The following pages present descriptions and context for all of the items shown in the lobby exhibit with some repsentative images. Please visit the lobby of Library Hall at 105 South Fifth Street to see this exhibit in its entirety.

A Selection of Items from the American Philosophical Society Library’s Treasures and Map Collection

The American Philosophical Society presents its annual exhibit of selections from the APS Treasures collection. Included among this year’s selections is a draft of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin’s annotated copy of the Articles of Confederation, copies of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and Rights of Man, as well as British political cartoons lampooning Paine and his politics. Also included are two of the original journals of Lewis and Clark.

The items selected from the Treasures Collection highlight the foundation and early development of our nation, not just politically and intellectually, but physically as well. All of the items presented played an important role in shaping the history, and future, of the United States.

Displayed along with the Treasures are selections from the Society’s map collection. Consisting of over 2,700 printed and manuscript maps and nearly 150 atlases and globes, the collection’s origins can be traced all the way back to the Society’s founder, Benjamin Franklin, who possessed a keen interest in maps and mapmaking. The oldest map in the collection dates to the late 16th Century, while the newest maps date to the last decades of the 20th Century.

The maps displayed in the exhibit are examples of the two largest portions of the map collection, maps of North America, and of Pennsylvania. Printed over a time span of one hundred and thirty-six years, the maps chronicle the growth of our city, state and nation, as they transformed into the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and United States that we know today.