Before He Was a Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin Founded the Lending Library. Now His Belongings Are on Display There Before Heading to Auction

In 1731, book lover Franklin created the Library Company of Philadelphia, where this week visitors can see a collection of his papers worth an estimated $3 million to $4.5 million

Mary Randolph | Correspondent

May 7, 2026 9:43 a.m.

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A receipt from a book sale, discussions of tax negotiations and a mortgage register may not seem worthy of display in their own right. But throw in records of the early electricity experiments that inspired the lightning rod—and did we mention everything was written or owned by Benjamin Franklin?

Dozens of Franklin’s papers are on display at the Library Company of Philadelphia this week, highlights from a collection of more than 150 items that will go up for auction at Sotheby’s in June. Franklin founded the library in 1731, and it was the first successful lending library in the United States.

“You can’t think of Franklin without thinking of Philadelphia and vice versa,” says Selby Kiffer, Sotheby’s specialist for books and manuscripts, to Philly Voice’s Michaela Althouse. “So I think that’s where he’s appreciated. This material, much of it that originated in Philadelphia, it’s now coming back. It’s just a way of celebrating Franklin and Philadelphia during the 250th anniversary of the nation’s birth.”

Franklin is best known as a founding father, but he was also an entrepreneur, scientist and inventor. A deep appreciation for the written word is a theme that recurs in his many accomplishments, such as helping to draft the Declaration of Independence.

His father, Josiah, “had a love of books that he passed on to his youngest son,” wrote Linda Killian in the Washington Post in 2018. And “although Benjamin was forced by his father to leave school at age 10, he became a voracious reader and autodidact.”

In addition to working in printing and publishing, Franklin’s life of letters saw him establish the Library Company of Philadelphia along with 50 original shareholders, who each invested 40 shillings in the effort and promised to pay into it ten shillings a year. According to a history of the institution, the library company “flourished because it adopted a purchasing policy responsive to the needs of its intellectually alert, economically ambitious, but non-elite membership.” Other cities copied the model.

In his autobiography, Franklin credited the concept with encouraging education and spreading democratic ideals, writing that “these libraries have improved the general conversation of Americans, made the common tradesmen and farmers as intelligent as most gentlemen from other countries, and perhaps have contributed in some degree to the stand so generally made throughout the colonies in defence of their privileges.”

The collection of Franklin’s papers on display at the library this week belongs to Jay Snider, former president of the Philadelphia Flyers. Though he’s collected items from all parts of American history and auctioned them off before, he’s held onto his set of Franklin’s letters, books and manuscripts until now.

“That really became the greatest passion I’ve had in this,” he says to the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Earl Hopkins.

This is the first time this collection has been displayed publicly in Philadelphia. It includes one of the earliest known letters Franklin sent, about a book sale in 1738; notes to family and friends; and documents Franklin signed as a government official.

Philadelphia native Snider tells the Philadelphia Inquirer that it was important to him to display the items there before the auction takes place in New York.

“It’s always been my feeling that too many things end up on shelves somewhere, or in drawers. Somewhere that no one ever gets to see again,” he says. “I’m hoping people just enjoy connecting with Philadelphia.”

The collection has an estimated value of $3 to $4.5 million. In January, Sotheby’s auctioned a letter from George Washington introducing Franklin to the Marquis de Lafayette, which sold for more than $1 million.

With Franklin’s extensive paper trail, it’s not difficult to find letters of his as a collector or at a museum. But the size and breadth of this collection, Kiffer tells Philly Voice, is unique.

“It’s not as though you need to despair if you’re interested in collecting Franklin, of not being able to find material, but to find material of this consistent quality and within the world of Franklin is highly unusual,” he says.

Highlights from the “The Jay T. Snider Collection of Benjamin Franklin” are on display at the Library Company of Philadelphia, May 5 through 7.

Mary Randolph | Read More

Mary Randolph is a former editorial intern with Smithsonian magazine.