The Linda Hall is among dozens of libraries across the United States that house dazzling collections and often mount eccentric exhibitions but largely remain unfamiliar to the public.
“What is fun is to become aware of these marvelous libraries that, though open to the public, are not well known and are filled with wonderful treasures,” said Robert S. Pirie, a prominent book collector who lives in Manhattan and has his own library of several thousand volumes.
Many libraries, whether public or private, are the passionate inspirations of their founders.
Among its 110,000 volumes is the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays and the first collection of Keats’s poems, with this handwritten dedication to his friend John Byng Gattie, who was ill: “I hope your eyes will soon be well enough to read this with pleasure and ease.”
The Library Company in Philadelphia was started by Benjamin Franklin in 1731 when he and a group of friends each bought a share of stock in a new entity that they created...Today, the library holds 500,000 volumes, largely works on pre-19th-century American history.
It was opened to the public in 1878 and today holds 750,000 volumes. Its rare books collection includes the Edwin Smith Papyrus, the oldest medical papyrus: a work on surgery that was written in 1700 B.C. (It is currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.) I
The Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia, home to the books once owned by the Rosenbach brothers, well-known book dealers of the last century, has begun a series of hands-on tours, in which visitors can accompany a member of the staff and handle objects from the collection and learn their history.
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