The Library Company of Philadelphia was founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin and a group of like-minded Philadelphians as a subscription library supported by its shareholders. The Library Company quickly became the most important book resource for colonial Philadelphians. Its collecting policy was responsive to the needs of its intellectually alert and economically ambitious membership, so it also built a significant collection of pamphlets, prints, maps, ephemera, graphic arts materials, and even scientific equipment and other objects. By 1769, the Library Company had absorbed Philadelphia's Union Library Company, Association Library Company, and Amicable Library, and in 1792, it agreed to annex the Loganian Library as a separate-but-related entity. The Library Company Records collection documents the governance and activities of the Library Company over its long history. Records created up through 1881 are processed and described in this finding aid, including minutes from directors, records from annual meetings, financial documents, correspondence, shareholder records, collection records, published catalogs of holdings, and various other administrative records. Most Library Company records newer than 1881 remain unprocessed and are not described here.
