The Library Company of Philadelphia, founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin, opened its collections to the delegates to the First Continental Congress in September 1774. At the time, its collections held virtually every significant work of political theory, history, law, and statecraft to be found in the American colonies. That privilege was extended to delegates to subsequent Congresses, the Constitutional Convention, and the early Federal Congresses while Philadelphia was the national capital until 1800. This heritage as the first, though unofficial, Library of Congress places the Library Company in a unique position to shed light on the Revolutionary era. Plans for the Semiquincentennial center on two exhibitions.

Fair Winds and Following Seas: Peacetime Naval Operations to 1939 (October 2025 to April 2026). During their 250-year existence, the United States Navy (USN) and Marine Corps (USMC) have participated in vital operations outside the scope of war. Maritime actions that supported the development and success of the United States was, and is, within the scope of these two conjoined branches of the military. This exhibition will highlight some of those actions of the USN and USMC, up to 1939. These actions include exploration, rescues, humanitarian missions, diplomacy, slave trade interdiction, and protection of commerce. While at times requiring combat, the primary goal of these operations was not the defeat of an identified foe in a declared war. Rather, they represent the historical understanding that a nation’s strength lies not only in its ability to defeat its enemies through military action, but also through its ability to protect its interests, grow and understand its dominion, and build strategic partnerships. Fair Winds and Following Seas will feature books, graphics, and ephemera that describe this peacetime, but not always peaceful, life on the high seas. There will be an open house welcome for visiting Marines and their families on their birthday, November 10.

Archiving the Revolution (May to October 2026) will display an unparalleled collection of ephemeral print – broadsides, handbills, pamphlets, newspapers, prints, and maps — documenting daily life in Philadelphia during the Revolutionary era, from 1764 to 1788. It will focus on key moments in the city’s history, including the Paxton massacre of 1764, the Stamp Act crisis, the Philadelphia tea party, the meeting of the Continental Congress, the founding of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, the publication of Paine’s Common Sense, the Declaration of Independence, the Pennsylvania State Constitution, the introduction of Continental paper money, the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, the British occupation, the celebration of peace, the Constitutional Convention, and the 1788 Grand Federal Procession marking the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. The lion’s share of the materials in the exhibition were collected day by day in the streets and from the printing offices of Philadelphia by the Swiss émigré historian Pierre Eugène Du Simitière. His collection was first displayed in 1782 in what he called The American Museum. After his death in 1784 most of its contents were acquired by the Library Company, making it the first archive of the Revolution.