The Franklin Institute Science Museum

The Franklin Institute is the memorial to Benjamin Franklin, that serves to perpetuate his legacy; the museum contains many of Franklin's personal effects. On February 5, 1824, Samuel Vaughan Merrick and William H. Keating founded The Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts. The Franklin Institute hired notable Philadelphia architect, John Haviland, to design its original building located at 15 South 7th Street, (Now the home of the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia).