Library Company of Philadelphia

The Library Company of Philadelphia, founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1731, was the first circulating library in America. Today, it is an independent research library with more than a half a million books, graphics and other rare printed items from the 18th and 19th centuries. The Library Company is the only major early American library to survive intact and as such, it provides an interesting example of the book culture of early America. The library has an extensive collection of English and American novels, plays, poems and narratives.