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SearchGo Advanced Search Skip main navigationJournal menuClose Drawer MenuOpen Drawer MenuHome Home Content Published ahead of print Latest issue All content Subject collections Blog posts Information for Authors Guest organizers Reviewers Readers Institutions About us About the journal Editorial board Author benefits Policies Journal metrics Open access Sign up Purchase eTOC alerts RSS feeds Newsletters Request a free trial Submit Restricted access MoreSections Get Access Get Access Tools Add to favorites Download Citations Track Citations Share Share on Facebook Twitter Linked In Reddit Email Cite this article Sweet Jessie M. 1952Benjamin Franklin’s purseNotes Rec. R. Soc. Lond.9308–309http://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.1952.0018 Section Restricted accessArticle Benjamin Franklin’s purse Jessie M. Sweet Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author Jessie M. Sweet Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author Published:01 May 1952https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.1952.0018 Abstract Shortly before the war an inquiry from the editor of an American periodical led to the identification of an interesting specimen of worked asbestos as the purse which was brought over from America by Benjamin Franklin and sold to Sir Hans Sloane in 1725. The collections of Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753), President of the Royal Society and Court Physician, have been described elsewhere. At his death they were bought for the nation by a state lottery and formed the nucleus of the present British Museum collections. In 1725 when Sloane was at the height of his fame, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), an impecunious young man of nineteen, arrived in this country. His intention was to acquire material to set up as a government printer in Pennsylvania, and he had been promised letters of credit by the governor, Sir William Keith. These, however, failed to materialize, and Franklin found it difficult to make ends meet. Eventually he obtained work as a compositor, and a kind landlady looked after him for 1s. 6d. a week. Footnotes This text was harvested from a scanned image of the original document using optical character recognition (OCR) software. As such, it may contain errors. Please contact the Royal Society if you find an error you would like to see corrected. Mathematical notations produced through Infty OCR. Previous Article Next Article Access options Sign in for Fellows of the Royal Society Please access the online journals via the Fellows’ Room Not a subscriber? You canrequest a library trial. Personal login Username or email Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Institutional login Purchase Save for later Item saved, go to cart Notes and Records - PPV issue - 25 to 69 years old $22.00 Add to cart Notes and Records - PPV issue - 25 to 69 years old Checkout Restore content access Figures Related References Details 31 May 1952 Volume 9Issue 2 Article Information DOI:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.1952.0018 Published by:Royal Society History: Published online01/01/1997 Published in print01/05/1952 Copyright and usage: Scanned images copyright © 2017, Royal Society Statistics from Altmetric Close Figure Viewer Browse All FiguresReturn to FigureChange zoom levelZoom inZoom out Previous FigureNext Figure Caption NOTES AND RECORDS About this journal Contact information Purchasing information Submit Author benefits Open access membership Recommend to your library Help Author benefits Purchasing information Submit Open access membership Recommend to your library Contact information Help ROYAL SOCIETY PUBLISHING Our journals Open access Publishing policies Permissions Conferences Videos Blog Manage your account Terms & conditions Privacy policy Cookies Our journals Historical context Open access Publishing policies Permissions Conferences Videos Blog Manage your account Terms & conditions Privacy policy Cookies THE ROYAL SOCIETY About us Contact us Fellows Events Grants, schemes & awards Topics & policy Collections Venue hire About us Contact us Fellows Events Grants, schemes & awards Topics & policy Collections Venue hire Back to top Copyright © 2021 The Royal Society