The Library Company of Philadelphia

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Visit our “Tour Destination: Philadelphia” page to see the entire walking tour of the first Philadelphia cluster of Save America’s Treasures sites.

The Library Company of Philadelphia.

Craven Street (London) platform at the traveling exhibition
"Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World."
Courtesy Benjamin Franklin 300.

The Library Company of Philadelphia

1314 Locust Street

Philadelphia, PA

Website:  The Library Company of Philadelphia

and

The Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary

The Treasure:  The Library Company of Philadelphia served as the lead agency in an application for a Save America’s Treasures grant to conserve Benjamin Franklin-related items at many sites.  These items were included in a major traveling exhibition sponsored by the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary Commission, formed to organize exhibitions and other projects to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Franklin’s birth.  Some of the conserved treasures included:

Electrical Machine, ca. 1742-1747,
designed by Benjamin Franklin.
Walnut, glass, iron, and leather.
59" x 28" x 24"
Library Company of Philadelphia,
Gift of Benjamin Franklin Bache, 1792. 

—    Franklin’s electrical machine from the Library Company collection:  “The machine first used by Dr. Franklin in making electrical experiments.”

—    Books from Franklin’s personal library from the Library Company collection

—    Franklin imprints (newspapers, books, pamphlets, and broadsides) from the Library Company collection

—    A Franklin-designed library chair from the American Philosophical Society

—    The only surviving Franklin stoveplate from Historic Bartram’s Garden

—    The only existing first issue of the first edition of the 1733 Poor Richard’s Almanack from the Rosenbach Museum and Library

—    Franklin’s glass armonica from the Franklin Institute

—    Portrait bust of Franklin by Jean-Antoine Houdon from the Philadelphia Museum of Art

—    Franklin’s promotional fundraising booklet Some Account of the Pennsylvania Hospital (1756) from Pennsylvania Hospital

—    An odometer designed by Franklin from the Franklin Institute

—    And many other treasures from the above sites and others, including Independence National Historical Park, the Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent.

Library Company of Philadelphia Accessibility:  The Library Company of Philadelphia is open to the public free of charge.

Benjamin Franklin’s Electrical Machine is on view in the Logan Room, a gallery for their permanent collection of art and artifacts. (Note: It will be on loan from Sept.-Dec. 2012.) Here is a panorama of the Logan Room offering a 360 degree view. The Electrical Machine can also be seen through the Library Company’s online exhibition.

The Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary exhibition Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World will be on display at the National Archives (Washington, DC) from February 10 to May 6, 2012.

The Library Company of Philadelphia.

Notes on the Library Company of Philadelphia:  The Library Company is America’s first successful lending library and 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.

During the early years of the United States, books were not widely available. Standard English reference works were expensive and difficult to find: they had to be shipped to the colonies from Europe, and the average person could not afford to purchase the books that well-rounded intellectuals thought worth reading.

In 1731, Benjamin Franklin convinced members of the Junto, his “society of mutual improvement,” to pool their resources and purchase a collection of books none could have afforded individually. Articles of Agreement were drafted on July 1, 1731, and the Library Company of Philadelphia was established when 50 founding shareholders signed on. Each contributed 40 shillings and agreed to pay ten shillings per year thereafter. As the Library Company’s collection grew, the book capital of each shareholder expanded as well.

The collections grew with the nation and reflect the country’s many faces and varied interests. From the Revolutionary War to 1800, when the national government was in Philadelphia, the Library Company also served as the Library of Congress. Until the 1850s it was the largest public library in America. 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 21st 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 their collections.

Notes from the Editor:  This one is very special to me as I wrote the successful Save America’s Treasures request for this project. Franklin artifacts had been largely dispersed in the decades following his death. It was thrilling to see so many important historic artifacts come together for the first time in centuries for the great Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary exhibition that opened at the National Constitution Center (Philadelphia, PA) in 2005.

Science platform at the traveling exhibition
"Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World."
Courtesy Benjamin Franklin 300.

Subsequently, the blockbuster exhibition Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World traveled to the Missouri History Museum (St. Louis, MO), the Houston Museum of Natural Science (Houston, TX), the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (Denver, CO), and the Atlanta History Center (Atlanta, GA), concluding with exhibitions at the Musée Carnavalet and the Musée des Arts et Métiers (Paris, France) in honor of Franklin’s achievements as Ambassador to France during the Revolutionary War. The exhibition was then reprised, in a somewhat smaller configuration, by the Minnesota Historical Society and after its showing in Minneapolis, it has traveled to the Bowers Museum (Santa Ana, CA), the Heinz History Center (Pittsburgh, PA), and the Gerald Ford Presidential Library (Grand Rapids, MI). Its final venue will be the National Archives in Washington, DC, where it will be on view from February 10 to May 6, 2012.

Conservators at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts were responsible for overseeing the conservation treatment for the entire project. The Conservation Center treated and rehoused most of the manuscript and printed materials and managed work by paintings conservator Steven Erisoty, objects conservator Kory Berrett, furniture conservator Tom Heller, and textile conservator Virginia Whelan. In addition, conservation work was performed at in-house laboratories at the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the American Philosophical Society.

Many of the conserved items continue to be featured on the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary website. In addition, key items were depicted on a traveling panel exhibit, sponsored by the American Library Association and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, which traveled to 40 libraries in 31 states through 2011. Thanks to these exhibitions, hundreds of thousands of people were able to learn about Benjamin Franklin through the authentic American treasures that serve as signposts to Franklin’s life and achievements.

Other Recommended Sites:  Visit other sites that have original Franklin items that were conserved through Save America’s Treasures. These sites include:  the American Philosophical Society, the Franklin Institute, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Rosenbach Museum and Library, Bartram’s Garden, Independence National Historic Park, the Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent, and Pennsylvania Hospital.

Market Street (Philadelphia) platform at the traveling exhibition
"Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World."
Courtesy Benjamin Franklin 300.

Tour America's History Itinerary
Tuesday’s destination:  Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Wednesday’s destination:  The Academy of Music

© 2011 Lee Price