Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790),US polymath,working as a printer on the 'The New-England Courant'. Later famed as a scientist,inventor,and one of the US Founding Fathers,Franklin first became an apprentice printer aged 12. From the age of 15 to 17 (1721 to 1723) he worked in Boston as a typesetter on this daily newspaper,founded by his older brother James Franklin (1697-1735). Hand presses were used to make hundreds of impressions daily. This reproduction is of the mural,from circa 1914,painted by Charles Elliott Mills (1856-1956) and located at the Franklin Institute,Boston,Massachusetts,USA |