Join Janine Boldt as she discusses 18th-century soap-making and why we should take trade sciences as seriously as the Franklins.

Jane Franklin Mecom once had to explain to her famous brother, “There is a good deal of Phylosephy in the working of crown soap.” Why was soap so difficult to master? Join Janine Boldt as she discusses 18th-century soap-making and why we should take trade sciences as seriously as the Franklins. Learn about the Franklin family soap recipe and about some of the women in the Franklin family who made, sold, and experimented with the trademark soap.

About the Speaker: Janine Yorimoto Boldt

Janine Yorimoto Boldt is the 2018-2020 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow. She is lead curator for the forthcoming exhibition, Dr. Franklin, Citizen Scientist, and was co-curator of Mapping a Nation: Shaping the Early American Republic. Janine received her Ph.D. in American Studies from William & Mary in 2018. Her current book project investigates the political function and development of portraiture in colonial Virginia.