Library Company of Philadelphia records

The Library Company of Philadelphia (LCP) was founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) and a group of like-minded Philadelphians as a subscription library supported by its shareholders. Starting with the first group of fifty tradesmen who formed the library, shareholders provided financial support each year for the Library Company's mission to "pour forth benefits for the common good." The institution was administered by a Secretary, a Treasurer, and a board of directors, along with a Librarian and eventually other staff.

The Library Company quickly became the most important book resource for colonial Philadelphians, but it also built a significant collection of pamphlets, prints, maps, printed ephemera, graphic arts materials, and even scientific equipment and other objects thanks to a collecting policy that was responsive to the needs of its intellectually alert and economically ambitious membership.

Its membership, resources, and collections grew over the years, sometimes thanks to mergers with other institutions. The Library Company absorbed the Union Library Company in 1769. The Union Library Company had been founded in 1746 and itself had recently absorbed the Amicable Library Company and the Association Library Company of Philadelphia, both founded in 1757. Later, the Loganian Library was annexed to the Library Company in 1792, though its operations remained separate into the 20th century. The Pennsylvania Library of Foreign Literature and Science was added to the Library Company in 1840.

The Library Company published its first catalog of holdings in 1741, and continued publishing periodic updates of its holdings as either full catalogs (through 1856) or shorter listings of newly added titles (through at least the 1880s). The Library Company eventually created its first card catalog in 1876 to supplement the printed catalogs.

The first few homes for the Library Company were actually in the residences of its Librarians. Then, from 1740 to 1773, the Library Company was based on the second floor of the newly finished west wing of the State House of Pennsylvania (now Independence Hall). In 1773, the Library Company rented space in the newly constructed Carpenters' Hall, located roughly one block away near 4th and Chestnut Streets. Later, the Library Company would construct its own building near the corner of 5th and Chestnut Streets and operate there from 1791 to 1878.

In 1878, the Library Company moved to a new building funded by a bequest from Dr. James Rush (1786-1869) at Broad and Christian Streets. The Library Company remained at that location until 1965, but it also operated a branch more convenient to its members at Juniper and Locust Streets from 1880 to 1939. The Library Company moved to 1314 Locust Street in 1965.

Over its long history, the Library Company's directors and shareholders have included many notable Philadelphians. In the institution's early years, shareholders included surveyor Benjamin Eastburn (d. 1741), silversmith Philip Syng, Dr. Thomas Cadwalader (1707-1779), schoolmaster Francis Alison (1705-1779), builder-architect Samuel Rhoads (1711-1784), secretary Richard Peters (1704-1776) of the Governor's Council, and a bit later the merchant-patriot Charles Thomson (1729-1824) and John Dickinson (1732-1808), the "Pennsylvania Farmer."

Women had also been part of the Library Company from its founding, using the privileges that came with their male relatives' shareholding. For example, Mary Langdale Coates paid to maintain her deceased husband's share from 1749 to 1770. The first women to be named as shareholders themselves were Susanna Carmalt and Sarah Emlen, who both had been shareholders in the Union Library Company and therefore gained Library Company shares when the two institutions merged on April 6, 1769. A third woman, Sarah Wistar, was approved as a Library Company shareholder just a few weeks later.

To date, no evidence has been found in the collection to indicate whether the Library Company either welcomed or turned away Philadelphia's growing Black community or other people of color. However, at least up through 1881, the Library Company's list of shareholders included none of the prominent Black men who had the type of wealth and strong civic connections that typically opened doors to shareholding.

Despite its subscription model, the Library Company served as "the City Library" or "the Philadelphia Library" until the late 19th century.

It became the de facto Library of Congress when the First Continental Congress met in 1774 below the library's rented rooms in Carpenter's Hall, and it continued in that role until the nation's capital moved from Philadelphia to Washington, D. C. in 1800.

It remained the largest "public" library in the U.S. until the 1850s.

After the Civil War, the position of the Library Company and similar American subscription libraries slowly shifted. By the time the Free Library of Philadelphia opened its doors in 1895, the Library Company was struggling to maintain its membership. However, its collections remained a key asset. In the 1950s, the Library Company pivoted to become a scholarly research library focused on its early American collection.

FURTHER READING:

At the Instance of Benjamin Franklin: A Brief History of The Library Company of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 2015).

Dorothy Fear Grimm, "A History of the Library Company of Philadelphia 1731-1835" (PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1955).

Sean D. Moore, Slavery and the Making of Early American Libraries: British Literature, Political Thought, and the Transatlantic Book Trade 1731-1814 (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2019).

The records of the Library Company of Philadelphia provide detailed information about the founding and operations of the Library Company, as well as the operations of several other subscription libraries that merged into the Library Company in the 18th century.

The processed portion of the collection details the Library Company's founding in 1731 as a private subscription library, its operations and evolution over the next 150 years, and the work of the men and women who became its members, directors, and staff.

The records include a wide breadth of materials, including directors' meeting minutes, administrative files, correspondence, financial records, collection and cataloging records, exhibition documents, and the activities of various directors and staff.

The collection also includes staff-compiled photocopies of records in other repositories. Those are arranged at the end of each series, with photocopies of earlier records arranged before photocopies of later records.

The collection also provides information on several other libraries that eventually merged into the Library Company, including the Loganian Library, the Union Library Company, the Association Library Company, and the Amicable Library, as well as some of the men and women who became members, directors, and eventually staff of those institutions. The Library Company also acquired the collections and shareholders of the Pennsylvania Library of Foreign Literature and Science in 1841, but that acquisition did not include the records of that institution.

Please note that only the first 150 years of the Library Company's records – 1731 to 1881 – are fully described in this finding aid. Later materials have been processed and described here only when those records were interfiled with earlier records and/or were deemed essential for processing earlier records. Please reach out to Library Company reference staff with questions about unprocessed institutional records dating from 1882 to the present.

The collection is arranged into five record groups, and then arranged into series and sometimes subseries within those record groups. The record groups correspond to the Library Company of Philadelphia and four other institutions that merged into the Library Company's operations.

Generally, bound volumes are arranged physically by size and intellectually by series or subseries; beyond that, volumes are arranged chronologically. Loose sheets are arranged chronologically and then alphabetically by folder title. Undated items are arranged at the end of series/subseries, including the undated photocopies of materials in other repositories.

Record Group 1: Library Company of Philadelphia, 1731-circa 2001, undated

Series 1: Directors Records, 1731-circa 1920, undated

Subseries 1A: Annual Meetings, 1754-1881, undated Subseries 1B: Minutes, 1731-circa 1920, undated Subseries 1C: Miscellaneous Directors Records, 1741-1881, undated

Series 2: Governance / Administration, 1731-1986, undated

Subseries 2A: Administrative Records, 1731-1986, undated Subseries 2B: Real Estate Records, 1739-1890, undated Subseries 2C: Rush Bequest, 1783-circa 1930, undated

Series 3: Share Records, 1732-circa 2001, undated

Series 4: Collections, 1732-1984, undated

Subseries 4A: Collection Records, 1732-1889, undated Subseries 4B: Bookplates, circa 1746-1960, undated Subseries 4C: Circulation Records, 1781-1881, undated Subseries 4D: Catalogs and Inventories, 1741-1984, undated

Series 5: Other Publications, 1835-1882, undated

Subseries 5A: About the Library Company, 1835-circa 1853, undated Subseries 5B: Other Library Company Works, 1869-1882

Record Group 2: Loganian Library, 1700-1960, undated

Series 1: Administrative Records, 1700-1960, undated

Series 2: Collection Records, circa 1751-1879, undated

Record Group 3: Union Library Company, 1747-1769

Record Group 4: Amicable Library, 1757-1765

Record Group 5: Association Library Company of Philadelphia, 1764-1768

These are the institutional records of the Library Company of Philadelphia, and are the result of the work of the staff, trustees, directors, readers, and all other constituencies involved in its operations.

Accession numbers are noted in the finding aid either after folder titles or after volume numbers, as appropriate. Materials found in the collection and accessioned by the archivist during processing have been assigned accession numbers as part of either 12482.F or 12489.F.

Materials in this collection that date from 1731 through 1881 were part of the Library Company Papers Project: Archiving and Preserving Early American History. Papers Project processing and digitization were made possible through a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this resource do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. For additional information on NEH, visit www.neh.gov.

The collection was described using rules from Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS) and the Getty Art and Artifacts Thesaurus.

Many items described here have been digitized and are available online at https://librarycompany.org/lcppapersproject/.

The archivist and other staff determined during processing that the Library Company's bound accession books and circa-1876 card catalog are still being used as active institutional records. Therefore, they were not processed as part of this collection.

Please note that only the first 150 years of the Library Company's records – 1731 to 1881 – have been processed and fully described in this finding aid. Later materials were processed and described here only when those records were interfiled with earlier records and/or were deemed essential for processing earlier records. Please reach out to Library Company reference staff with questions about unprocessed institutional records dating from 1882 to the present.

Finding aid by Dana Dorman, October 2024

American Philosophical Society

Benjamin Franklin Papers 1642-1841 (Mss.B.F85), American Philosophical Society. https://search.amphilsoc.org/collections/view?docId=ead/Mss.B.F85-ead.xml

Haverford College

John Jay Smith papers (HC.MC-900), Haverford College Quaker and Special Collections, Haverford College. https://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/resources/hcmc-900

Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Coates and Reynell family papers (Collection #140), Historical Society of Pennsylvania. https://hsp.org/sites/default/files/legacy_files/migrated/findingaid0140coatesreynell.pdf

Daniel Parker papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Two collections (#0466 and 1587) currently have this title, so more research is needed to understand which includes the items cataloged in LCP Records as being from the "Daniel Parker Papers."

Minutes of directors' meetings, 1746; agreement between the Library Company of Philadelphia and Robert Greenway, librarian, 1747 (Am.316), Historical Society of Pennsylvania. https://discover.hsp.org/Record/ead-Am.316#description

Norris family papers (Collection #454), Historical Society of Pennsylvania. https://discover.hsp.org/Record/ead-0454/Description#tabnav

Library Company of Philadelphia

Jacobs Papers (14104.Q), Library Company of Philadelphia. This item includes an Association Library Company Shareholders Receipt Book, 1761-1762.

James Logan papers (Collection LCP.in.HSP107), Library Company of Philadelphia. https://discover.hsp.org/Record/ead-LCP.in.HSP107

Library Company of Philadelphia vs. William Logan Estate (Collection LCP.in.HSP219), Library Company of Philadelphia. https://discover.hsp.org/Record/ead-LCP.in.HSP219

McAllister Family Library Company of Philadelphia share collection (Call # Coll McAllister Shares 12036.F), Library Company of Philadelphia.

Smith family papers (Collection LCP.in.HSP33), Library Company of Philadelphia. https://discover.hsp.org/Record/ead-LCP.in.HSP33#description

The Librarian (Per L 22), Library Company of Philadelphia. This serial about Philadelphia libraries includes lists of recently added titles and other articles of interest.

Wolf papers (Collection EW2), Library Company of Philadelphia. https://findingaids.library.upenn.edu/records/LCP_LCP.EW2

University of Pennsylvania

Benjamin Franklin papers (Ms. Coll. 900), Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania. https://findingaids.library.upenn.edu/records/UPENN_RBML_PUSP.MS.COLL.900

Winterthur

Wistar family papers (Col. 94), The Winterthur Library. http://findingaid.winterthur.org/html/HTML_Finding_Aids/COL0094.htm

Use

Copyright restrictions may apply. Please contact the Library Company of Philadelphia with requests for copying and for authorization to publish, quote or reproduce the material.

Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box and folder numbers or volume number], Library Company of Philadelphia records (MSS00270), Library Company of Philadelphia.

Publisher

The Library Company of Philadelphia

Finding aids author

Dana Dorman

Date

October 4, 2024

Subject

Libraries

Research libraries

Subscription libraries

Place

Pennsylvania -- History

Pennsylvania -- History -- 1775-1865

Pennsylvania -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775

United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775

Philadelphia (Pa.)

Language

English

Form

Account books

Business correspondence

Catalogs

Minutes (Records)