9781422277591

So Franklin and about fifty other people, including the members of the Junto club, each invested 40 shillings (the equivalent of about $275 today). The total collected (almost $14,000 in today’s dollars) was used to purchase books from London. Subscribers to the library also agreed to pay an additional 10 shillings a year so that additional books could be purchased. The library soon included books on history, geography, science, exploration, poetry, and theology. The subscribers could borrow books from the library freely; non-subscribers could also borrow books if they posted a surety , which could be sold if the book wasn’t returned. Franklin’s library became so popular that by the 1740s similar libraries were formed in other large colonial cities.

The library that Franklin helped to establish in Philadelphia grew so large that it had to move into a bigger space. For many years it rented the second floor of Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia to hold its collections of books as well as scientific instruments. Today, the Library Company of Philadelphia still exists as a research library.

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