{"id":382,"date":"2025-09-05T18:51:55","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T18:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/?p=382"},"modified":"2025-09-05T18:51:56","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T18:51:56","slug":"history-of-share-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/2025\/09\/05\/history-of-share-10\/","title":{"rendered":"History of Share #10"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Library Company share #10 was first issued to John Sober<\/strong> on November 10, 1731.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 1731, he was obviously acquainted with Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) and his fellow Junto members. That group drew up \u201cArticles of Agreement\u201d on July 1, 1731 to found a library, and Sober was among the first group of shares issued four months later. These subscribers each invested forty shillings and \u201cpromised to pay ten shillings a year thereafter to buy books and maintain a shareholder\u2019s library.\u201d[i]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sober was a merchant and served as a common councilor under William Penn\u2019s charter. He was also one of the managers of the Second Philadelphia Lottery held in 1748, which was held to raise funds for strengthening the city\u2019s defenses.[ii]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was apparently deceased by 1754, when his widow Sarah Sober entered into a trust agreement with Library Company shareholders Franklin and Richard Peters (1704-1776) serving as trustees.[iii]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sober\u2019s estate must have continued to pay to maintain the share after his death, because Library Company records indicate his share was not forfeited until May 1784.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The share then remained dormant for the next 150 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1934, the share was reissued as share #1331<\/strong>. Anna Ingersoll (1887-1980)<\/strong> acquired the share on February 1, 1934.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Image: Photograph of Joseph Sacks, <\/em>Portrait: Miss Anna Warren Ingersoll<\/a> (1915). Photograph. Courtesy of Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ingersoll came from a very wealthy family. She had never married, and lived with her parents at their home at 1815 Walnut Street in Philadelphia as well as at their country home in Penllyn in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Her father Charles E. Ingersoll (1860-1932) had died just two years before she acquired this Library Company share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ingersoll herself was an artist as well as an art collector. She had studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA), among others, and her painting Black Afternoon<\/em><\/a> is now part of PAFA\u2019s permanent collection.[iv]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Library Company\u2019s records provide no further information about Ingersoll\u2019s involvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The share was reissued as share #10 by 1991.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Share History:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n