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Franklin exhibit debuts in Mountain Home
After nearly three years of planning, the Mountain Home Public Library played host to an exhibit highlighting the history of one of the nation's founding fathers.
Thursday's opening ceremony for the national Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary Library Traveling Exhibit started a six-week display at the city library.
Mountain Home was one of only 40 libraries across the United States and the only one in Idaho to play host to the traveling display, said Robin Murphy, who helped organize the event.
Appearing at the ceremony included Franklin re-enactor Gregg Hardy, who spends much of his free time learning more about the man he portrays. His collection of artifacts include many of Franklin's personal belongings, including a gauge he used to measure the Gulf Stream currents during his voyages across the Atlantic.
"I didn't look for Ben Franklin; he found me," Hardy said while talking to those gathered at Thursday's event.
A Utah native, Hardy and his wife, Deborah, and their son, William, periodically visit other communities posing as the colonial family. Often times, they dispel many of the rumors associated with Franklin's achievements.
His experiments with lightning remain one aspect of his life that tended to reflect quite a few inaccuracies, Hardy said. For example, he never flew the legendary kite into a thunderstorm. Instead, he flew the kite into a passing storm that produced a sufficient amount of static electricity, similar to people shuffling their feet across a carpeted floor.
Franklin also took better precautions against getting a jolt from the static charge, transferring it from the key to a knitting needle he held in his hand, Hardy said, using his hands to illustrate. Pictures all too often show his reaching out and actually touching the key with his bare hands, which simply didn't happen, he added.
The Franklin exhibit, which remains at the library through Aug. 27, includes photo-panels that incorporate representations of artifacts from the original Franklin exhibition in Philadelphia along with text written by the curator of the international traveling exhibition. The original 8,000-square-foot exhibit remained on display in Philadelphia for nearly a year before it went on an international tour.
The exhibition is free and open to the public at the library, located at 790 North 10th East Street adjacent to East Elementary School.
As part of the exhibit, the library staff and the local Friends of the Library organization host additional activities in honor of Ben Franklin. They include:
Ben's Night Out summer reading program -- 5:30 p.m. July 20. The family night program focuses on the "Kite 'n Keys" theme and allows participants to make kites during the evening and learn about Franklin's famous experiments with electricity.
Colonial Day at the Library -- 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 24. The event features demonstrations on how to make beeswax candles and soap along with a style show of colonial costumes. In addition, children have a chance to play colonial-era games along with homemade ice cream.
Boats 'n' Floats -- 5:30 p.m. July 27. The family night event features a boat regatta and ice cream social.
Armonica demonstration --7 p.m. Aug. 6 at Mountain Home High School. Feature one of the most unusual parts of the exhibition, musician William Zeitler will perform using the Armonica -- Franklin's musical invention. The piano-like instrument uses the same principal as that found by rubbing a wet finger around the lip of a wineglass in order to produce musical tones. Today, about a dozen Armonicas remain in existence with performances of the invention very rare, library officials said.
"1776" movie showing -- 6 p.m. Aug. 13 in the library conference room.
American Girl Tea festivities -- 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Aug. 14. The tea social includes music, parlor games and making crystal candy. Colonial period costume dress is welcome. Seating is limited to 60 people per session. For reservations, call the circulation desk by Aug. 7.
Invention Convention -- Aug. 17 to 24. The event encourages children and adults to bring their own inventions to the library for display to honor Franklin's creativity as an inventor.