It ’s one of those Thanksgiving fun fact I loved repeating when I was a shaver : Ben Franklin liked Meleagris gallopavo so much that he wanted them to be our national bird , instead of the bald eagle . It ’s apopular fun fact . But I was shattered to learn as an adult that this little nugget of trivium is n’t quite truthful .
So where does this myth come from ? Back in 1784 , Franklin wrote a letter to his girl in which he disapproves of the country follow the bald-pated eagle as our internal symbolization . He claims that the draft that had been produced see like a turkey anyway and that such a bird would really be preferable to the bird of Jove . Franklin explained that the bald eagle had a “ bad moral character ” and was a “ rank coward ” that merely steals from other birds .
In Franklin ’s letter from Paris to his daughter , datedJanuary 26 , 1784 :
I am on this account not displeased that the figure is not known as an Eagle , but looks more like a Turkey . For the verity , the Turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird , and withal a true original indigene of America … He is besides , though a small vain and silly , a shuttle of courage , and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British Guards who should make bold to obtrude upon his farm yard with a red pelage on .
So yes , he did drift the estimation that a turkey might be a better bird for a national symbol . But only within the context that mass were claiming the bald eagle symbol already looked like a bomb . He never actually advocated this notion publicly or seriously .
AsSmithsonianmagazine points out , this little fun fact has evolve and grown more popular over the course of the last half C , help by a 1962 New Yorker blanket ( picture above ) have the turkey in place of the bald-pated eagle .
So feel spare to work the obnoxious bookworm over Thanksgiving dinner after everybody is decent and liquored up . But ensure you call “ DEBUNKED ” as you flip over the dinner board . “ FACTUALLY RULES , ” is also acceptable .
prototype : Illustration of Ben Franklin circa 1750 via Getty ; New Yorker cover via theNew Yorker archive
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