Lecture in Honor of John C. Van Horne
Dr. John C. Van Horne served as the Edwin Wolf 2nd Director of the Library Company from 1985 to 2014. Upon his retirement, the Library created an endowed lecture series in his honor to recognize and celebrate his many contributions to the Library Company.
Each year, the Library Company invites a distinguished speaker to present the Lecture in Honor of John C. Van Horne as a free public lecture or as a scholar-in-residence event.
To learn more about how to support this event, please contact the Development Office at [email protected].
12th Annual Lecture in Honor of John C. Van Horne, Featuring Michael J. Lewis
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Presented In-Person or Virtually
Benjamin Franklin Hall
427 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
This year, we are pleased to be featuring a conversation with author and historian Michael J. Lewis about the history of Philadelphia’s great libraries. Lewis’s books include Frank Furness: Architecture and the Violent Mind (W.W. Norton & Company, 2001), American Art and Architecture (W.W. Norton & Company, 2006), and the prize-winning August Reichensperger: The Politics of the German Gothic Revival (MIT Press, 1993). He was a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (2000-2001) and in 2008 received a Guggenheim Fellowship to support the completion of City of Refuge (2016), his
study of millennial Utopias.
The event will include a reception for members, shareholders, and donors at 5:30 pm, the free lecture at 6:30 pm, and a private ticketed dinner immediately following.
Past Lectures:
11th Annual Lecture (September 11, 2025) – Richard Kagan
10th Annual Lecture (June 10, 2024) – Alan Taylor
9th Annual Lecture (May 25, 2023) – Nicole Eustace
8th Annual Lecture (June 7, 2022) – Clay S. Jenkinson
7th Annual Lecture (September 23, 2021) – Harold Holzer
6th Annual Lecture (April 30, 2019) – T. J. Stiles
5th Annual Lecture (June 6, 2018) – Candice Millard
4th Annual Lecture (June 22, 2017) – Ronald C. White
3rd Annual Lecture (May 5, 2016) – Dr. Charlotte Jacobs
2nd Annual Lecture (April 8, 2015) – Margaret MacMillan
1st Annual Lecture (May 28, 2014) – Nathaniel Philbrick