Past Events

Ambassador Kislyak, Justice Scalia, Congressman Symington, distinguished American and Russian friends.

The origin of the concept of a “Renaissance man” is unclear. But this particular description of a sagacious individual conversant in multiple fields of learning couldn’t have originated earlier than the Renaissance and probably didn’t come into common usage until much later. The concept behind the phrase, however, is ancient. Aristotle, for instance, spoke of an individual of “universal education” who was capable of being “critical in all or nearly all branches of knowledge.”

We gather this evening to pay homage to two giants of the eighteenth century—Benjamin Franklin and Mikhail Lomonosov—for whom the appellation “Renaissance man” fits snugly. Their lives mirrored each other.

Born five years and an ocean apart, both transcended humble beginnings to move to the centers of their countries’ intellectual and political activity: Franklin, a candle-maker’s son, migrated from Boston to Philadelphia; Lomonosov, the son of a deep-sea fisherman, left a small village north of Archangel to make St. Petersburg his eventual home.

Both were devoted to scientific inquiry in wide-ranging ways. Astonishingly, each conducted experiments on the phenomenon of lightning at virtually the same time. Each found that lightning as it occurs in nature and electricity as it is created in the laboratory had the same properties.

Both loved words and their arrangement. Wit and eloquence characterized Franklin’s English; beauty and elegance, Lomonosov’s Russian.

Brothers in spirit, both were committed to the Enlightenment’s egalitarian emphasis on independent thinking, the advancement of knowledge, and individual opportunity through public education. Both founded a university, each of which continues to flourish.

Our 2011 Gala "Giants of Science:

Benjamin Franklin and Mikhail Lomonosov"

The following is an excerpt from a speech by Jim Leach, Chairman,

National Endowment for the Humanities at the American-Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation 2011 Gala "Giants of Science" at the Embassy of the Russian Federation on October 12, 2011 in Washington, D.C.

“Benjamin Franklin and Mikhail Lomonosov:

Eighteenth-century Brothers in Sprit"

By James Leach