PHILADELPHIA - In the early days of the Province of Pennsylvania, books were an absolutely out-of-reach luxury for the common tradesman. To address this, members of the Junto (the Philadelphia discussion group) founded the Library Company of Philadelphia, which became America's first public subscription and lending library.
The organization was formally launched later that fall. The first founding shares were issued in November 1731 (with several historical calendars marking the occasion as either the 8th or the 10th of November), including Share #3, which went straight to Franklin. The innovative subscription scheme required 50 founding shareholders to invest 40 shillings each, plus an annual subscription of 10 shillings. Pooling these funds let the group buy a large collection of books from London that none of the tradespeople could have afforded individually.
By March 1732 the directors had used the pooled subscriber funds to place their first major book order with a London bookseller, the books arriving over the Atlantic later that year. The society officially opened for weekly lending in a rented room on 14th November 1732, with Louis Timothee as the first librarian.
This pioneering institution was immensely significant in the early days of the American republic. It effectively became the Library of Congress during the Revolutionary War and the Continental Congress period, providing essential library resources to the Founding Fathers as they formulated the country's future—a famous 1914 illustration of Franklin opening the doors to the public in the Library of Congress today.
Today, this incredible piece of American history is still thriving. Located at 1314 Locust Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Library Company of Philadelphia continues to operate today as an independent, non-circulating research library and cultural institution, preserving the intellectual legacy sparked by a simple discussion group more than three centuries ago.
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