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The mastodon tooth, now preserved at the Independence National Historical Park, is an artifact of Franklin’s role in the social and scientific movement called the Enlightenment. Further, the tooth was a building block for the natural philosophers of the 18th and 19th century as they came to understand the process of evolution.
Benjamin Franklin's Mastodon Tooth
By K. Kris Hirst, About.com
Ancient Mastodons and the Enlightenment
Sketch of extinct mastodon, with inset photograph of mastodon tooth found on Benjamin Franklin's property.
Drawing Sarah Jeppson (2005), photograph Peter Harholdt (2004)Prev
- Artifact Spotlight: Benjamin Franklin and the Mastodon Tooth
- Ancient Mastodons and the Enlightenment
- Ancient Elephants and 18th Century Rationalists
- The Great Chain of Being
- Natural History and American Independence
- Benjamin Franklin's 300th Birthday
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