This sculpture of Benjamin Franklin is located in front of old Boston City Hall. The 1856 work by Richard Saltonstall Greenough is listed on Smithsonian Inventory (
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"Sculpture: bronze; Base: marble and granite.
Dimensions:
Sculpture: approx. 8 ft. 4 in. x 2 ft. 2 in. x 2 ft. 2 in.; Base: approx. 9 ft. 3 in. x 7 ft. 6 in. x 7 ft. 6 in.
Inscription:
(Inscribed on statue proper right:) RICHARD S. GREENOUGH FECIT BOSTON 1855 (Inscribed on statue proper left in script:) Ames Mfg. Co. Founders Chicopee Mass. (Inscribed front plaque left side:) R. S. Greenough (Inscribed front plaque right side:) Ames Mfg. Co. Found/Chicopee Mass. (Inscribed back plaque:) Eripuil Coelo Fulmen Sceptrumque Tyrannis (Inscribed back plaque lower right:) R.S. Greenough fecit 1857 (Inscribed back plaque lower left:) Ames Mfg. Co. founders/Chicopee Mass. signed Founder's mark appears.
Description:
A full-length standing figure of Franklin on square pedestal with four relief panels showing scenes from Franklin's life. He is wearing a colonial suit and holds his tricorn hat in his proper left hand. The relief panels depict Franklin as a young boy learning to print; at the signing of the Declaration of Independence; drawing electricity from the clouds; and signing the Treaty of Paris in 1873."
and Wikipedia (
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"Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1705][1] – April 17, 1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A renowned polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions. He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphia's fire department and a university.
Franklin earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity, first as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies. As the first United States Ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation. Franklin was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, and opposition to authoritarianism both political and religious, with the scientific and tolerant values of the Enlightenment. In the words of historian Henry Steele Commager, "In a Franklin could be merged the virtues of Puritanism without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment without its heat." To Walter Isaacson, this makes Franklin "the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become."
Franklin, always proud of his working class roots, became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies. With two partners he published the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper that was known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticisms of the British policies. He became wealthy publishing Poor Richard's Almanack and The Pennsylvania Gazette. Franklin was also the printer of books for the Moravians of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (1742 on). Franklin's printed Moravian books (printed in German) are preserved, and can be viewed, at the Moravian Archives located in Bethlehem. Franklin visited Bethlehem many times and stayed at the Moravian Sun Inn...
Success as an author
Franklin's The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle (Jan. 1741)
In 1733, Franklin began to publish the noted Poor Richard's Almanack (with content both original and borrowed) under the pseudonym Richard Saunders, on which much of his popular reputation is based. Franklin frequently wrote under pseudonyms. Although it was no secret that Franklin was the author, his Richard Saunders character repeatedly denied it. "Poor Richard's Proverbs", adages from this almanac, such as "A penny saved is twopence dear" (often misquoted as "A penny saved is a penny earned") and "Fish and visitors stink in three days", remain common quotations in the modern world. Wisdom in folk society meant the ability to provide an apt adage for any occasion, and Franklin's readers became well prepared. He sold about ten thousand copies per year (a circulation equivalent to nearly three million today). In 1741 Franklin began publishing The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle for all the British Plantations in America, the first such monthly magazine of this type published in America.
In 1758, the year he ceased writing for the Almanack, he printed Father Abraham's Sermon, also known as The Way to Wealth. Franklin's autobiography, begun in 1771 but published after his death, has become one of the classics of the genre."