Support for Ben Franklin's world comes from the

Omaha Institute of Early American History and Culture.

In October 2015, the Omaha Institute became the primary U.S.

partner for the Georgian Papers Program.

The Georgian Papers consists of manuscripts, letters, maps, and other documents created by

members of the British Court during the reigns of King George the First through King George

the Fourth.

These papers are invaluable and hard to gain access to, but the Omaha Institute is helping

scholars gain access to them through its partnership and fellowship programs.

Finn Coretta, a professor of English at the University of Maryland,

served as the inaugural Senior Fellow of the Georgian Papers Program.

When I asked Vinh about his experiences,

he told me what having access to the collection meant for his research

and what his expertise meant for the archivists who work on the collection meant for his research and what his expertise meant for the

archivists who work on the collection. This is an archive that I've been fantasizing

about getting access to for maybe 30 years because I've always wondered you know what's in there especially

in relationship to the people that I've been working on.

One of the people that I've worked on is named Attobach Couguano and he was enslaved in Africa, brought to the New World, and eventually found

his way to England where he entered the employ of Richard Cosway.

Richard Cosway was the principal painter to the Prince Regent, the future George the 4th.

And Kuguano's book, he wrote an anti-slavery book that he published in 1787 and he had some letters in another archive,

a Gloucestershire record office, one of which is a letter to the Prince of Wales, and it's clearly a letter that would have

...