The Library Company of Philadelphia

The library company has been referred to as the de facto library of Congress. It's based on this simple fact that during the period when the Continental Congress was meeting in Philadelphia, we invited the delegates to use the library without having to buy shares. We didn't keep circulation records. When you returned a book, the little slip of paper that said you had it out was candid back to you as a receipt,. so we had self-destructing circulation records.