The Details:
Library Company of Philadelphia. A Catalogue of Books Belonging to the Library Company of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Benjamin Franklin, 1741. [catalog record]
Gift of the estate of John W. Farwell, 1942-1943.
The Story:
One of John W. Farwell’s treasures was this copy of the second earliest American library catalogue. It was preceded only by the 1723 catalogue of the Harvard College Library (also at AAS). The unsigned “A Short Account of the Library” on the catalogue’s final page was written by Benjamin Franklin, who helped found the subscription library in 1731. Only four of the 200 copies printed are known to have survived.
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Catalogue of Pamphlets in Case 2
