{"id":775862,"date":"2026-05-05T22:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T22:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/775862\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T22:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T22:22:13","slug":"collection-of-benjamin-franklin-items-on-display-before-auction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/775862\/","title":{"rendered":"Collection of Benjamin Franklin items on display before auction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\">Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>The yellowed letter made its way across the Atlantic Ocean, from London to Philadelphia, in early 1774.\n<\/p>\n<p>In it, Benjamin Franklin sent a brief greeting to his wife, Deborah Read Franklin, noting that he had just written her another letter that he had sent along with an earlier ship.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut as I know you like to have a letter by every ship,\u201d Franklin wrote in smooth, flowing strokes. \u201cI add this line by Captain Faulkner, just to let you know that I continue, thanks to God, in good health and spirit, and propose setting my face homeward in May next, God willing.\u201d\n  <\/p>\n<p>The letter is signed, \u201cI am ever your affectionate husband, B. Franklin.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>Franklin did indeed return to Philadelphia in May 1775, but by that time, his wife had passed away, following complications from a stroke.\n<\/p>\n<p>This letter is part of a selection of prized Franklin materials currently on display at The Library Company of Philadelphia. The items are part of the extensive Jay T. Snider collection of Benjamin Franklin, which will be auctioned off at Sotheby\u2019s in June.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have collected rare Americana for 46 years, and my greatest joy was in studying the most remarkable American, Benjamin Franklin,\u201d Snider said in a statement. \u201cI am so pleased that it is\u00a0now in Sotheby\u2019s expert hands, where evermore valuable information will be added, for the benefit of the next owners and our understanding of American history.\u201d<br \/>\n<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-740529\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/franklin-letter-2026-05-05.png\" alt=\"A close-up photo of an archival handwritten letter.\" width=\"1000\" height=\"912\"  \/>Letter from Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Read Franklin, 1774. (Courtesy of Sotheby\u2019s)\n<\/p>\n<p>Snider has been a collector for decades, previously interested in items relating to American history in general, then Philadelphia, before ultimately focusing on Franklin.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI used to say that Jay narrowed his focus,\u201d said Selby Kiffer, the international senior specialist for books and manuscripts at Sotheby\u2019s. \u201cBut I realize when you get to Benjamin Franklin, it\u2019s not narrow at all. It\u2019s as broad as it can possibly be.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>Kiffer said the highlights chosen for the brief exhibit at The Library Company speak to Franklin\u2019s inseparable bond with the city.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can\u2019t think of Franklin without thinking of Philadelphia,\u201d he said. \u201cConversely, you can\u2019t think of Philadelphia without thinking of Ben.\u201d\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":775863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,82064,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-775862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-benjamin-franklin","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}