Penn's founder and Philadelphia's favorite son is set for a birthday celebration worthy of both his remarkable legacy and famous love of parties.
The centerpiece of the birthday celebrations will be an exhibition entitled Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World that will be held at the National Constitution Center from Dec. 15 through April 30.
In addition, the Greater Phila-delphia Tourism Marketing Corporation has created a self-guided walking tour of sites that Franklin frequented during his lifetime.
The Philadelphia Orchestra, Pennsylvania Ballet, Philadelphia Theatre Company and Plays and Players Theater will give performances in Franklin's honor.
Benjamin Franklin's 300th birthday will fall on Jan. 17 and the celebration being organized by a group known as the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary. They announced the plans last week, 300 days before the birthday.
The consortium includes the American Philosophical Society, the Franklin Institute Science Museum, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Penn.
Over the course of the celebration, some Philadelphia restaurants, including Le Castagne and Brasserie Perrier, will offer Franklin-themed menu items.
But perhaps the most innovative homage to Franklin is the Ben Franklin's Birthday Cake-Off, which will pit some of the city's finest pastry chefs against one another in a competition to create a cake for the birthday party.
"Americans are naturally connected to Franklin, the first Founding Father to turn 300. We've seen that in all of our planning for the 300th birthday celebration," said Rosalind Remer, executive director of the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary. "We can now build on that interest and introduce people to aspects of Franklin they may not have considered."
Penn is one of three members of the consortium to have been founded by Franklin.
Much of University Secretary Leslie Kruhly's involvement in the consortium has been in designing the National Constitution Center's exhibition.
"Each of the five institutions are lending pieces from their collections," Kruhly said. "Penn is loaning about 50 items from our art collection and the Annenberg Rare Book Library. There will be regional programs for Penn alums in each of the cities [the exhibition] is traveling to."
A 2002 act of Congress created the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary Commission -- with members appointed by President Bush -- to recommend government programs commemorating the anniversary.
"That was also the result of the five institutions in Philadelphia," Kruhly said. "We thought that in order to receive the prominence that we wanted for Philadelphia and for our efforts, it would be important to get the seal of approval of the White House."
Penn will be honoring Franklin separately by making a special edition of Franklin's autobiography the Penn Reading Project's next book. Kruhly said that a great effort was being made to increase awareness of Penn as "the university that Franklin created."
"There is always an interest in Franklin. He is just an incredible character," Kruhly said. "Penn's really lucky that, among the Ivies, we have a special position in that we were created by such genius and such a visionary."
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