Giargiari Bel Canto Competition

Architectural Historian Michael J. Lewis will trace the roots and development of Philadelphia’s private and public libraries.

The Quakers who founded Philadelphia believed in universal literacy and were great creators of libraries. The first was the Library Company, which Benjamin Franklin helped establish in 1731 and which was America’s first subscription library. But Quakers also believed that knowledge should be useful, and gave their libraries a pragmatic character unlike those of any other American city.