The Library Company of Philadelphia is America’s oldest cultural institution. It was founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin as a subscription library supported by its shareholders, as it is to this day. From the Revolution War to 1800, when the national government was in Philadelphia, it also served as the library of Congress. Until the 1850s it was the largest public library in America. The Library Company’s collections grew with the nation and reflect the country’s many faces and varied interests. All of the books the Library Company acquired year by year over more than two and a half centuries are still on its shelves, along with many others added since it was transformed into a research library in the 1950s. In the 21 st century, the Library Company serves as a resource for a variety of readers, from high school students to senior scholars, from novelists to film producers, and anyone else with an interest in our collections.
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At the Instance of Benjamin Franklin: A Brief History of the Library Company of Philadelphia
The Library Company of Philadelphia, Revised and Enlarged 1995. 112 pp. Illustrated (color) [ISBN 0-914076-73-6] A lively account of the history of America's oldest cultural institution illustrated in full color with more than one hundred of its most beautiful and important books, graphics, and works of art. Complete Text in PDF: http://www.librarycompany.org/about/instance.pdf Order your copy today: |
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The eminent Franklin scholar J. A. Leo Lemay, the H. F. du Pont Winterthur Professor of English at the University of Delaware, has published the first two volumes of his projected seven-volume biography, The Life of Benjamin Franklin. The second volume, titled Printer and Publisher, 1730-1747, includes a chapter on the Library Company that is the most comprehensive treatment of its founding by Franklin in 1731 and its subsequent history over the next several decades. Through the courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania Press we have been able to place this chapter on our website. Chapter in PDF: http://www.librarycompany.org/Lemay1.pdf Notes in PDF: http://www.librarycompany.org/Lemay2.pdf And you can order the volume from Penn Press by following this link: http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14188.html |