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Monday 9am - 4:30pm Tuesday 9am - 4:30pm Wednesday 9am - 4:30pm Thursday 9am - 4:30pm Friday 9am - 4:30pm

The Library Company of Philadelphia

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The Library Company of Philadelphia

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The Library Company is an independent research library specializing in American history

10/30/2026

Happy Halloween from the Library Company of Philadelphia! Thank you to our staff and fellows for joining us for our annual staff Halloween Party🎃

10/30/2026

𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘍𝘶𝘯: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘰𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘔𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘤 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘔𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 1920 opens in ONE WEEK! Check the link in our bio to register for our opening event on November 5th.

Video: The No. 6 Re*****on Typewriter (New York: Wyman, Seamans & Benedict, ca. 1895).

10/29/2026

Join us next Tuesday at the Library Company for a book talk with Bench Ansfield, author of "Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City" (W. W. Norton, 2025). "Born in Flames" was named one of the best books of the year by the New York Times and Kirkus Reviews. It also won the Society of American Historians’ Francis Parkman Prize for the best book in American history as well as the Frederick Jackson Turner Award from the Organization of American Historians, and was a finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in History.

More info on this event can be found at https://ow.ly/QaWn51027zN or at the link in our bio.

10/22/2026

Video: Buster Brown Shoes. Stylish and Sturdy (St. Louis: Brown Shoe Company, ca. 1910)

𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘍𝘶𝘯 opens in just two weeks! The opening event on November 5th will feature a lecture from author and educator Juliet Sperling. Make a plan to visit 𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘍𝘶𝘯: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘰𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘔𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘤 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘔𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 1920 today!

09/28/2026

Game On! In celebration of American Archives Month, the Library Company of Philadelphia, alongside other participating institutions, will be tabling at “Game On! In the Archives” at the Parkway Central Library on October 15th at 6:00 pm.
Library Company staff will be showcasing some reproductions of items from the Robert Staples Metamorphic Collection of Movable and Moving Art. These pieces will be featured in the Library Company’s upcoming exhibition “Serious Fun”, which will open on November 5th.

Click the link in our bio to register for “Game On!” at the Free Library.

09/22/2026

Happy Fall! Today marks the autumnal equinox, signaling the beginning of astrological autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. Equinoxes mark moments in time when neither the Northern nor Southern Hemisphere are tilted towards the sun, making the day nearly equal in length to the night. These plates, from the Companion to Reynolds’s series of astronomical and geographical diagrams, were created around 1850 for educational purposes and show some of the ways our understanding of the universe has changed in the time since.

09/15/2026

Please join us on the evening of October 20th at 5:30 pm for a panel with historians Autumn Womack and Dana Williams, moderated by Director of the Program of African American History, Jim Downs.

This panel will consider Toni Morrison both as a subject of the archive and as a figure who reshaped how we understand it. Bringing together work on her papers, her editorial career, and her fiction, this conversation asks what Morrison’s practice reveals about the making—and the limits—of the historical record for Black history. Drawing on recent scholarship on the Toni Morrison Papers, her work as an editor at Random House, and new critical studies of her novels, this panel will explore how Morrison used the archive, worked against it, and expanded what counts as historical knowledge.

Click the link in our bio to register now!

09/15/2026

Coming Soon! Serious Fun: The Robert Staples Metamorphic Collection of Movable and Moving Art before 1920
Curated by Erika Piola and on view at the Library Company of Philadelphia from November 5, 2026, to June 25, 2027
Fascination with miniature and intricate pictures that move is eternal. Acquired by the Library Company of Philadelphia in 2020, the Robert Staples Metamorphic Collection comprises an unprecedented array of over 1,300 metamorphic works that fit in a person’s hand. Designed to be physically manipulated through flaps, pop-ups, and the like to change their imagery, shape, and/or message, the pieces encompass various genres and are referred to by a variety of terms. They entail an assortment of different articles that, although small in scale, are also profound in their influence as movable and moving (in all senses of the word) art before 1920. These images, like the GIF, meme, and AI depictions on electronic devices, permeated the visual matter that shaped the daily lives of generations of people before the 21st century

Video: David Claypoole Johnston, A Beautiful Goblet of White House Ch*****ne. An Ugly Mug of Log Cabin C***r (Boston, 1840)

09/08/2026

Today is International Literacy Day! Have you ever wondered how children in early America learned to read? Throughout the 18th and early 19th century, the most common way was through the use of a little textbook called a primer. Just in time for back to school season, Michael Zinman’s donation of nearly 200 different primers are now available for researcher use in the Scheide Reading Room!

Need a primer on primers? Click the link in our bio for a new blog post that explain what makes these children’s textbooks so fascinating, as well as photos of some of the most interesting copies found in the Zinman collection.

09/07/2026

The Library Company of Philadelphia is making some exciting changes to better support researchers starting Monday, September 14, 2026.

Most importantly, our hours are expanding! We will be open to researchers Monday through Friday from 9 am to 4 pm, with no scheduled closure for lunch. Our exhibition spaces will be open to the public from 9 am to 4:30 pm, also with no scheduled closure for lunch.

In addition, all researchers will soon be working and able to request collection items from one consolidated reading room on our first floor. Appointments are required, but we look forward to providing access to all of our treasured collection materials – including books, newspapers, pamphlets, broadsides, archival materials, AND graphic arts collections – in the Scheide Reading Room. We hope these upcoming changes will provide a more integrated experience, allowing researchers to work uninterrupted throughout the day with consistent access to staff and collections for the duration of their visit.

The Library Company of Philadelphia is open free of charge to anyone who can benefit from the use of our collections. Visit our website to book your research appointment today!

Address

1314 Locust Street
Philadelphia, PA
19107

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 4:30pm
Tuesday	9am - 4:30pm
Wednesday	9am - 4:30pm
Thursday	9am - 4:30pm
Friday	9am - 4:30pm

Telephone

+12155463181

Website

http://www.librarycompany.org/, https://lnk.bio/librarycompany

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