Home > Library Company of Philadelphia > Exhibition Catalogs >   Poor Richard’s Books: An Exhibition of Books Owned by Benjamin Franklin Now on the Shelves of the Library Company of Philadelphia
	Our Price: $15.00 By James Green (ed) Year: 1990 Binding Paperback ISBN 0914076752 Product Code: 0914076752

Description   This exhibition of books is based on the reconstruction of Benjamin Franklin’s library by Edwin Wolf 2nd. At the time of his death in 1790, Franklin had the largest & best private library in Amer., consisting of 4,276 vols. He willed most of it to his grandson William Franklin, who sold them off in Phila. in 1801 & 1803, & none of the cat. made of it survive. Benjamin Franklin used no book plate & he seldom signed or annotated his books, so until recently hardly anything was known about them. Wolf discovered the key to identifying Franklin’s books was a cryptic shelfmark penciled in each of them when they were installed in Franklin Court after his return from France in 1785. These marks were transcribed into a now-lost mss. catalogue, which assured that every book could be found with ease & returned to its appointed place. For over 30 years, Mr. Wolf scoured shelves looking for the telltale shelfmark. He also collated data from Franklin’s letters & papers, books known to have belonged to the individuals who bought heavily at the sales in 1801 & 1803, & the acquisition records of institutional libraries for that period. He has been able to identify over a thousand vols. as Franklin’s. The largest cache, about 350 vols., today belong to the Library Co. & to the Historical Soc. of PA. From this collection some 70 vols. have been selected for exhibition.

Related Products... Pierre Eugene Du Simitiere: His American Museum 20 Our Price: $15.00 Add Philadelphia ReVisions: The Print Department Colle Our Price: $15.00 Add   Made in America: Printmaking, 1760-1860 Our Price: $15.00 Add African American Miscellany: Selections from a Qua Our Price: $15.00 Add   Naturally Fond of Pictures: American Illustration of the 1840s and 1850s Our Price: $15.00 Add

Share your knowledge of this product with other customers... Be the first to write a review

Browse for more products in the same category as this item: Library Company of Philadelphia > Exhibition Catalogs Library Company of Philadelphia

	North-East view of St. Peter's Church (Episcopal) (Philadelphia: 1829) $40.00
	Dictionary of Weights and Measures for the British Isles: The Middle Ages to the 20th Century (Memoir 168) $30.00
	Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine (vol. 28, no. 2) $20.00
	Pharmaceutical Achievers: The Human Face of Pharmaceutical Research $30.00
	Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine (vol. 34, no. 4) $25.00
	Gothic Windows to Peacocks $85.00
	Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine (vol. 27, no. 3) $20.00
	We the People: Voices & Images of the New Nation $30.00
	Swedes on the Delaware, 1638-1664 $35.00