Upcoming & Current Events
Celebrate Freedom’s Prophet with the Library Company
Thursday, June 19
5:30-7:00 p.m.
Reception begins at 5:30 p.m.; reading and book signing begin at 6:00 p.m.
Freedom’s Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers by Richard S. Newman is a long-overdue biography of Richard Allen (1760–1831), founder of the first major African American church and the leading black activist in the age of Washington and Jefferson. A tireless minister, abolitionist, and reformer, Allen inaugurated some of the most important institutions in African American history and influenced nearly every Black leader of the 19th century, from Frederick Douglass to W.E.B. Dubois. The book restores Allen to his rightful place in history as one of America’s “Black Founders.”
Free and open to the public, but space is limited. RSVP early to 215-546-3181 or sthompson-nowak@librarycompany.org.
“Black Founders: The Free Black Community in the Early Republic”
The struggle of American blacks to secure rights as citizens—as free people—began years before our first bearded President took up his pen. The Library Company’s newest exhibition will feature Absalom Jones, Richard and Sarah Allen, and many others who worked for the end of slavery long before Abraham Lincoln. It packs in over two centuries of history, creating a sense of slavery’s scope in American history. The issues of abolitionism, exodus, and white supremacy consumed popular media for decades before the Civil War. “Black Founders” will give visitors a choice view of items important in the development of liberty and justice for all.
The exhibition runs from March 10 - October 10, and is open to the public free of charge from 9:00am to 4:45 pm, Monday through Friday.
Incarceration Nation
The McNeil Center for Early American Studies and the Library Company of Philadelphia, in cooperation with the Department of History of the University of Maryland, College Park and the Department of English of the College of New Jersey, will convene a conference in Philadelphia, April 3-4 2009, on the experience of the incarcerated in jails and prisons in early America. Click Here to Learn More.
The Library Company is closed on the following holidays:
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: Monday, January 15
President’s Day: Monday, February 18
Good Friday: Friday, March 21
Memorial Day: Monday, May 26
Independence Day: Friday, July 4
Labor Day: Monday, September 1
Thanksgiving: Thursday, November 27 & Friday, November 28
Christmas: Thursday, December 25 & Friday, December 26
All events at the Library Company are open to the public unless noted otherwise. RSVPs are required; please phone 215-546-3181 ext 133 or send email to: cdeemer@librarycompany.org