by Dana Dorman, Library Company of Philadelphia
In March 1732, the Library Company’s Directors drafted their first order of books to be purchased in London by Director Thomas Hopkinson (1709-1751).
The Directors’ wishlist included 48 entries, with some of the entries including multiple titles by the named author. The Directors had created the list in consultation with Philadelphia bibliophile James Logan (1674-1751), who had a large private library. The list included many reference works in math, science, grammar, history, medicine, architecture, and more.
The specific titles on the wishlist were recorded in the minutes for the March 31, 1732 Directors meeting, and the Directors also kept a copy of the letter that Hopkinson planned to carry with him to London.
Interesting, two titles in the copy of Hopkinson’s letter are missing from the list in the minutes. This appears to be a simple copying error; the minutes were transferred into a bound volume 27 years later by then-secretary Francis Hopkinson (1737-1791), and he likely missed those works.
Of course, since the Directors could not be sure of exact prices for the requested works, Hopkinson was also given permission to use his own discretion.
When the shipment of books arrived back in Philadelphia in October 1732, Hopkinson noted several substitutions for works that he had been unable to acquire, as well as titles that London botanist Peter Collinson (1694-1768) had sent as gifts.
Approximately 30 of the works from that October 1732 shipment remain in the Library Company’s collections today. Others have been replaced by newer copies or editions. A handful of works were lost by readers and never replaced.
Many more book orders would follow in the years to come. The earliest surviving printed catalog of holdings, A Catalogue of Books Belonging to the Library Company of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1741), includes 375 titles arranged by book size (folio, quarto, octavo, and then duodecimo) and no other clear order. Today, the Library Company has more than a million titles in its collections.
Image: Correspondence from directors to Thomas Hopkinson with first order of books (12482.F.413), Box 17, Folder 69, Library Company of Philadelphia records (MSS00270).
Further Reading:
Edwin Wolf 2nd, “The First Books and Printed Catalogues of the Library Company of Philadelphia,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Vol. 78, No. 1 (January 1954), 45-70.
Edwin Wolf 2nd, “Franklin and His Friends Choose Their Books,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Vol. 80, No. 1 (January 1956), 11-36.