The Rare Collections of the State Library of Pennsylvania:
How Did We Get These Old, Rare Books
The State Library is frequently asked how the rare books were obtained. The standard
answer to patrons and researchers has often been that many of our rare books, periodicals
and newspapers grew old and rare on our bookshelves. After all, this might be expected in
a library that has existed for over 250 years. A cursory examination of the State Library’s
accession reveals few (if any) records of accession prior to the early 20th century. This
situation leaves the patron and the librarian with more questions than answers.
A number of Pennsylvania documents, as well as publications about the history of the State
Library of Pennsylvania do shed some light on the acquisition of its Rare Collections. An
obvious primary source for information about State Library acquisitions, including rare
books, is the Annual Report of the State Librarian. According to Bliss’ A History of the State
Library, the first of these reports was submitted to the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1846 by
State Librarian Seth Salisbury. Prior to this, a Joint Library Committee, representing the
Pennsylvania Senate and House, submitted “concise financial statements with no comments
or explanations.”1
Perhaps the most informative literature on the origins of the State Library’s Rare Collections
is the Early Pennsylvania Imprints in the Pennsylvania State Library, which was reprinted
several times and updated to include Pennsylvania imprints from the first century of printing
in the Commonwealth. Obviously, this work is limited to the acquisition of Pennsylvania
publications; nevertheless, the introduction to the bibliography includes key information
about the acquisition of rare materials in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The author
Charles Ness, the Library’s Director of Readers Services, reports that in 1878 the State
1
Robert P. Bliss, A History of the State Library of Pennsylvania (Harrisburg: Telegraph Press, 1937), 16-17.
Legislature appropriated $6,000.00 for the purchase of rare books. These funds allowed
then State Librarian Charles Ehrenfeld (1878-1882) to purchase “early Pennsylvania
imprints and works on Colonial history from the library of Pennsylvania historian, William
Egle, and . . . from the first of two auctions of the famed Brinley Library held in New York
City in 1879 and 1880.” These works, together with publications formerly included in the
library of the Provincial Assembly, formed the “nucleus” of the Rare Collections Library.
2
According to Robert Bray Wingate, Chief of the Library’s Rare Books and Special Collection
section, Ehrenfeld also “aggressively” purchased old newspapers, which he recognized as
valuable for historical research.3
Ehrenfeld’s emphasis on newspapers and Pennsylvania
history represented a “new direction” for the State Library. 4 In a brief tenure in 1886 State
Librarian Edward Stuck also determined to collect “every book relating to the civil war that
money will buy.”5
While Dr. Egle was State Librarian from 1887-1898, he continued to add to the Rare
Collections. In 1903, when the bibliophile Governor Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker took
office, he appointed the first professional librarian, Thomas Lynch Montgomery, to the
position of State Librarian. As a result of their combined vision, the first two decades of the
20th century witnessed “a period of knowledgeable expansion of the imprints collection”.6
Although the growth of the Rare Collections in the later 20 th and early 21st centuries did not
2
State Library of Pennsylvania, Early Pennsylvania Imprints in the Pennsylvania State Library, Part One, 1689-1750
(Harrisburg: Pennsylvania State Library, 1940), 1-2. For information on the Library of Pennsylvania’s Provincial
Assembly see Barbara E. Deibler’s “A Valuable Collection of Neat Books Well Chosen”: The Pennsylvania Assembly
Library ([Harrisburg]: Society for Political Enquiries with the Capitol Preservation Committee: Sowers Printing Co.,
1994), pp. 4-12. The earliest volumes of the Library were purchased by Benjamin Franklin as clerk of the
Assembly. As a printer and bookseller with connections to other British publishers, he was well positioned for this
responsibility. Following Franklin’s election as a representative to the Assembly in 1751, books were ordered by
the Assembly’s Speaker Isaac Norris, although he appears to have shared responsibility for the purchases with
Franklin. Barbara Deibler suggests that Isaac Norris first recognized the need for a librarian for the Assembly
Collection. (p. 12)
3
State Library of Pennsylvania, Early Pennsylvania Imprints in the Pennsylvania State Library: 1689-1789; the First
Hundred Years (Harrisburg, 1972), i.
4
Bliss, A History of the State Library, 22.
5
Lear, Bernadette A. Lear, “A State Library Transformed: Pennsylvania, 1878-1921,” Information & Culture 48
(2013): 30.
6
Early Pennsylvania Imprints . . . : 1689-1789, ii.
keep pace with the strides taken earlier by Egle, Pennypacker and Montgomery, they
benefited from the talents of librarians such as Robert Wingate and Barbara Deibler. In
1994 Deibler’s history and description of the State Library’s Assembly Collection was
published posthumously. The title echoed the assessment of the Marquis de Chastellux,
who recorded his impressions of the Assembly Library in December 1780 while in
Philadelphia. Although underwhelmed by the size of the collection, he thought that “the few
books it is composed of, appear to be well chosen.”7
If you have any questions regarding donations of materials for the Rare Collections Library,
please contact Dr. Iren Snavely.
The Rare Collections Library is open to students and researchers by appointment, MondayFriday, between the hours of 9:00 am and 12:00 noon, and 1:00 pm-4:00 pm. To make an
appointment, contact Dr. Iren Snavely by telephone at 717.783.5982, or by email at:
irsnavely@pa.gov. The Rare Books reading room is also open periodically for tours to the
general public and to Pennsylvania Commonwealth employees.
7
Deibler, Barbara E., “A Valuable Collection of Neat Books Well Chosen”: The Pennsylvania Assembly Library
([Harrisburg]: Society for Political Enquiries with the Capitol Preservation Committee: Sowers Printing Co., 1994),
25.