author
Benjamin Franklin Wilson
b. 1867
Best remembered for writing about Nashville’s full-scale Parthenon replica, this early 20th-century author blended local history, architecture, and civic pride in a way that still feels vivid today. His books invite listeners into both ancient Greece and the story of how one American city chose to recreate a classical wonder.
1 Audiobook
The Parthenon at Athens, Greece and at Nashville, Tennessee
by Benjamin Franklin Wilson
About the author
Born in Virginia in 1867, Benjamin Franklin Wilson III later made his career in Nashville, Tennessee. Records connected with his life identify him with the city’s Parthenon, and his published work shows a strong interest in history, architecture, and the cultural life of Nashville.
He is known for books including The Parthenon of Pericles and Its Reproduction in America (1937), The Parthenon at Athens, Greece and at Nashville, Tennessee, and The Negro as I Have Known Him, 1867-1943 (1946). Taken together, these works suggest a writer who cared about preserving memory—whether of a famous classical monument, its American counterpart, or the people and eras he had witnessed.
Wilson died in 1956. While he is not widely known today, his writing remains valuable for readers interested in Nashville history, the afterlife of classical architecture in America, and the perspective of an author who wrote from close involvement with the institutions he described.