In celebration of his 300th birthday this year, “Benjamin Franklin” has been visiting Maine Schools. On April 5, Mr. Franklin visited the Swan’s Island School and Town Library, where he met with students and community members.
Students from nearby Frenchboro traveled to Swan’s Island on a lobster boat to attend the presentation as well. Mr. Franklin visited with Swan’s Island students in their classrooms, prior to an all school assembly. He spoke about his life, his experiments and many of his inventions, including bifocals and the lightning rod.
Living history interpreter Richard Fox portrayed “Benjamin Franklin.” Living history interpreters strive for accuracy in all parts of their portrayal — clothing, demeanor, behavior and speech. First person portrayals are particularly challenging, and Mr. Fox is recognized for the high quality of his Benjamin Franklin.
At the conclusion of the program, the children sang “Happy Birthday” to Mr. Franklin and enjoyed birthday cake, decorated with a kite and key attached to the kite string to symbolize one of his most famous experiments.
The visits to area schools were coordinated by McGaffery’s Creek History Resources, a Maine nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering the love and knowledge of American history through living history and other types of educational programming and consulting services. Candis Joyce, of the Swan’s Island Educational Society, which oversees the Swan’s Island Library, arranged for Mr. Franklin’s visit to the island.
Fox, who lives in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area, has done film work with the History Channel and WITF-TV, part of the Pennsylvania Public Television Network, as well as portraying Franklin in the new film being produced for the Mount Vernon Visitors’ Center. He will soon be seen in “Nine Months at Yorktown,” produced by WITF, and “The Masons” and “The Revolutionary War,” both being produced by the History Channel.