How Franklin Thwarted Counterfeiters

New Your Times Antique Section by Eve Kahn

Benjamin Franklin’s Philadelphia printing shop made plaster molds from pressed sage leaves to create metal stamps for marking foliage patterns on Colonial currency. The distinctive contours of leaf spines, stems and veins were meant to thwart counterfeiters, and Franklin’s workers managed to keep the casting technique a secret that has puzzled modern scholars, too.

James N. Green, the librarian at the Library Company of Philadelphia (founded by Franklin in 1731), had wondered for the last two decades if any of Franklin’s actual metal leaf-printing blocks for the bills survived. He had concluded that if one of these castings ever did emerge, it would be “a really sensational discovery,” he said in an interview last month.

Such a discovery has been made in a vault at the Delaware County Institute of Science in Media, Pa. Jessica Linker, a historian who is studying early female botanists, recognized the sage leaf patterns on one of Franklin’s metal blocks when the institute staff opened the box it was stored in. The block is now on loan to the Library Company, which is planning to exhibit it with related printing equipment and currency. Its three parallel sage leaves match images on Franklin’s 1760s shilling notes for Delaware’s government; the bills bear the slogan “To Counterfeit is DEATH.”

Hardly any early American metal printing blocks survive; most were melted down into raw material for new type. Fragments dating to the 1600s have been excavated at Harvard Yard, and early-19th-century metal letters surfaced at the construction site for the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. Colonial shillings on paper, however, are relatively common. They bring a few hundred dollars each at auction, as do antique counterfeits. Artifacts from America’s centuries of battles against currency forgers have become popular museum displays as well. 

Mark Tomasko, a collector and historian who has collaborated with institutions including the Museum of American Finance and the American Numismatic Society on related shows, said that fake bank notes and the tools used to create and detect them were “a constant interest.”

He has sought out material related to the American inventor Jacob Perkins; in the 1790s, Perkins developed steel plates for printing currency that were considered nearly impossible to fake. Perkins’s engraving plant has been restored in Newburyport, Mass., and the Historical Society of Old Newbury is developing exhibitions there that are scheduled to open in 2016.

ART TO GET A GRIP ON

Buyers have been paying tens of thousands of dollars for hardware pieces as ordinary as drawer pulls and doorknobs designed by celebrated architects and artisans.

In April, a pair of sinuous bronze door handles from the 1950s, by the Finnish Modernist Alvar Aalto, sold for about $31,000 (the high estimate was about $11,700), at Phillips auction house in London. On Nov. 25, at Sotheby’s in Paris, some bronze and ivory handles designed by the French Art Deco master Armand Albert Rateau sold for just under $50,000. (The estimate was $10,000 to $15,000.)

                             
A Samuel Yellin door pull, 1915. Credit Samuel Yellin Metalworkers 

The prices are relatively low, however, when compared with furniture from the same tastemakers. Rateau’s metal lamps and chairs routinely bring over $2 million each. Aalto’s signature birch cantilevered chairs have sold for more than $45,000 each at auctions.

Buying hardware gives collectors a chance to touch and use the products of a major figure, rather than just hang them on a wall, Richard Wright, a Chicago auction house owner, said in an interview. “You interact with them,” he said. “It is a miniature expression of the architecture.”

Committed buyers sometimes actually adapt entire interior designs to fit these accessories, Peter Loughrey, an owner of Los Angeles Modern Auctions, said. Given the potential challenges and expense of installation, he added, “We tend to be a little more conservative when we estimate these types of things.”

In October, at a Wright sale, a set of 1950s brass hardware in the form of starbursts, by the Manhattan designer Tommi Parzinger, sold for $3,250 to the architect David M. Sullivan. He is incorporating the knobs and plates into doors and cabinetry for his clients. He finds that the sculptural metal adds a sense of history and soulfulness to rooms. “It just gives this other dimension,” he said.

An especially enthusiastic subgroup of fans simply frame hardware for display or keep it loose for easy handling, rather than mounting anything on house parts or furniture, said Allen Joslyn, the president of the Antique Doorknob Collectors of America. He is particularly interested in swirled designs that the architect Louis Sullivan had made for early office towers like the Guaranty building in Buffalo and the Chicago Stock Exchange. At Mr. Joslyn’s home in New Jersey, hardware has accumulated, even atop the furniture. “When you want to sit down,” he said, “you have to clear the doorknobs first.”

Academic studies of early-1900s luxury hardware are also underway, as parts of books and exhibitions about the Philadelphia metalsmith Samuel Yellin that the Leeds Art Foundation in Philadelphia (formerly the American Decorative Art 1900 Foundation) is developing. Robber barons and elite universities commissioned custom products from Yellin’s workshop, which had hundreds of employees and took in millions of dollars a year. Fantastical iron bestiaries and vines covered its products, from candlesticks to staircases.

Yellin called hardware “the salt and pepper of architecture,” said the foundation’s curatorial director, Dr. Joseph Cunningham. Hardware assignments gave the staff a chance to produce playful iron dragons and foliage motifs on a small scale, and homeowners could always remove the pieces if their tastes changed.

“You can entertain a whim on a door handle,” Dr. Cunningham said. Because Yellin’s clients would have touched the hardware often as they went about their daily routines, he added, “it’s very impactful to live with.”

Tristram Dalton Samuel Williams Transit of Venus Newbury MA

From Melissa Berry Newburyport News Genealogy of Williams Harvard Files
 

Part of the structure of Dalton estate after Victorian renovations. From Leonard Woodman Smith provided by Katharine M. Gove Director, G.A.R. Memorial Library West Newbury, MA 

The West Newbury country estate “Spring Hill” built by Captain Michael Dalton and Mary Little was a pastoral paradise. When son Tristram took up residence it grew more glorious. Visitors from all over the globe enjoyed its enchanting landscape and breath taking views. The poesy of Jacques Pierre Brissott “de Warville” deemed it as “one of the finest situations that can be imagined.”

          J J Currier noted that when Tristram inherited the estate he “found pleasure and profit in the ownership and management of this attractive and productive farm He was liberal in his household expenditures and with lavish hospitality entertained many distinguished travelers at his country home.” (History of Ould Newbury)    

          Tristram and wife Ruth Hooper, daughter of Robert “King” Hooper, a wealthy Marblehead merchant knew how to through a party. The festive soirees hosted George Washington and an ensemble of French royals.    See Tristram Dalton and Family

          However, in the spring of 1769 there was one celebrated guest summoned to the Pipe Stave Road address that would source a different ambit for Dalton, namely the extraterrestrial. 

 Samuel Williams, Harvard professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy was more than happy to oblige as he knew “a seat at Newbury, in a high elevated situation,” was “very convenient for this purpose.”

          The hearth upon the hill behest “forty mountain peaks and oceans far and wide” and was the most auspicious place to observe the celestial heavens. God had even graced Dalton with 18 church steeples in wide view.

          But this gathering was not just for star gazing, it was to expand scientific knowledge by observing the transit of Venus. Dalton had a keen interest in the field of Astronomy and was part of the newly founded American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

          In this venture Dalton choose his cohort carefully. Williams had been selected by Harvard’s John Winthrop to observe the transit in the Newfoundland expedition 1761. His lectures and experiments were progressive, but it was when Williams preached in the Port that Dalton sought him out.

          Williams matched Dalton’s passionate intensity to explore the “dark horses” of the world. Williams excelled in many diverse disciplines and his innovative style earned him honors. More importantly, Dalton knew that besides Winthrop, Williams “was among the most accurate of any estimating the moment of tangency of the internal contact to the Sun which had an uncertainty of only seven seconds.”

          Williams had the same confident spirit working with Dalton. He was well versed in theory from his Harvard days and would be an active participant in assisting him. According to Hinckle, Dalton’s knowledge allowed him to make necessary preparations way in advance such as getting the clock adjusted and longitude determination made.  

          Dalton also took all precautions which included hiring carpenters to build shelters on the roof. A persistent trend of overcast and rain had set over Newbury, but just before the big event Mother Nature decided to cooperate. The conditions could not have been more perfect as one Boston paper reported: “after a long course of cloudy weather it cleared up and last Saturday was fair and afforded a fine opportunity for viewing the Transit of Venus.” 

 The anxiety that would have visited the observers would have been in calculating the exact timing to observe the “black dot,” or Venus landing on the sun. Williams was successful and carefully recorded the planetary activity. He also found that Venus had a definite atmosphere. This was due to the “fuzzy contrast” and “uncertain timing.” In other transits, such as Mercury the observation was precise and easily timed. This revelation would later prove to be a major significant discovery.

          The transit of Venus produced “an intercolonial scientific effort of major proportions” and there were several locations observing the event, but it was Newbury that caught Ben Franklin’s attention.  His organization known as The American Philosophical Society issued William’s publication: “An Account of the Transit of Venus over the Sun, June 3d, 1769, as observed at Newbury, in Massachusetts.”  

          Williams work impacted several scholars, including John Quincy Adams, who attended Williams' series of twenty-four lectures on Astronomy at Harvard. According to Rothschild Adams was “so engrossed with the subject that he wrote copious notes on the lectures during and after their presentation.”

          Adams comradery with Williams is noted in his journals: “he is affable and familiar with the students, and does not affect that ridiculous pomp which is so generally prevalent here.” The warm affinity and respect Adams had for Williams would sustain a relationship for many years after he was equally fond of Williams’ son, Samuel, JR. who was his classmate at Harvard. During his stint in the Port Adams records dinners with Samuel, JR, and some visits to Dalton’s magical manor on the hill.

          The contribution of these two men that summer would reflect a lifetime of reaching for the stars and encouraging others to expand their horizons. Dalton took an active interest in local education. He assisted along with Jonathan Jackson, Nathaniel Tracy, and John Tracy to fund young scholars for college. One fellow, Dudley Atkins attended Harvard due to their generosity. Atkins had Williams as an instructor and Williams extended the use of his home laboratory to him. In 1780 Atkins was chosen to accompany Williams on the Penobscot Bay expedition to observe the eclipse of the sun.

          The grounds at Spring Hill have been torn down and rebuilt since the Dalton reign. Tristram invested in new territory, but calculated risks took his fortune. But the planets taught this explorer heaven is not down on any map; true places never are.

Built by Edward Nairne of London, this telescope was used by Samuel Williams Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington.

           

• Old Paths and Legends of New England: Saunterings Over Historic Roads.
• Boston Evening Transcript (Boston, MA)  
• The Dalton Genealogical Society founded November 1970 by Michael Neale Dalton of London, England.
• Family History Compiled by Lucy Henderson Horton
• Ould Newbury: Historical and Biographical Sketches
• Reminiscences of a Newburyport Nonagenarian 
• Brides of Apollo R F Rothschild

Ben Franklin portrait for Miss Sally Davenport of Newburyport

New York Times April 18, 1906

Mezzotint found and another Davenport family member Dorcas Stickney Davenport received one as well. In the library of the Masonic Temple Boston is preserved Fisher's mezzotint of Chamberlin's portrait of Franklin on the reverse of which in Franklin's hand is the inscription For Mrs Dorcas Stickney in Newbury Mrs Stickney who was his niece received Franklin's gift from Paris in 1778 with the word that the sender considered it his best portrait FRANKLIN THE BOY

Anthony Stickney eldest son Anthony Stickney was born in Newbury May 12 1724 married in Boston May 7 1747 Dorcas Davenport daughter of James and Sarah Franklin Davenport He was a Captain in the expedition to Canada under General Amherst in 1760

Stickney, Anthony (1727-1774)

Franklin’s nephew by marriage.
Chairmaker of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Franklin visited the Stickneys on his journey between Boston and Portsmouth (1763). They subsequently moved to Chester, New Hampshire (by 1772). Jane Mecom reported Stickney’s reputation as “a good for nothing Impudent Lazey Felow” (1787).
Married Franklin’s niece Dorcas Davenport (1747); six children, including Anthony Somersby Stickney, who later applied to Franklin for assistance in educating his son.

                                   Engraved by J.B. Longacre, from a painting by Martin

The Franklin Women

by Melissa Berry Please e-mail me if you have parents information. Thanks

The Franklin women were quite crafty and creative! It was not uncommon for women to act as silent partners in the family business. In fact, women were hands on in the shop rather than the stove top and they always filled the role efficiently and successfully. (note many of the Franklin wives were superb cooks as they possessed a myriad of talents. Perhaps it would be better put---they not only brought home the bacon, but braised it to perfection). It was not until the Industrial Revolution women were forced back on the sofa to tend their needle work and tight corsets! The records reveal that when women were an integral part of the biz, the household income was quite substantial in comparison to a one man show.

Deborah Read Franklin b. 1708 d.1774 daughter of John Read and Sarah White Read.
She m. first, John Rogers who ended up ditching her and spending her dowry. Franklin recorded later that the lout died in the West Indies.

Deborah ran the print shop when Ben was out of the country or pursuing his other interest. Her mother, Sarah Read ran a shop next door and no doubt Deborah learned a great deal from her. He notes in his autobiography that Deb was "a good and faithful helpmate." and "they throve together." Deborah kept the books, set type and ordered the supplies. She was a champion business women and her role in Ben's life was like a strong solid support of a house foundation.

Anne Smith Franklin b 1696 d. 1763 in Boston, daughter of Sam Smith and Anna Smith.  In 1723 she married James Franklin, Ben's brother. The couple operated a newspaper together called The Rhode Island Gazette. This was the first printing shop to operate in the the New Port, RI colony. It was popular, but when James passed in 1735 Anne was left with five children to raise, cloth, and feed. Luckily, she had the skills, smarts, and sense to create a thriving enterprise. She wrote to the General Assembly of Rhode Island requesting to contract all of the colonies printing publications and materials. She appealed to the softer side of the male dominated council humbly asking them to allow her the opportunity to support herself and her children. She was granted the contract and went on to thrive. She printed sermons, advertisements, and popular British novels. she also printed the Rhode Island currency.

Anne's independent spirit had quite an influence on the local dames as they began utilizing her press for their own grievances. In one case, a widow of a local distiller filed a public petition to her husbands partner, who had swindled her out of stills and stock shares. After the press leaked the skinny on the sneaky stiller he poured loot and lots of it back into the wise widows account.

In 1745 Printed 500 copies of Rhode Island Almanack a very lucrative venture for Anne She was known as the official colony printer. Also the country's first female editor--The Mercury (produced with son James in 1758) and the first woman to write an almanac.

Ben's grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache (pic on left) also kept in the tradition of husband-wife enterprise with Margaret Markoe Bache (pic below).  

Benjamin Franklin Bache, son of Sarah "Sally" Franklin Bache and Richard Bache b. 1769, d. 1798
Benjamin married Margaret Markoe in Boston on November 17, 1791

The Aurora newspaper was a highly acclaimed publication. Margaret ran it while Benjamin was promoting the Jay Treaty in 1795. The newspaper was one of the most popular in America. It was extremely liberal even for grandpa Ben's taste who favored the pro-French and Democratic polices. Margaret was known to be feisty-she had a sharp tongue and witty humor. After her husbands passing Margaret became the sole proprietor.
Margaret Markoe b. 1770 Caribbean, Santa Cruz Island, West Indies d. 1836 

Where is the Oldest Library in America???

A Great Share from Lucy Loomis, Library Director @ Sturgis Library

Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the OLDEST of them all...?

The Sturgis Library receives visitors from across the country who have come to explore their Cape Cod roots and pay homage to their Cape Cod ancestors. Hundreds of members of the Lothrop and Sturgis families visit us each year, and members of the staff are continually answering the question: "Is this really the oldest library in the United States?"

The answer isn't quite as simple as we would like. Constructed in 1644 for the Reverend John Lothrop, founder of Barnstable, the house which forms the original part of the Library is the oldest building housing a public library in the United States. The building is also one of the oldest houses remaining on Cape Cod. Since Reverend Lothrop used the front room of the house for public worship, another distinction of the Sturgis Library is that it is the oldest structure still standing in America where religious services were regularly held.

This room, now called "The Lothrop Room," with its beamed ceiling and pumpkin-colored wide-board floors, retains the quintessential early character of authentic Cape Cod houses.

But we were interested to know which library was truly the oldest. While we may have the oldest building, others have their own unique claim to fame. Here's what we found in our quest for the truth:

The Library Company of Burlington, New Jersey was founded by 60 men in November of 1757. They petitioned his majesty King George II to grant them a license to operate a business and the charter was received on January 1, 1758. They still operate under this same Charter today. The Library Company of Burlington has been in continuous operation for 255 years and they have their complete library records from conception. Several of their first members were also instrumental in assisting Benjamin Franklin in opening the Library Company in Philadelphia, PA. The Library Company of Burlington was the first to build a library building in the state of New Jersey in 1789. Prior to this the library was housed in the parlor of several different homes of the board members. For all of their history and information please visit out website at 
According to History Magazine, "the oldest library in America began with a 400-book donation by a Massachusetts clergyman, John Harvard to a new university that eventually honored him by adopting his name.

Another clergyman, Thomas Bray from England, established the first free lending libraries in the American Colonie s in the late 1600s. Subscription libraries - where member dues paid for book purchases and borrowing privileges were free - debuted in the 1700s. In 1731, Ben Franklin and others founded the first such library, the Library Company of Philadelphia. The initial collection of the Library of Congress was in ashes after the British burned it during the War of 1812. The library bought Thomas Jefferson's vast collection in 1815 and used that as a foundation to rebuild. It wasn't until waves of immigration and the philosophy of free public education for children that public libraries spread in the US. The first public library in the country opened in Peterborough, New Hampshire, in 1833. Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie helped build more than 1,700 public libraries in the US between 1881 and 1919."

The Darby Free Library in Darby, Pennsylvania, is "America's oldest public library, in continuous service since 1743."
Peterborough Town Library in Peterborough, New Hampshire, was the first tax-supported free public library not only in the United States but the world.

The library was established in 1833 by a vote of the town led by Dr. Abiel Abbot, a minister who stirred the community's intellectual life with respect to books and reading. Originally housed in a storefront, the library moved to its final location in 1893, where it remains today. The principle upon which it was founded continues to spread across the civilized globe. It was incorporated in 1833 and its building opened in 1893.

The Scoville Memorial Library in Salisbury CT also makes a claim as first publicly funded library in the United States. It was established in 1803 and the first library to be opened to the public free of charge.
The Boston Public Library holds a number of "first" distinctions. In addition to being the first publicly supported free municipal library in the world, it was the first library to establish space designated specifically for children. It claims that it also the only public library in the country that also serves as a Presidential Library, since their holdings include the papers of John Adams. However, the Forbes Library in Northampton, Massachusetts might dispute this claim, since they also claim to be the only public library in the United States to hold a Presidential collection. Their library holds the papers of President Calvin Coolidge.
The Franklin Public Library is America's first lending library. In 1778, when the town was incorporated, the designated name Exeter was changed to Franklin in honor of Dr. Benjamin Franklin.

When asked to donate a bell, Franklin responded with an offer of books for the town's residents, acknowledging that "sense" was preferable to "sound." The original Franklin collection is still housed in a bookcase in the library.
The Redwood Library and Athenæum says it is the oldest lending library in America, and the oldest library building in continuous use in the country. Founded in 1747 by forty-six proprietors upon the principle of "having nothing in view but the good of mankind," its mission continues over 250 years later.
The Library Company of Philadelphia, founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin and a group of his friends, became the first American subscription library. The Library Company, while founded as a membership library, did allow members to borrow books, and so may have been the first truly public library. It is still in existence as a nonprofit, independent research library.
The Brumback Public Library in Van Wert, Ohio, dedicated in 1901, is the oldest county library in the United States.
The Oswego Public Library in Oswego, New York, which opened in 1857, is "America's Oldest Public Library Still in Its Original Building."

Do you know of other public library firsts? Is your library the "oldest of them all?" If so, please let us know, and we'll post your information on this page. Contact Lucy Loomis, Library Director, at (508) 362-6636 or by email at sturgislibrary@comcast.net.