The Library Company of Philadelphia, a research library
established by Benjamin Franklin in 1731, has a unique shareholder program in
which supporters can purchase the original subscription which belonged to a
member in the eighteenth or nineteenth century.
I am a shareholder, and my share was originally owned by Clement Biddle.
The share, number 150, was issued to Biddle on April 6, 1769. Biddle (1740-1814) fought in the
Revolutionary War and was at the battles at Brandywine and Germantown in
Pennsylvania and Monmouth in New Jersey.
He eventually served the Pennsylvania militia as quartermaster
general. He became Pennsylvania’s first
United States Marshal in the new government.
His share was subsequent owned by four other Biddles in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and then by Alexander D. Wainwright, a
bibliophile and Princeton University librarian, whose share was acquired in
1969. Wainwright was an avid collector
of Thomas Wolfe material. I have
biographical information on all the previous shareholders. My share was issued on March 27, 2018.
This is a fantastic fundraising program by a historic
library and it is administered in a way that creates a connection with specific
supporters from the past. I am delighted
to be part of this effort and this library.
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