Image: Receipt for a Library Company share, 1733.

We continue our monthly “Shareholder Spotlight” series by taking a closer look at Share #933 and its third owner, Frank M. Etting (1833-1890).

Shareholders have always been the backbone of the Library Company of Philadelphia. Starting with the first group of fifty tradesmen who formed the library in 1731, shareholders have provided crucial financial support each year for our mission to “pour forth benefits for the common good.”

We keep careful track of who has owned each historic share, and our list of 9,800+ shareholders includes signers of the Declaration and Constitution, merchants, doctors, soldiers, scientists, artists, philanthropists, politicians, and much more.

Share #933

This share was first issued to James M. Broom (1776-1850) on September 7, 1818.

Broom had previously served as a U.S. Representative from Delaware from 1805 to 1807, and eventually moved to Philadelphia. According to the 1819 Philadelphia directory, Broom was a “counsellor at law” based on Walnut Street. He maintained his Library Company share for the rest of his life, including after he was elected as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1824.[i]

After Broom’s death, his widow and executrix Mary M. Bloom sold the share to F. E. Dixon on April 4, 1851. Dixon is listed in the 1851 Philadelphia directory as a merchant. He owned the share for the next nine years, eventually selling it to Frank M. Etting (1833-1890) on October 5, 1860.

Image: In his youth, Etting had been a student at the Philadelphia Classical Institute, and was profiled in a published biography of the school’s founder. Detail from Charles J. Cohen, Memoir of Rev. John Wiley Faires A.M., D.D. (Philadelphia, 1926).

Etting had already been a Library Company shareholder for six years by that point. He first acquired a different Library Company share – share #726 – on February 14, 1854. He switched to share #933 in 1860, seemingly stepping aside so that someone could resume ownership of their family’s share.[ii]

Etting was a lawyer and public servant with a deep interest in history and the nation’s founding. He was a descendant of a prominent colonial Jewish family, and he had been elected recording secretary of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania at the age of 22.[iii]

He joined the Army after the start of the Civil War and was appointed paymaster in 1861. He eventually served as chief paymaster, and in 1868 was appointed to work with General Irwin McDowell (1818-1885) as chief paymaster for distributing the Reconstruction Fund.[iv]

After retiring from the Army, Etting became deeply involved in the movement to restore Independence Hall to its appearance at the time of the nation’s founding. He was inspired after inheriting a chair that his family believed was used by the Continental Congress in 1776, and he eventually located twelve identical chairs that he displayed in the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed.[v]

In 1872, Etting was appointed as chairman of a city Committee on the Restoration of Independence Hall, and led efforts to make it more of a national museum of the nation’s founding.[vi]

Image: In 1872, shareholder Frank Etting was appointed as chairman of a committee to restore Independence Hall. The resulting design was intended as a tribute to 1776. Illustration from Edward Strahan, ed., A Century After: Picturesque Glimpses of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1875).

Of course, the building was still very much in use in the 1870s by the Philadelphia City Councils and courts. Etting’s history focus did not stop at the building; he also successfully proposed a number of changes to the Philadelphia seal. The city’s Select and Common Councils adopted those changes in 1874.[vii]

Etting was ultimately chosen to serve as chief of the Historical Department of the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, and authored a book about the building’s history. But the City Councils removed him as chairman of the Independence Hall restoration committee in 1876, and historian Charlene Mires noted that he had alienated many as he transformed the building’s interior.[viii]

Etting owned Library Company share #933 for twenty-three years. He sold the share to Ida Wood on April 5, 1883.

Share #933 has been owned by nine people total in its history.

Not yet a shareholder?

Share #933 is currently available. We work hard to match potential shareholders with historic shares that match their interests, and we would love to match you with Frank Etting’s share or another option.

You can become a Library Company shareholder with an initial gift of $500. To learn more, visit our website or reach out to our Development Office at [email protected].

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[i] “Broom, James Madison 1776-1850,” Biographical Dictionary of the United States Congress https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/B000888 (accessed 5/22/2025).

[ii] Etting sold share #726 to Daniel B. Smith on October 5, 1860. Share #726 was first issued to Benjamin Smith on March 7, 1792, so it is possible that Etting switched shares to allow Daniel to purchase a Smith-family share.

[iii] Catalog description for the Frank M. Etting Collection (#0193), Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

[iv] Finding aid for Etting Family Scrapbook and Stage Door Canteen Photographs (collection #3558), Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

[v] Charlene Mires, Independence Hall in American Memory (Philadelphia, 2002), 124-125.

[vi] Mires, 121-134.

[vii] Sam Robinson, “Behind Philadelphia Maneto: Dissecting the City Seal,” Hidden City, November 5, 2013 https://hiddencityphila.org/2013/11/behind-philadelphia-maneto-dissecting-the-city-seal/ (accessed 5/22/2025).

[viii] Charles J. Cohen, Memoir of Rev. John Wiley Faires A.M., D.D. (Philadelphia, 1926), 282-284. Mires, 130-132.