Dedication Ceremony

The most anticipated event during the Society’s General Meeting in November 1959 was the official opening of Library Hall. On this festive occasion, distinguished speakers reiterated not only the cultural value of the Society’s collections, but also the ability of the institution to bring the project to fruition. In the words of Frank C. Francis, Principal Librarian and Director of the British Museum: “It is said that the thing which is generally raised on city land is taxes. Here the contrary is true.” Rutherford D. Rogers from the Library of Congress reminded the audience about the longevity of the Society’s holdings in contrast to his own institution, whose collections had been destroyed in the War of 1812. Julien Cain, general administrator of the National Library of France, invoked Alexis de Tocqueville and his visit to the Society in 1831, an encounter which most likely influenced Tocqueville’s praise of American intellectual and moral associations as pillars of democracy.

Galleries

Click through the images below to learn more about the dedication ceremony.

1. Dedication of library hall program.
2. President Henry Allen Moe showed the Franklin Room to foreign delegates who attended the opening ceremonies of Library Hall. From left to right: Frank C. Francis, Principal Librarian and Director of the British Museum; Henry Allen Moe, president of the American Philosophical Society; Julien Cain, general administrator of France’s National Library; and the Right Rev. Abbott Anselm M. Albareda, O.S.B., Prefect of the Vatican Library.
3. All guests were invited to a reception in the Reading Room of Library Hall.
4. This document written by Benjamin Franklin and describing a “Method of Making Magical Squares” is just one of the thousands of Franklin documents housed in Library Hall.
5. More than 350 contributors, many of them APS members, helped raise the $2 million to build Library Hall. This list of all known contributors is preserved today in the Library.
6. During the first meeting of the Committee on Library in the new building, it was decided to cooperate with the National Park Service in order to open part of the building to tourists, while avoiding disturbances for researchers. Today, Library’s Hall lobby is open to any visitors and hosts small historical exhibitions with material from the Society’s holdings.
7. Richard Harrison Shryock took over as the Society’s librarian during the construction of Library Hall, in 1958. Here he is photographed in his newly finished office.
8. In the first decades after the opening of this new building, the reading room of Library Hall accommodated not only researchers, but also small exhibits, as seen in the glass cases in this photograph.
9. Since its opening, Library Hall has continued to be an integral part of the Independence Hall historical complex, as seen in this photograph.