The First Subscription Library

This was the first subscription library and certainly in the British North American colonies, maybe anywhere. It made possible for the first time for a community library to be a lending library. And it also provided a template for voluntary associations of all kinds which later became quite a big thing in America. People come here today to study not just the books in the library, but also the book, the culture of books and reading that existed and was embodied in this library in the 18th or 19th century.