Benjamin Franklin personifies the spirit and inventiveness of the modern world. His accomplishments read like an almanac of greatness:

Inventor; poet; philosopher; pamphleteer. Distinguished member of three national academies of science. America’s first Postmaster general. Founder of Philadelphia’s first police force, lending library, and theacademy which would become the University of Pennsylvania. Founder of the first fire insurance company. Delegate to the Constitutional Convention. Drafter of the Declaration of Independence. One of America’s most effective statesman and ambassadors.

But for all his achievements, and for all his wealth, the epitaph Franklin wrote for himself simply reads “Here lies the body of Ben Franklin, printer.”

In honoring his humble roots as printer’s apprentice, Benjamin Franklin reveals a lot about what made him great. It was the world of printing that first exposed Franklin to new books, writers, and ideas. Without this foundation, the rest of his accomplishment would not have been possible.

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