Laying the Cornerstone for Library Hall

While the vaults and stacks of Library Hall secure many of the Society’s most valuable collections, the cornerstone carries more than the weight of the building. To mark the official beginning of the construction of Library Hall, the Society organized a special cornerstone laying ceremony on April 25, 1958, whenAPS President William J. Robbins placed a lead box of significant APS publications and other objects connected with the Society’s history into the masonry. This time capsule is still a part of Library Hall’s cornerstone and includes, among other things, the first volume of the APS Transactions (1771), a Benjamin Franklin medal struck in 1906, a microfilm of the 1799 first catalogue of the Society’s Library, and a recording of the cornerstone laying ceremony.

In addition to placing historical artifacts in the cornerstone of Library Hall, the Society’s welcomed James C. Charlesworth, who spoke in the name of Pennsylvania’s Governor. Charlesworth’s presentation reaffirmed the intricate relationship between politics and science by underscoring that the APS contributions to the early years of the United States were not purely scientific. He noted fifteen signers of the Declaration of Independence and eighteen members of the Constitutional Convention had also been members of this Society.

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1. APS Roll Book
2. In the early 1950s, the American Philosophical Society and the Library Company explored the possibility of uniting part of their holdings in the new Library Hall, by establishing a nucleus for an inter-institutional Rare Book Center. The complexity of merging these historic collections proved insurmountable, but this 1954 plan offers an overview of rare book collections in Philadelphia at the time.
3. The program of the Dedication Ceremony included representatives from the Department of Interior, Pennsylvania’s Governor, and the Library Company.
4. Librarian William E. Lingelbach hands over material to President William J. Robbins so that he can place it in the cornerstone.
5. Next time you pass Library Hall’s Fifth Street facade, you will know what is hiding behind this plaque.
6. To highlight the Society’s leading role in library technologies, the APS placed in the cornerstone nine 9”x6” microcards containing Eunice Chase Greene’s “The Anatomy of the Rat,” one of the most successful APS publications. This image is just one of the hundreds of detailed illustrations from this book.