American Philosophical Society

Purpose: Sustaining Cultural Heritage On February 3, 1781, Benjamin Franklin met Russian princess Ekaterina Dashkova at the Hotel de Chine in Paris. It was a meeting between two great figures of the Enlightenment who will be the subject of a 2006 exhibition, "Princess and Patriot: Ekaterina Dashkova, Benjamin Franklin, and the Age of Enlightenment." The show will explore the life and times of these two figures, consider their struggle to reconcile discrepancies between the Enlightenment ideals they espoused and actual practices in their lives, and relate their struggle to our world today. Dashkova was director of the Russian Academy of Science and president of the Russian Literary Academy. A woman of great talent and charisma who was sometimes called "Catherine the Little," she had tumultuous relationships with everyone from Catherine the Great to her own children. The exhibition is part of the Society's celebration of the tercentenary of Franklin's birth; its aim is to celebrate and convey information about two important historical figures and to see their lives through a contemporary lens, in order to examine some of the ideals upon which our nation was founded. The society will use the grant to develop interpretive techniques for the exhibit based on audience preferences and further engage visitors through public programs, a catalog, and a symposium.