American Philosophical Society

Founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1743, the American Philosophical Society is located near Independence Hall in historic Philadelphia. The library’s collection chiefly covers the history of the sciences, medicine, technology, and American anthropology. Among the library’s eight million manuscripts are materials by Darwin, Jefferson, and Franklin, in addition to the original journals of Lewis and Clark. A library committed to supporting research within the scholarly and professional communities, the staff strives to carry out Franklin’s mandate to foster the spread of “useful knowledge.”