Sold – One of Benjamin Franklin’s Long-Lost Minutes of a Meeting of the Library Company of Philadelp

Written in 1746 as Secretary to the organization, America’s first public library.

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Most Americans in the 1730’s had limited access to books, which were rare and expensive, and only the very wealthy and the clergy had large numbers of them available. There were no public libraries. Franklin was a member of the Junto, a philosophical association that was interested in a wide range of...

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Sold – One of Benjamin Franklin’s Long-Lost Minutes of a Meeting of the Library Company of Philadelp

Written in 1746 as Secretary to the organization, America’s first public library.

Most Americans in the 1730’s had limited access to books, which were rare and expensive, and only the very wealthy and the clergy had large numbers of them available. There were no public libraries. Franklin was a member of the Junto, a philosophical association that was interested in a wide range of ideas, from economics to solving social woes to politics to science. But there were not enough books on hand to satisfy the members’ desire for knowledge or to settle disputes that arose over points of information. Although individually they owned a fairly small number of tomes, the members recognized that by combining their books and using the Junto’s collective purchasing power to acquire others, all members would have access to more volumes. How to accomplish this was the problem. Franklin led a group of members determined upon an ingenious plan–they would form a library. On July 1, 1731, Franklin drew up “Articles of Agreement” for the library and 50 subscribers invested 40 shillings each to start its acquisitions. Members also promised to invest 10 shillings more every year to buy additional books and to help maintain the library. They chose as their motto a Latin phrase which translates as “To support the common good is divine.” Philip Syng, a silversmith who would one day create the inkstand with which the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were signed, designed the Library Company’s seal. In 1732, the Company’s first book order was sent to London.

Franklin spent more time and care on the Library Company than on any other civic project. He got it started, attended its meetings faithfully as a director between 1731 to 1764, acted as the librarian in 1733-34, served as the secretary from 1746 to 1757 and became its book agent in London from 1757 to 1762 and again from 1765 to 1775. As secretary, he kept meeting minutes, handled correspondence and ordered books. He was not, however, a very organized note taker and would write minutes down on scraps of paper rather than enter the information into the Company’s books. After Franklin’s departure for England in 1757, some of these notes were found stuffed in a box which Franklin had left with his wife Deborah. In 1770, Francis Hopkinson took whatever notes he found from previous years and copied them into Library Company ledgers. The original notes in Franklin’s hand were largely lost, the Library Company presently having just two or three. This is one of Franklin’s notes, newly discovered.

Autograph Note, unsigned, Philadelphia, May 5, 1746. “Application was made in behalf of Charles Norris, that he might be admitted a Member.” This is written on a scrap of paper one by eight inches, that in turn has been mounted to another leaf on which is inscribed in an early hand, “Autograph of Benjamin Franklin.” The Library Company’s official ledgers confirm that at a meeting of the directors on May 5, 1746, Charles Norris asked to be admitted a member in place of his late brother Samuel, and his membership was approved._harles Norris, a trustee of the General Loan Office of Pennsylvania, would be appointed “Keeper of the Library” in 1754.

This is the first piece we can recall seeing on the market that directly relates to Franklin’s position as Secretary of the Library Company, the first public library in America. It is also a scarce early example of his hand.

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