Monday, December 8, 2014

What might a page from Benjamin Franklin's journal have looked like?

Based on the materials in common use during his time, Benjamin Franklin's journal was most likely bound in leather with pages of either hemp, vellum, cotton, or wood-pulp paper. At this time, paper (of any material) was not regularly bleached, so it would likely have been a pale tan or yellow as opposed to the crisp white we are familiar with today. Franklin would have written using a calligraphy pen and ink, using a scrawling black script for his writing. Ink was commonly made from the hulls of black walnuts or pigments such as iron oxide and charcoal.


Franklin loved to read and write, so many of the entries in his journals were quite long. He often wrote of the events of his day, marking the progress of his travels and professional works. He was very interested in the concepts of virtue and morality, and made it a habit to keep track of his "virtues" in his journal by means of small marks. As he was also an inventor, it is possible he might have included small sketches or designs for his experiments. 


If you'd like to see a sample of Benjamin Franklin's diary, doodle included, please click here.

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