Franklin Museum

The Franklin Museum is located in the building that housed Franklin College from 1900 until the college merged with Muskingum in 1919 and then ceased operations at the building in 1921. From 1921 to 1971 the building housed grades 1-12 as Franklin School. From 1971 till 1987 it was New Athens school housing middle and elementary schools. The building became a museum in 1990.

What became Franklin College was chartered in 1825 as Alma College (soon changed to Franklin College) by abolitionist Reverend John Walker, a Presbyterian minister. The College was founded to be a center of learning that would instill high moral values. Walker also was co-founder of the village of New Athens, named for Athens, Greece to symbolize classical learning.

In it's one hundred years of existence Franklin was the institution the produced among graduates two governors, eight U.S. Senators, nine U.S Congressmen and twenty two state legislators. Among some other notable graduates were Titus Basfield, a former slave who was one of the first African American's graduated from an Ohio institution of high learning, and John Bingham, Congressmen and chief deputy prosecutor of Lincoln's assassins.

Because of the abolitionist sentiment espoused at Franklin College, it was considered a target for Morgan's Confederate Raiders when they came into the immediate area in 1863.

Franklin Museum's exhibits highlight the college and it's history. Other exhibits highlight the Civil War and days gone by. The museum also focuses on many other areas of local history and culture.