The Library Company of Philadelphia
1314 Locust St.
Philadelphia, PA 19123
(215) 546-3181
(215) 546-8229 (Print Department)
http://www.librarycompany.org

Contact People:
Wendy Woloson, Curator of Printed Books, woloson@librarycompany.org
Sarah Weatherwax, Curator of Prints and Photographs, printroom@librarycompany.org

The Institution:

The Library Company was founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin, as the first circulating library in the country. The institution is free and open to the public on weekdays. The Library Company's online catalogue, WolfPac (remotely accessible), contains records for all of the rare books, some of the serials (which can also be found in a card catalogue located on site) and some of the graphics materials, which are augmented on a regular basis. Many in-house finding aids exist for collections not found online. A separate reading room for graphic materials is located in the Department of Prints and Photographs; appointments are encouraged for use of these collections. The LCP also has a strong collection of secondary works supporting research into the collections.

Collections Pertinent to Economic History:

In general, The Library Company contains approximately 500,000 printed materials, 75,000 graphics, and 160,000 manuscripts. The collection is geared toward printed materials, which include books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, and magazines, and the emphasis is American history and culture from the country's founding to roughly the end of the nineteenth century. Its manuscript holdings are located in and accessed via the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. In turn, HSP's collection of rare books is housed at and accessed through the Library Company. The collection of rare materials (closed-stack) is organized chronologically, which often helps researchers working on one specific and well-defined era or year. The whole of the rare book collection is accessible through WolfPAC, the online catalogue which allows keyword searches and date limitations in addition to searching catalogues of affiliated institutions simultaneously. A fraction of the graphic materials are online, with more being added each day.

For those studying early economic history, the Library is rich in printed sources recording contemporary thought through time, providing essential contextual material that can serve either as the basis for, or cultural backdrop to, studies in economics. Economy-related materials include: early finance and banking; political economy; theoretical treatises; debates; technology; domestic economies; agriculture; manufactures; and commerce. The collection of printed materials is Atlantic-world in scope, while the graphics materials focus on the Philadelphia region.

Books, Pamphlets, Broadsides, Serials, and Other Printed Texts:

The printed collection spans myriad subjects which can illuminate various relevant issues, from the economics of slavery to the entrepreneurship of invention. While the LCP's collections are broad, they are also deep. Holdings include variant editions of many works published over time and across geographical boundaries, making it easy to see how disseminated information changed over time and place and was distributed in different forms (from broadsides to pamphlets). Below are brief descriptions of some collection strengths. Consult the online catalogue for more detailed holdings and information about them.

- treatises on economic theory and political economy: from authors such as Thomas Malthus, John Stuart Mill, J.-C.-L. Sismondi, Jeremy Bentham, and Adam Smith; also extensive works by Mathew Carey and Henry Charles Carey. Works by all of these men in multiple foreign and American editions. Collections also include works by economic radicals: Seth Luther, Stephen Pearl Andrews, various utopian communities (Oneida, New Harmony, Hopedale, etc.).

- advice books: including various editions of Thomas Mortimer's Every Man His Own Broker; bookkeeping manuals; guides to being a successful clerk and merchant; ready-reckoners; business form books; other prescriptive literature relating to commercial fields.

- descriptive works: English and American "books of trade" detailing various professions, their tools, finished products, customers, terms of apprenticeship, etc.; receipt books (e.g., dyeing, cider-making, wool production); technical manuals; books on industries containing statistical data and information about manufactures in various cities and regions.

- government documents: census reports, treasury reports, congressional debates, orations, and other government documents related to various economic subjects, from tariff and trade issues to banking policy and internal improvements. The LCP and HSP together have almost a complete set of government documents through the nineteenth century.

- Lowell materials: a cache of materials relating to the Lowell mills, including extensive publications by Nathan Appleton, one of the founders of Lowell, city directories, factory timetables, volumes of the Lowell Offering, etc.

- trade and auction catalogues: representing all industries and products; many from antebellum era and some annotated with current prices; large collection of seed, book, agricultural implements, housewares catalogues, and printers' type specimens. Included is an extremely rare run of New York trade sale catalogues for the book trade, dating from the late 1830s.

- agricultural manuals and treatises: containing strategies for farm cultivation and profit, covering topics from fertilizers to plows to animal husbandry; some titles specifically geared toward concerns of southern planters; other titles directed at growing certain crops, such as tobacco, sugar cane, fruits and vegetables. Related to these works are transactions and annual reports from various local and regional agricultural societies reporting new developments in the science of agriculture and listing prizes awarded at fairs.

- chambers of commerce reports: nineteenth-century runs of annual reports published by chambers of commerce in various cities; reporting on contemporary state of business and industry

- guide books and city directories: often contain laudatory descriptions of area's natural resources and industrial strengths, meant to attract tourists and investors. Related to general guidebooks is the genre of emigrant literature meant specifically to attract migration to certain areas in the United States, in particular the Midwest and West. The LCP also has runs of nineteenth-century city directories, best represented for Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, but holdings include issues for other cities as well, and also include trade directories.

- almanacs: extensive runs of various farmers' and business almanacs from the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. Almanacs not only contained advertisements for local businesses, but also included booster accounts of local areas, weather statistics and sometimes price information also.

- prices current: random issues and extensive runs of prices current from various cities, beginning in the late eighteenth century. Important not only for recording actual wholesale and retail prices, but also for enumerating the wide range of goods available to consumers at certain times.

- annual reports: for various businesses and enterprises including many related to internal improvements (bridge, rail, and turnpike companies); others for banks, philanthropic organizations (including fuel savings funds and poor relief agencies), telegraph companies, and other nineteenth-century business enterprises. Extensive runs are extremely useful to track both general changes in economic patterns over time and the effects of the developing economy on specific companies.

- lottery materials: for both eighteenth- and nineteenth-century organized lotteries. Materials include broadside advertisements for various schemes in addition to polemics defending and criticizing lotteries.

- insurance: while the LCP has not been actively collecting insurance-related materials, it does have an extensive collection of life insurance pamphlets dating from the Civil War era to the 1870s. It also has examples of fire insurance certificates and advertisements, and pamphlet literature related to fire and life insurance.

- newspapers and serials: long runs of newspapers and periodicals from the eighteenth century onward. Although there are many specialty titles in the collection, the bulk of the serials represent popular readership, such as The American Museum, Godey's Lady's Book, The Gentleman's Magazine, Harper's Weekly, and Leslie's Illustrated. The serials are Atlantic world in geographical scope, while the newspapers are strongest in Philadelphia titles. Useful finding aids in the Reading Room provide chronological lists of holdings for Philadelphia newspapers and periodicals.

Prints and Photographs:

The Print Department specializes in visual images primarily related primarily to Philadelphia-area subjects. Unlike the Library Company's collection of printed material, the graphics found in the Print Department include early twentieth-century materials. Most economy-related materials are catalogued online; others can be found by consulting the reference staff in the Print Department's Reading Room.

Collection highlights include:

- political cartoons (national in scope): catalogued online and arranged chronologically; many related to economic issues, such as bank crises, panics, depressions, and tariff/trade issues; a great source for popular opinion about important issues of the day

- lithographs: many from the Wainwright bibliography of Philadelphia lithographs; include interiors and exteriors of factories, businesses, and marketplaces

- photographs and printed views: various city scenes including prominent Philadelphia markets, docks/shipyards, birds-eye views, street scenes, and buildings (such as banks and business); the William Birch views are commonly used by researchers seeking late eighteenth-century images; over 200 lithographs cited in the Wainwright bibliography (many of industrial views)[1] are available as digital images online

- portraits: photographs, lithographs, and engravings of prominent people, including merchants and financiers; national in scope

- trade cards: over 1,300 trade cards of primarily Philadelphia businesses, arranged by business name but accessible via a database by type of business; mainly later nineteenth century, but a few date from earlier; the Helfand collection of proprietary medicine trade cards number about 7,500 (and also primarily date from later in the century) and document the development of patent medicine advertising

- Longacre collection: containing extensive group of bank bills (engraved/designed by Longacre); also die trials for coins; and original sketches of coin designs to be minted (see also Longacre manuscript collection)

- maps: extensive map collection dating from the late 17th century through the 19th century; Philadelphia is area best represented, but collection includes American and world views also (especially for earlier dates)

Other Collections:

- manuscripts: collections and card catalogue needed to access them are located at HSP

- eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century account books: unidentified (1751-72; 1808-11; cash book, 1811-16; hardware company [?] ledger, 1848-60, receipt book 1802-47; receipt book, 1836-44; record of sales, 1771); Proprietor of Pennsylvania (1701-04); Jonathan Berk, weaver (1839-69); Berks County subscribers for road tax (1804); Bickham and Reese, receipt book (1800-05); Charles Bird, receipt book (1808-09); John Budd, receipt book (1832-40); Thomas Chalkley (1718-27); Samuel Dickinson [?], ledger (1733-61); Elton & Beck, receipt book (1824-30); Samuel Emlen, day book (1751-67); Benjamin Gibbs, receipt book (1765-72); Graham's Magazine, expense book (1847-50); Henry Hill, rent ledger (1775-97), estate ledger of Samuel Ashmead (n.d.), receipt books (1788-93, 1793-98, 1799-1802), day book (1768-72); William Milnor, ledger (1808-11); Dr. Samuel Moore, day book (1758-79), ledger (1745-85); Thomas Morgan, receipt book (1799-1804); Richard and Susanna Morris, receipt books (1756-64, 1764-69, 1771-75); William Mullin, receipt book (1784-1801, 1815-17); Richard Park, day book (1767-72); John Pemberton, cash book (1783-6); John Pole estate, account with John Smith (1763-71); C.H. Quinter (1813-22); Peter Quinton (1809-25); C.S. Rafinesque, day book (1832-4); Red Hill Plantation (1757-60); Jonas Robinhold (1845-57); Samar, Hill & Besset, day book (1764-74); John Scott (1764-94); Shippen inventory and sales (1724); John Smith, waste book (1743-4); Smith-Temple, druggists, invoice book (1818-21); Frederich William Starman (1793-7); John Vaughn, accounts with First Society of Unitarian Christians (1812-14); Wharton & Lewis, receipt book (1787-92); Wood & Shardon, record of surveys (1684); Titus Yerkes (1796-1823); William Young, receipt book (1789-90)

- Robert Aitken (1734-1802) papers: (1771-1802); printer, publisher, bookseller, and engraver; 2 vols.

- Samuel Breck (1747-79) and Samuel Breck, jr. (1770-1845) papers: merchant of Philadelphia and Boston and director of the First Bank of the United States; 316 items, 1 linear foot

- Port of Canton: memo book on trade in Port; 19 vols., including ledgers and day books

- Mathew Carey (1760-1839) papers: political economist and publisher; letters and papers related to political economy, internal improvements, domestic manufactures, and trade; 183 items, 40 linear feet, and additional ledger books and notes.

- Bank of Columbia: account with James Monroe (1811-16)

- Commissioners for Paving Streets: minutes of (1762-68)

- Deeds: possibly Norris-Logan family (ca. 1685-1715)

- John Dickinson (1732-1808) papers: lawyer, statesman, Revolutionary leader; 1800 items, 6 linear feet

­ East India Company of North America: Constitutional Articles of the Association (1799); 1 folio vol.

- Penrose Hoopes Collection: letters, patents, notes, treatises on various inventions; 29 items (1765, 1800-38)

- Lancaster and Schuylkill Bridge Company: subscriber list (1811)

- London Shipping Book: goods shipped on the Molly Galley (1729-42)

- James Longacre (1794-1869) papers: engraver and numismatist; 2 linear feet

- Louisiana Bank, New Orleans: letter book (1812-13)

- John McAllister (1786-1877) miscellaneous manuscripts: collector; collection includes extensive manuscript and printed materials in the process of being catalogued (as of 2004); ca. 15,000 items (1683-1881)

- Norris Papers: estate account book (1753-66); business papers (ca. 1730-70), 9 vols.; account book (1735-65); cashbook (1732-66)

- Philadelphia Post Office: account of mail sent (1810)

- Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce: minutes of monthly meetings (1801-09)

- Philadelphia Union Fire Company: records (1736-1843); 5 vols.

- Powell Family papers (1723-1853): business papers of descendants of Samuel Powell (1673-1756); 8 linear feet, 110 items

- Read family papers (1769-1896): including papers of John Read, Jr. (1769-1854), president of Bank of Philadelphia (ca. 32,000 items) and records of the Bank; 55 linear feet, ca. 190,000 items

- John Jay Smith (1798-1881)papers: collector; early papers relate to 18th-century trade, import and export prices, commodities, rates of exchange; (1678-1883); 8 linear feet, ca. 4,000 items

- United States Insurance Company: papers, 1806-24; 1/2 box

- United States Lottery Office: letter book (incoming correspondence); (1777-84)

- ephemera: mostly uncatalogued but accessed through in-house finding aids, the ephemera collection consists primarily of billheads, letterheads, advertising envelopes, and paper currency scrapbooks

- bindings collection: well over 3,000 eighteenth- and nineteenth-century examples of books in publishers' bindings; material culture evidence of antebellum mass-production and market segmentation in bookselling

- city directories: directories often contain advertisements, information on manufactures, and descriptions of important local institutions, such as banks, lottery offices, and insurance companies; the LCP has an almost complete run of Philadelphia city directories from 1800 to 1900; decent nineteenth-century holdings for many other cities also, including New York City and Boston; miscellaneous holdings for Buffalo, Cleveland, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Charleston, and Wilmington.

other resources:

Computers in the Library Company's Reading Room are equipped with various in-house and web-based finding aids and databases. They include:

- NAIP (the North American Imprints Project): containing bibliographic citations for all pre-1801 American imprints recorded in public institutions; searchable by author, title, publication date, publication place, genre, subject, citation number; used at the Library Company to access items in the Zinman Collection of early-American imprints which are not yet catalogued in WolfPAC

- Morgan Library of Ohio Imprints: containing bibliographic citations for all books printed in Ohio up to 1850; also allows keyword searching of pre-1851 Ohio city directories and school catalogues

- text-searchable electronic sources: web-based sites allowing full-text searching of contents, including Accessible Archives (Pennsylvania Gazette, Godey's Lady's Book, various Civil War-era newspapers); Wright Fiction (books in the Wright bibliography of American fiction, beginning with 1774); Digital Evans (items in the Evans bibliography of early-American imprints); Making of America (nineteenth-century books and periodicals relating to American history and life; includes fiction and non-fiction works)

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is located next door to the Library Company. Its manuscript-rich collection dovetails and complements the Library Company's collection of printed materials. (See separate entry in this guide for holdings.)

footnotes:

1. Nicholas B. Wainwright, Philadelphia in the Romantic Age of Lithography (Philadelphia: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1958).