Librarian of the day

Benjamin Franklin (1706 -1790)

American founding father, diplomat, writer and inventor, Benjamin Franklin – now most recognisable as the face of the 100 dollar bill, was also a librarian. Though he left school at the age of 10, Franklin’s name would become eternally linked to the pursuit of personal liberty and freedom of speech. On leaving school, Franklin was apprenticed to his half brother, a printer and publisher of the New England Courant to which the young Franklin also made clandestine contributions. Franklin later acquired The Pennslyvania Gazette (around 1730) and between 1732-1757 his editorial skills and urbane writing style in the Gazette Magazine, General Magazine and the hugely successful Poor Richard’s Almanack which initiated into common usage many well known American proverbs and sayings (largely on the virtues of frugality). Such titles raised the distribution and popularity of serial publications. He would later attribute his ability to better himself to his time in the printing and publishing trade and among his achievements during this phase of life he is credited with establishing the first franchised printing shops. Eager to spread the printed word to all sections of society, Franklin established America’s first lending library and the first free public library; The Library Company of Philadelphia in 1731 which also served as the Library of Congress from the revolutionary war until 1800. Franklin served as its Librarian and then its secretary from 1746 to1757. His impact on the growth and development of libraries in America went further and he is also credited with contributing to the founding of America’s first medical library; The Pennslyvania Hospital Library, the Library of the American Philosophical Society and the University of Pennslyvania Library. He also contributed personal texts to the libraries of Harvard and Yale and at the time of his death in 1790 his personal library was said to have held 4276 volumes.