What is the history of the Franklin Gothic Book font?

Franklin Gothic and its related faces are realist sans-serif typefaces originated by Morris Fuller Benton (1872-1948) in 1902. It was named in honor of a prolific American printer, Benjamin Franklin. "Gothic" is an increasingly archaic term meaning sans-serif. Franklin Gothic has been used in many advertisements and headlines in newspapers. The typeface continues to maintain a high profile, appearing in a variety of media from books to billboards. Despite a period of eclipse in the 1930s, after the introduction of such European faces as Kabel and Futura, they were re-discovered by American designers in the 1940s and have remained popular ever since. The design is based on Aksidenz-Grotesk.