Two Chips off the Same Block: Benjamin Franklin's Library Company and Philosophical Society and the Saga of Their 275-Year Relationship 1

One frequently hears the phrase sister institutions used to refer to a pair or group of institutions that share many attributes. Colleges of a certain type can be sister institutions; the Seven Sisters come readily to mind. Likewise, libraries of a certain type can be sister institutions; both the American Philosophical Society (APS) and the Library Company of Philadelphia (LCP) are members of the Independent Research Libraries Association (IRLA), and we consider all of the 19 member libraries to be our sister institutions. This paper will therefore be about the dual histories (one might even say the dueling histories) of these two Franklin-founded institutions, and about their sisterly affection and occasional sibling rivalry. The Library Company was the outgrowth of Benjamin Franklin's Junto, which he formed in 1727 at the age of 21 for the mutual improvement of its members, who were for the most part aspiring artisans and mechanics and tradesmen like Franklin himself.