Image: Receipt for a Library Company share, 1733.

We continue our monthly “Shareholder Spotlight” series by taking a closer look at Share #185 and its third owner, Zaccheus Collins (1764-1831).

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 #185

This share was first issued to Stephen Collins (d. 1794) on April 6, 1769. Like a number of previously profiled shares, that puts him among the shareholders of the Union Library Company, which merged into the Library Company on this date.

Collins continued as a Library Company shareholder for the rest of his life. After his death, his son and executor Zaccheus Collins (1764-1831) transferred the share on May 30, 1795 to Richard Bland Lee of Loudon County, Virginia. This is almost certainly Stephen’s son-in-law Richard Bland Lee (1761-1827), and the transfer was most likely related to a settling of Stephen’s estate. (And yes, Richard is a member of the notable Lee family of Virginia.) Zaccheus purchased the share back from Lee nine days later on June 9, 1795.[i]

Like his father, Zaccheus was described as a merchant in the Library Company’s share transactions. But he is also known for his interest in botany.

His collection of preserved plant specimens, known as an herbarium, apparently included nearly all of the plants from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and he maintained a rich professional correspondence with other notable collectors and botanists.[ii]

Image: This three-volume set was once part of the private library of Zaccheus Collins; it is now part of the Library Company’s collection after it was purchased from his estate in 1832. Detail from volume III of Jacob Bigelow, American Medical Botany, Being a Collection of the Native Medicinal Plants of the United States (Boston, 1820).

Also like his father, Zaccheus remained a Library Company shareholder for the rest of his life.

Zaccheus was a member of the American Philosophical Society and the Philadelphia Linnean Society. At the time of his death, he was a vice president of the Academy of Natural Sciences.[iii]

In 1825, he even purchased some books for the library. The order to pay him for the books lists nine titles that he purchased and delivered to Librarian George Campbell, Jr. (d. 1855) for the collection of the Loganian Library, which had been operated by the Library Company since 1792.

After Zaccheus’s death, the trustees of the Loganian Library purchased his personal library for $1,200, which is roughly equivalent to $46,000 today. Special bookplates in these volumes note that the books were “Purchased from the Administrator of Zaccheus Collins, Esq. of the City of Philadelphia, in 1832.”

Image: Receipt from purchase of books from estate of Zaccheus Collins, Box 29, Folder 22, Library Company of Philadelphia records (MSS00270).

Zaccheus’s Library Company share continued to be maintained by his estate for many years to follow. Forty-five years after his death, the share was finally transferred from his “next of kin” Charlotte Collins Parker Rawle (1849-1909) to Francis Rawle on May 4, 1876. The same day, Francis sold the share back to Charlotte, who was Zaccheus’s great-granddaughter. She maintained the share for the rest of her life.[iv]

The share has been owned by eleven people total in its history.

Not yet a shareholder?

Share #185 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 Zaccheus Collins’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] For the details of the share transfer to Richard Bland Lee and back to Zaccheus Collins, see pages 76 and 78 in Share Record Book B, Volume 172, Library Company of Philadelphia records (MSS00270).

[ii] Finding Aid for Zaccheus Collins Correspondence, 1805-1827, Archives Collection, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.

[iii] Finding Aid for Zaccheus Collins Correspondence.

[iv] For the details of the share transfer, see page 220 in Share Record Book E, Volume 175, Library Company of Philadelphia records (MSS00270).