benjamin franklin house is the only surviving former residence of benjamin franklin, today a marvelous museum and educational center, as it inspires and motivates young londoners as well as general visitors through the example of our great american founder and innovator. the museum is a georgian terrace house at 27 craven street, very centrally located. so on your next visit to london, i know you will want to stop there. i'm very glad, indeed, to recognize and congratulate the museum's founding director, dr. basiano, who is with us representing benjamin franklin house. thank you. and i am also very glad to recognize and thank for all of her efforts on behalf of this institution as well as benjamin franklin house, trustee anita wean. thank you, anita. some of you might be curious about the coincidence of names, this beautiful space, the robert h. smith auditorium, and this lecture at benjamin franklin house, robert h. smith lecture in american democracy. robert h. smith was, among much else, the visionary developer of crystal city just outside washington, d.c., which is today one of the

benjamin franklin house is the only surviving former residence of benjamin franklin, today a marvelous museum and educational center, that inspires and motivates young londoners as well as general visitors through the example of our great american founder and innovator. the museum is a georgian terrace house at 26 craven street, very centrally located. so on your next visit to london, i know you will want to stop there. i'm very glad, indeed, to recognize and congratulate the museum's founding director, dr. marcia baliciano, who is with us this evening representing benjamin franklin house. thank you, marcia. [ applause ] and i am also very glad to recognize and thank for all of her efforts on behalf of this institution as well as benjamin franklin house, benjamin franklin house trustee anita wean. thank you, anita. [ applause ] some of you might be curious about the coincidence of names, this beautiful space, the robert h. smith auditorium, and this august lecture, the benjamin franklin house, robert h. smith lecture in american democracy. robert h. smith was, among much else, the visi

it is wonderful to be back, especially on behalf of the benjamin franklin house, and to talk about, of all of the biography subjects i have ever written, the one that is my most favorite, of course, dr. benjamin franklin. this all started -- and i like seeing marcia and michelle sitting together. started my involvement in researching benjamin franklin. and being over in london quite a bit, i realized the only house still standing in which benjamin franklin lived was the house on craven street, near parliament, near trafalgar square. and it was not renovated at all. it was pretty much an abandoned place, and there were people trying to make it into a museum for benjamin franklin. i happened to know robert h. smith, who have helped with monticello, not vernon, -- mount vernon, all of the great founders, and i said to him, let's have breakfast, because he was maybe four blocks from the benjamin franklin house, and he agreed to be one of the major funders. michelle, his daughter, who happened to be on my board at the aspen institute, said, "never again will i allow you to have breakfast wi

, benjamin franklin house trustee anita. thank you. [applause] louise: some of you may be wondering about the names, including the auditorium and the house. know, h smith, as you may was among much else a visionary developer of crystal city just outside of washington, d.c., which is today one of the most young and hip neighborhoods, and robert smith was above all else a grateful american. he did an enormous amount of good for institutions, like the benjamin franklin house. theas he who first brought institutions together, and i know that he would have been really, really pleased to know that tonight's lecture is taking ,lace here in this auditorium which he very much envisioned as being as we are using it this evening, for a lecture that will surely engage us in the enjoyment in learning about american history. "surely" surely say because walter isaacson, the author, is here. we are pleased to welcome him back. mr. isaacson is the president and ceo of a non-protestant -- nonpartisan studies institute. during his prolific to r

house. and both were major politicians in pennsylvania. galloway. he was benjamin franklin's political partner and he and franklin had a political party that dominated pennsylvania politics. you would think with all these similarities would be good friends. they weren't. they hated one another and were on opposite sides of issues back in the colonial period and became enemies. d once galloway drops out, dickinson replaces him. wayis better known than gallo and there is a college named after him in pennsylvania, but at the time in 1775, john dickin n was perhaps the best known american, best known american politician. benjamin franklin was probably known by more people but dick inson was probably the best known. e had written a pamphlet attacking british policies and became well known in political circles all through the colonies. in h.m.h. was reprinted almanacs and it was on a museum. there was a ship named for him. so he was quite well known when he became the head of the conservatives. i mentioned a couple of minutes ago that it's difficult to get a handle on the conservat

historic interpreter who plays founding father benjamin franklin was interviewed by c-span just before the start of the convention. >> we are at the betsy ross house just off of independent small, joined by philadelphia's most famous son benjamin franklin and mr. franklin i want to ask you today what you think of the political convention going on in this town? >> i find it very interesting. it's not something i'm familiar with, a political convention in my time in this country. we don't have political parties although i'm amelia with political parties at my time there but it's an interesting gathering of people in the seems to be democracy at work. >> this is a convention that is being covered by over 10,000 members of the media. talk about the media in your day. >> the media in my day could actually change opinions and as a newspaper man myself i wanted to change opinions from time to time. i will give you an example of the media in my day and tell you about our constitutional convention very briefly. in 1787 we met in the state of the pennsylvania to former constitution were this country but we had people come from all parts of the country with

. >> when benjamin franklin stops traffic for you. >> philadelphia houses are built -- >> kind of likeof tension? >> i'm not sure what you mean. >> is this thing on? >> hey, do you have a message for ben franklin? >> yeah. america's first weatherman. >> you guys went to school together, didn't you? >> let's go, let's go, everybody. >> start to pedal. >> i lost my phone. >> i'll go get it. >> direct descendant of ben franklin that's still around? >> barbara eden from "i dream of genie." >> do we have to tip? i left my wallet back at the hotel. >> is this the men's room? >> no, i invented it. >> it couldn't be used as a men's room? >> you go anywhere you need to go. we have chamber pots. >> no. >> try to get in. >> this is how you get in. >> can i do a selfie? >> benjamin franklin knows what a selfie is? of course he does. >> did you discover the selfie? ♪ >> the three of us are -- >> we're pedaling. >> pedaling. i look down o -- >> we got you, clayton. we'll carry you through. >> alexander hamilton. alexander hamilton. >> george hamilton. >> pedal, pedal, pedal power. pedal power. this

benjamin franklin. all of this coming up tonight on american history tv on c-span 3. >>> our road to the white house coverage continue this is afternoon with the first day of the democratic convention from philadelphia, with first lady michelle obama and senator bernie sanders scheduled to speak this evening. c-span's live coverage begins at 4:00 p.m. eastern time. >>> coming up next on the presidency, author richard brookhiser discusses the constitutional convention and the debate over whether the documents should include a bill of rights. mr. brookhiser explores the conflicting opinions of founding fathers george mason, james madison, thomas jefferson and alexander hamilton while also addressing how the bill of rights were eventually ratified by the new states. the nick historical society hosted this hour-long event. >>> so tonight's program is james madison, father of the constitution and it's part of our carl mingus lecture series in american history. i'd like that thank carl manage gus for all his support and helping us to create the series and for all he does as a valued member of new york historical s

so, benjamin franklin is apprenticed to his brother, and he teaches himself by pulling down the books from the shelf of his brother's publishing house and book store in boston. and it's addison and steele essays and "the spectator" and publications from the great essayists of london. and what franklin does is chops them up and distributes the paragraphs around and then tries to put them back in a better order so he could teach himself how to write. he said he was never quite sure that he became a great writer, but in fact, what he does is he becomes the best home-spun humor writer, i think, in american history. his brother, who i mentioned was an older brother, and being an older brother, would not let franklin write for the newspaper. so franklin ends up writing under a pseudonym, silence dogood. he puts a pen name on it and slips the essays he does under the door of his brother's print shop. and the brother and his friends. running the print shop, have no idea where they're coming from. and franklin has put on the persona of a widowed, elderly woman living in the countryside of massachusetts and writing these essays. the triumph o

we are at the betsy ross house, just off of independent small joined by philadelphia's most famous son, benjamin franklinwant to ask you what you think of the political convention going on in this town. >> i find it very interesting. it is not something i am familiar with. i am familiar with political parties in england for my time there. it is an interesting gathering of people and it seems to be democracy at work. >> this is being covered by over 10,000 members of the media. can you talk about the media in your day? >> the media in my day and i am guessing in yours, could change opinions. i will give you an example of the media in my day and tell you about our constitutional convention very briefly. in 1787 we met in the state house of pennsylvania to form a constitution and we had people come from all parts of the country with various views and interests. we decided we were going to meet in secret for months. we met in a close up statehouse where no media access was had. that is how we were able to get a constitution. i do believe had we had this analyzed in the press every day, that probably some peo