(bright upbeat music) - This is the library.

And one time, this was one of the largest libraries in the United States with over 2000 books in this room.

And he acquired all these books in 10 years time after they burned his house down in Fairfield, England.

(fire roaring) - Priestley was pro-American.

He was an Englishman in England at the time of the American revolution whose politics were radical.

And in those days, radical meant pro-American.

(fantastical music) - He prepared his sermons in here.

He prepared his books his papers, and make count of his laboratory experiments in this room.

(trumpets buzzing) - Behind me you see a portrait of a lovely lady.

She was the mistress of the house.

Now it should have been Mary Priestley, Dr. Joseph Priestley's wife but she passed just before the house was finished.

Priestley's son, Joe Jr. and his wife, Elizabeth Ryland Priestley moved in with them along with their three children.

This lady would have overseen everything in the house.

And if you see her dress, she's dressed in regency style.

That was the latest fashion that she might have been the only one in town wearing it.

She also is wearing a Wedgwood necklace, which might have been given to her by Josiah Wedgwood at her wedding.

Wedgwood was a super good friend of Priestley's.

And if you look around this room, every dish is a Wedgwood and he made tools for Priestley and you will see three if you go to the left.

(trumpets buzzing) - This is the place where he would've done his science in the afternoon, and it's off his library.

And it's where he would explore all the things that he hadn't answered yet.

And I can almost guarantee you there wasn't any laboratories in Northumberland in the late 1700s.

(upbeat music) The laboratory was built adjacent to the house.

In it, there are two furnaces that would've been hot enough to produce all sorts of chemical reactions.

- And Priestley designed the lab to be separate from the house so that if there was an explosion the lab wall is designed to blow out but the house still stands.

(dramatic music) In addition, there's a special door to seal off the peculiar smells that would come from the chemistry lab, cause (indistinct) he didn't particularly care for those odors.

So while he was cooking up his stuff in the lab there's a special door to make sure the fumes don't get into the house itself.

(dramatic music) - I've been coming here, you know, as a Dosad for years and every time I come, I learn something new.

(uplifting music) - Out here we have our exhibit about Benjamin Franklin's close friendship with Joseph Priestley.

They met together in London in 1765.

Priestley got a book idea.

He wanted to write a book about Franklin and his circle of electrical scientists.

And he took all their notes with them and he proceeded to duplicate their experiments in the lab so he could write about them.

He then started inventing experiments of his own though.

Original experiments that they had not done.

And he was so good that Franklin decided to sponsor him for the Royal Society which was the top scientific organization in England.

So it only took six months for him to be elevated to the top scientific organization.

And then of course, to national prominence as a scientist and eventually world prominence, global prominence as a scientist.

(audience clapping) They had a friendship basically for the rest of Franklin's life.

They shared scientific information with one another and they shared a lot of political information with one another because Lord Shelburne who was Priestley's employer corresponds with Franklin who's in Paris with the American Commissioners proposing a peace treaty, which is also a great story, right?

(bright music)