunity for exploration. Franklin had significant ties to early New York history, and it is important for New Yorkers to be able to participate in this recognition of our country’s origin. We are deeply grateful to Stuart Karu for making his extraordinary collection available to the public in this way.”
Highlights of the exhibition include the First Edition of Franklin’s Autobiography, several original Poor Richard’s Alamacks, Franklin’s copy of Oedipus, the First Complete Edition of his Experiments in Electricity, numerous prints and engravings that have never appeared publicly, the first bust that Franklin sat for when he went to France to serve as the first American Ambassador, and numerous historical documents that help to define the colonial history of America.
Mr. Karu has been the leading private collector of Frankliniana for the past 30 years. He is the Founding President of the Friends of Franklin, the largest group of Franklin scholars, collectors, heirs, and Franklinphiles. His collection was exhibited in 1990 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Franklin’s death and he is the largest private donor to the Franklin tercentenary exhibition opening in Philadelphia on December 15, 2005.
NYU’s exhibit, “Images of Benjamin Franklin” opens in Bobst Library on February 2, 2006, with a collector’s talk by Karu. On February 3, an all-day conference featuring many well-known Franklin scholars will take place at NYU’s Hemmerdinger Hall, 100 Washington Square East.
For further information the public may contact Ken Kidd at 212.998.8154 or ken.kidd@nyu.edu.