Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

The founding of the United States is a fascinating era of history, and two of the more fascinating players are Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin. These kind of special issues of Time magazine are always keepers for information that is still, well, timely.

Happy Independence Day! And to our British friends, we hope you understand that it was just something that we had to do.

Michael Deas —Time — July 5, 2004

And, above, one of Deas' reference images for Thomas Jefferson.

Michael Deas — Time — July 7, 2003

Portrait of Ben Franklin from the National Portrait Gallery.