The Library Company Papers Project is a three-year, NEH-funded project to review, process, and digitize institutional records from the library’s founding in 1731 through 1881 and provide unfettered access to these records for the first time.

We are working on a new web portal to serve as an entry-point for accessing these foundational documents, as well as other contextual information we find during our research into individual Library Company shareholders, acquisitions of materials, and the institution’s evolution in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In the meantime, you can browse institutional records as they become digitized here: https://archive.org/details/lcppapersproject

You can follow our progress on the project overall through blog posts here: https://librarycompany.org/category/library-company-papers-project/#/

The Papers Project is a part of a larger initiative to prepare the Library Company to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026 and the Library Company’s 300th anniversary in 2031.

This project has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy Demands Wisdom. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this resource do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. For additional information on NEH, visit www.neh.gov.