Franklin is an iconic part of the PEANUTS family and a touring exhibit paying homage to the character is making a stop for a very limited time at the 2024 Knott’s PEANUTS Celebration.

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Coordinated by the Charles M. Schulz Museum of Research Center, the exhibit explores the character’s creation which started, in part, thanks to correspondence to Schultz himself from a Los Angeles school teacher, Harriet Glickman. The exhibit features letters from her and others after the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. encouraging the prolific cartoonist to add a black character to the line up of his iconic characters.

Because of this correspondence, Schulz would eventually introduce Franklin in the summer of 1968. Other pieces on display include comic strips from the multiday storyline of when Franklin and Charlie Brown first met at the beach, as well as the story of how Franklin Armstrong’s last name came to be, as told by the cartoonist Robb Armstrong.

There is a photo backdrop inside the exhibit where you may spot Franklin himself, ready to snap photos and give hugs! There’s also a drawing station with paper and pencils and a backlit table scape that will let you trace over some iconic poses of the various Peanuts characters. Ironically, Franklin is unfortunately not included here.