• Fellow in the William H. Scheide Reading Room.
  • Concetta Barbera, Digital Outreach Librarian and Curatorial Assistant, taking a photograph of a book in the Library Company Digitization Department.
  • LCP shareholder Jay Robert Stiefel, LCP Curator of Art & Artifacts Linda August, LCP Trustee Beatrice Garvan, Furniture historian Adam Bowett, and Curator of the Germantown Historical Society Laura Keim examine the desk.
  • Photograph depicting a crowd of attendees sitting and watching a presentation.
  • Cassatt House stairwell.
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We Have What You’re Looking For

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 explore America’s first lending library.

Library Catalog

Card catalog in the William H. Scheide Reading Room.

The Library Company’s online catalog allows researchers to search nearly 100% of the Library Company’s rare books collection and roughly 65% of our graphic holdings.

Digital Collections

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

Our digital collections catalog features a growing number of the Library Company’s graphic, ephemera and bindings collections. It complements and supplements the descriptive records in our online catalog as well as the online exhibitions and featured collections mounted on our website. The online repository currently contains over 36,000 records representing numerous digital collections.

Subject Guides

Misc. books on shelf.

View our extensive list of subject guides to learn more about our collection strengths, including African Americana; American science, technology, economics, architecture, agriculture, natural history, education, philanthropy, and medicine; German-Americana; the history of printing and publishing; American Judaica; the history of women, domestic economy, and family life; printmaking, mapmaking, and photography in Philadelphia; and the libraries of James Logan and Benjamin Franklin.

Fellowships

Fellow speaking with Librarian James N. Green in his office.

The Fellowships Program began in 1987 and now has more than 1,000 alumni. A list of former fellows and their topics is available here, along with a list of publications resulting from their fellowship research.

Digital Humanities

Nicole H. Scalessa, IT Manager & Digital Humanities Coordinator with Ann McShane, Digital Collections Project Assistant.

The Library Company has had a hand in digital humanities since it launched it’s first online exhibition in 1999. With nearly two decades of experience we continue to collaborate with scholars and educators to create exceptional online resources.

Events

Photograph depicting a crowd of attendees sitting and watching a presentation.

The Library Company provides a wide range of opportunities for scholars to collaborate. Through lectures, seminars, colloquia, workshops, and conferences we strive to provide an atmosphere for discussion, debate, and learning. Many events are free and open to the public.