• Group of students including white women and Asian American woman peer down at object white man professor presents at Library Company.
  • A white man holding shoulders of smiling white boy look down at an iPad in the Library Company exhibition gallery with framed prints on wall.
  • Visitors in the Louis Lux-Sions and Harry Sions Gallery at the Library Company of Philadelphia.
  • Visitors in the Louis Lux-Sions and Harry Sions Gallery at the Library Company of Philadelphia.
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Bringing Franklin’s Library into the Classroom

Founded in 1731, the library that once served our founding fathers now serves the nation as an internationally renowned research center. Since the days of Benjamin Franklin, the collection has grown to more than half a million rare books, manuscripts, pamphlets, broadsides, prints, and photographs, making the Library Company one of the nation’s largest collections of printed and graphic materials relating to early American history. There are many ways that you can bring America’s first lending library into today’s classroom.

NEH Summer Seminar

For Educators button: Black and white teachers standing on front steps of the Library Company building Cassatt House.

Participants develop their own research and curriculum ideas by using time outside the seminar to explore the Library Company’s vast resources.  Each participant, in consultation with the seminar director, develop a final project that can include a teaching unit, a research proposal, or a report to their colleagues at their home institutions about the seminar experience.

Lesson Plans

Visitors in the Louis Lux-Sions and Harry Sions Gallery at the Library Company of Philadelphia.

Online Exhibitions

Visitors in the Louis Lux-Sions and Harry Sions Gallery at the Library Company of Philadelphia.

The Library Company has made exhibitions available online since 1999. Each website portrays the unique vision and talent of our curators whether derived from our gallery exhibitions or born digital.

Library Catalog

Card catalog in the William H. Scheide Reading Room.

WolfPAC is the catalog of the Library Company of Philadelphia, and the gateway to the catalogs of several other area libraries.

Digital Collections

Concetta Barbera, Digital Outreach Librarian and Curatorial Assistant, scanning a book in the Library Company Digitization Department.

Our digital collections catalog, contains over 120 digital collections, including over 27,000 images, which continue to increase.

Subject Guides

Misc. books on shelf.

View our extensive list of subject guides to learn more about our collection strengths.