The McAllister family's original and transcribed correspondence, receipts, certificates, and Library Company membership shares, 19th century.

Library Company of Philadelphia share collection, 1803-1929.
The collection consists of John McAllister Sr.'s original share (1803), forms transferring ownership of the share to Thomas Beveridge (1830), to John McAllister Jr. (1835), and from Anna Mitchel McAllister to John McAllister of Media, Pa. (1924). Also included are 23 receipts for annual dues dating from 1824 to 1929, and a bank envelope annotated: "This share is to always be kept in the family it having been kept in same since 1803.", John McAllister Sr. (1753-1830), emigrated from Scotland in 1775 and became a successful whip and cane manufacturer in Philadelphia. In 1796 he bought a stock of spectacles; this sideline evolved into the family's principal business. John McAllister Jr. (1786-1877) joined the business in 1807. Successive members of the family maintained the business through 1890. Anna Mitchel McAllister, daughter of John McAllister Jr., was a practising physician, having graduated from Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1873. John McAllister Sr. purchased his Library Company share, no. 397, in May, 1803. Upon his death, his son, having previously purchased his own share (no. 743), sold share no. 397 to Rev. Thomas Beveridge. In 1835, Beveridge sold the share back to John McAllister Jr. After his death in 1877, John McAllister Jr.'s granddaughter, Jessie Grant, purchased the share. She died in 1881 and the share was purchased by her aunt, Dr. Anna Mitchel McAllister. In 1924, share no. 397 was sold to John McAllister of Media, Pa. The share was forfeited in 1937.