In this lecture, author and historian Joyce E. Chaplin will discuss Franklin’s work as an early climate thinker, as explored in her latest book, The Franklin Stove: An Unintended American Revolution.

Designed during the bitter winters of the Little Ice Age, the Franklin stove was more than a household gadget; it was a bold scientific experiment that reimagined heat, air, and the environment itself.

Discover how Franklin’s stove reveals him as an early climate thinker—and why his 18th-century ideas about innovation and environmental change continue to spark debate today.

About the Lecturer:

Joyce E. Chaplin is the James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History in the Department of History at Harvard University, where she teaches the histories of science, climate, colonialism, and environment.

She serves on the Faculty Executive Board of the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture and is a Trustee of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the first historical society in the United States (1791).