Love Philly? So do we. Let’s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today.
Philadelphia has been a leader for libraries, even before our nation was officially founded.
Prior to 1731, it was mostly wealthy people in North America who owned books and would not share their collections.
That changed in 1731.
“Benjamin Franklin and a group of others got together to set up a subscription library, which was a brand new endeavor in not just Philadelphia but all of North America, and one of the very few ones to exist in the English-speaking world at all,” said Jessica Choppin Roney, Director of the Library Company of Philadelphia.
“At this time, the only places you could go to get books, you had to have your own money to be able to purchase them and build your own library, or you had to be a college student at Harvard or Yale.”
Franklin and his friends and colleagues, including other founding fathers, tried to pool their collections of books together, but they quickly found these books were not being treated well.
“They came up with a different way of doing it,” she said. “They said, ‘Let’s form a joint stock company, but instead of it being the joint stock being money that we are investing or gaining or losing, how about instead we make the joint stock books?’”
The group then put together a list of books for a bookseller in England to purchase for them and mail back to Philadelphia.
The books arrived in 1732 and from there, the Library Company of Philadelphia was formed.
“They had a librarian, they had monthly board meetings of their board of trustees and shareholders who could buy their share for 2 pounds, which was a fair amount of money, but within the reach of most tradespeople,” she said.
“Anyone in their families could borrow books, and they also made it so that anybody in Philadelphia could use the library, so people could come in and look at the books there, but they couldn’t take them home unless they were or were related to a shareholder.”
Growing influences
The Library Company itself faced a lot of changes over time. The Library Company was started in someone’s home, but eventually moved into Carpenter’s Hall, which was the Statehouse at the time.
“The Library Company voted at that time to make its books available to all of the members of the Continental Congress for free, without them having to become shareholders,” Choppin Roney said.
It also served as a space for the British Army to use during its occupation of America, and it later served as the unofficial Library of Congress once the nation was founded, until the capital was moved to Washington.
“After that, the Library Company voted to build its own property in the 1790s, which they did right across from Independence Hall at 5th and Chestnut,” she said.
Over time, lots of people took notice of this new idea, Choppin Roney said.
“Copycat libraries started to form in Philadelphia itself and elsewhere in other areas like in New Jersey,” she said. “In Haddonfield, there started to be subscription libraries on the same model as The Library Company.”
The Library Company began to see changes in the late 19th century.
Benjamin Rush, a founding father and educator in Revolutionary America, had a son named James. His wife had a lot of money and when she predeceased him, it was up to James to decide where to place her money.
A big portion of it was allocated toward The Library Company – specifically to help them create a better, larger building for their collections.
But – this came with provisions.
“If you want to take the money, you have to do you know what the testator wanted, so as a result, they built this building at Christian and Broad,” Choppin Roney said.
The idea was to make the building and its collections “fireproof.” But, Choppin Roney said there were other expectations as well.
“Rush didn’t like card catalogs, which is this brand new technology for how to take care of and know what books you have, so they couldn’t have a card catalog,” she said. “And, they couldn’t have comfortable chairs. It’s actually part of his will that you must have uncomfortable chairs because the point of going to a library is to be serious and awake and not lounging around in an unserious way.”
To get around some of these provisions, the Library Company made another branch at Juniper and Locust streets that incorporated some of the elements left out in this initial building.
But, when the Free Library of Philadelphia was founded, it led the Library Company to have to “think a lot about its purpose,” Choppin Roney said.
“The Free Library was going to be paid for by taxpayer dollars and didn’t charge any kind of fee, and that was a real blow to the Library Company’s purpose and operating funds, and it fell on particularly hard times during the Depression and World War II era, and for a while in that period, it was actually taken over by the Free Library,” Choppin Roney said.
This led the Library Company down the path and mission it’s on now – providing rare, unique and historical books.
“They made the decision to become a rare books library and focus on these historic collections that we have had since our founding,” she said.
With the Library Company’s purpose more clearly defined, that left space for the Free Library to flourish.
A new concept
Although there were talks of forming a group of librarians from across the nation before 1876, the American Library Association was officially formed during the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876.
“The folks who gathered were really some of the big leaders in advancing America’s libraries, and they came together to talk about what the shared challenges are,” said Maria McCauley, president of the American Library Association. “They thought, ‘let’s exchange ideas, let’s build professional relationships and let’s think about the future of libraries in America.’”
This first meeting became important for Philly’s future libraries. Leaders in Philadelphia noticed that although the city had several private subscription libraries, there was no place for Philadelphians to enjoy free books.
“The Free Library was first chartered in 1891 by William Pepper,” said Bill Robinson, an archives curator at the Free Library. “He was a physician and a provost at the University of Pennsylvania and actually got a request from his uncle, George Pepper, and they chartered the library as a general library that could be free to everyone.”
There was litigation for several years that kept the Free Library from moving forward, and in the meantime, the Board of Education and the city opened the Philadelphia Public Library system – with six branches in areas like Germantown and Center City.
But shortly after, the City Council voted to absorb the Philadelphia Public Library’s branches into the Free Library, and it was officially inaugurated in 1894.
The Free Library grew in its offerings throughout the 1900s, Robinson said.
“Eventually, the Central Library moved from City Hall to the 1200 block of Chestnut and then actually to the College of Physicians, but eventually we built the Central Library in 1927,” he said. “That’s our first large central library, where we concentrate our services, and then I’d say after World War II, there’s also a big sort of big era of expansion.
“We built a lot more branches in the ‘50s, ‘60s and the ‘70s, and at the Central Library, we split up into subject departments like art and social science and history and newspapers. That’s also when we started having coordinated, coordinating offices for different age groups.”
Robinson said the Free Library provided a one-of-a-kind model for free resources within a city, including books.
Nationwide influence
Over time, the Free Library’s model has been an influence statewide and nationwide, said Veronica Britto, the Free Library’s chief of adult services and programs.
“The Free Library’s Culinary Literacy Center opened in 2014 as the first space of its kind in a public library in North America,” she said. “We use food and cooking to build literacy and bring people together. Someone might practice English while preparing a meal, or a child might explore fractions through a recipe.
“The regional library system in Athens, Georgia, developed programming based on our work in Philadelphia, and we created a toolkit to help other libraries around the world adapt to the approach of using culinary literacy in their communities,” Britto said.
She explained the library’s birding backpack program, which combines binoculars, guides and park maps to help Philadelphians go birding, has received national acclaim as well.
“Our program coordinator, Joanne Woods, presented this program at the National American Library Association conference and has inspired similar programs throughout the country,” Britto said.
Similarly, the city has influenced the growth of many physical libraries across the country. McCauley said there has been a lot of growth since the American Library Association’s first conference in Philadelphia to now.
“That first gathering was rather intimate, and over the years, it has continued to grow, with more and more libraries, librarians and library workers who have become a part of that membership organization,” she said. “I believe it’s over 40,000 members today, and this is across all different kinds of libraries, like public libraries, academic libraries, special libraries, special collection libraries, and libraries that focus on accessibility.”
McCauley emphasized that America’s libraries still pay homage to their strong historical roots to America’s founding in Philadelphia.
“Libraries are a key partner in helping people to learn and grow throughout their lifespan,” she said. “There is no other place in the United States where anybody can go from birth through the end of life and have a place where people can learn, dream, explore, take classes, and to have fun too.
“We really have been a model internationally as well, and enabling people, just like our Founding Fathers had the vision of freedom – the freedom for people to have agency to create this new country,” McCauley said.
Britto explained the Free Library also sees thousands of visitors each year from different parts of the world – speaking to the American library’s far-reaching influence.
“Philadelphia plays such an integral role in the founding of our nation,” she said. “We’re known as the mural capital of the world; we have the Liberty Bell and people are coming from all over the world, all 50 states. Our daily tours have seen people from as far away as China, Australia, London, and as close as Poughkeepsie, New York.
“You could go around and see where people are just drawn to Philadelphia as a city, and also drawn to the Free Library of Philadelphia,” Britto said.
State of libraries today
Philadelphia’s libraries have grown to include so much more than they had upon their founding, Britto said.
“The Free Library has many wonderful resources,” she said. “For children and families, we offer story times, early literacy activities, summer learning and our Leap After School program, now available at all of our open locations, which includes homework assistance and hands-on activities.
“Teens can find creative programs, learning resources and opportunities to connect with their peers, and we even have free classes on SAT preparation,” Britto said.
One of the biggest themes of present-day libraries is also accessibility, McCauley said.
“Today, the ALA stands for something really powerful: ensuring that everyone, everywhere, every single person in the United States has the freedom to read, to learn, to thrive and to grow with the exploration of ideas and access to information,” she said. “The American Library Association advocates for strong libraries, and we want to make sure that the public has the right to access information without barriers.”
Britto explained this is especially evident in Philly’s libraries.
“The Free Library also helps people overcome barriers to access,” she said. “That includes home delivery for eligible Philadelphia residents who cannot leave their home, accessible reading materials through our Library of Accessible Media for Pennsylvanians, and social workers who help patrons connect with community resources.”
Resources like the Library Company of Philadelphia also help to connect Philadelphians to unique history.
“People can come, and they can look at our materials,” Choppin Roney said. “We have incredible library personnel, curators and reading room specialists who can help guide people to all kinds of materials. Most of what we have is print; it’s less likely to be manuscript. But we also have all kinds of rare, or, in some cases unique, graphic materials, postcards, menus and all kinds of things.
Libraries across the nation still face challenges, McCauley said.
“The American Library Association works really hard to help people to understand the importance of the freedom to read,” she said. “The ALA also raises awareness of ‘banned books,’ where we raise the visibility of the importance of the freedom to read and intellectual freedom.”
McCauley said the ALA is also frequently working with national governments and advocating for financial resources to states’ libraries to ensure libraries can continue working well.
You can visit the Library Company of Philadelphia at 1314 Locust St. and learn more on their website.
There are many Free Library of Philadelphia branches with various programming – everything from daily architectural and historical tours to age-appropriate activities. You can learn more on their website.
