On July 1, 1731, at the instigation of Benjamin Franklin, the founding shareholders drew up “Articles of Agreement” to establish a library. Fifty subscribers invested forty shillings each and promised to pay ten shillings a year thereafter to buy books and support operations. Thus, “the Mother of all North American Subscription Libraries”—as Franklin proudly referred to it in his Autobiography—was born.| The Library Company of Philadelphia
Over the course of its long history, the Library Company of Philadelphia has had many homes. Our ongoing work in the Library Company Papers Project is helping to provide new access to the records that document those moves over our first 150 years of operations.| The Library Company of Philadelphia