The Library Company is very pleased to announce that the Board of Trustees has appointed Dr. Jessica Choppin Roney as Director Designate, a title she will carry until the Orphans’ Court has approved our merger with Temple University. (This action complements the same appointment she has received from Temple.) Once the merger is final, she will become Director, succeeding John Van Horne, our Director Emeritus who came out of retirement to serve as Director for the past two years.

Dr. Roney has been on the Temple faculty for more than a decade and an Associate Professor of History since 2016. She has even longer ties with the Library Company. She held fellowships in 2005 and 2008 as she worked on her dissertation and first book about colonial voluntary associations, including (centrally) the Library Company itself. More recently she has served as Director of our Program in Early American Economy and Society (PEAES) since 2024. Her first book, Governed by a Spirit of Opposition: The Origins of American Political Practice in Colonial Philadelphia, was published as part of our PEAES series with the Johns Hopkins University Press. Simply put, Dr. Roney is intimately familiar with and a highly regarded member of both families.

Dr. Roney lives in Philadelphia with her husband Adam, two daughters (8 and 13), and two cats.

“I am extremely pleased to be able to turn over the reins to a scholar of Dr. Roney’s caliber who shares our passion for the Library Company’s mission,” Van Horne said. “She is already making her mark as we work together to ensure both a smooth transition in the Library Company’s administration and a smooth integration into Temple University. She has many ideas about how we can leverage our new relationship to enhance the Library Company’s profile and service to both institutions.”

“The Library Company was where my journey as a scholar began,” Roney said. “I am thrilled, honored, and humbled by the opportunity to help navigate the merger of two historic Philadelphia institutions. I believe each has the capacity to strengthen the other. The Library Company will enter its fourth century reinvigorated to pursue its essential scholarly and civic mission.”