Subject Guides

Explore our extensive list of subject guides, designed to help you discover resources on particular topics or subject areas relevant to our collection strengths. Please also see How to Search Collections to best apply information provided in our subject guides.

Each guide is compiled by a librarian with specialized knowledge of the subject to help you navigate existing scholarship and materials. For more information about any subject area, please contact reference@librarycompany.org.

Each of our subject guides include bibliographies of relevant primary and secondary sources, and our guides often reference with commonly used access terms and subject headings to help you locate materials by genre or type, as well as by associated people, places, events, publishers, and more. Some guides also feature curated library resources such as subject-specific databases, journals, online exhibitions, and additional research tools.

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

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.