The Library of Benjamin Vaughan, great friend of Benjamin Franklin, was one of the largest in New England at the end of the 18th century, and contains volumes reflecting the varied interests of that great Whig intellectual, including classics from Linnaeus to Locke and Voltaire, but also less well known works on dissenting religion, medical treatises, works on agriculture and education, and novels and children's books of the day.  Until 1991, when Vaughan's descendants presented it to the APS, it had resided in Hallowell, Maine in the home originally built by Benjamin Vaughan, whose brother, John, was the Society's first Librarian.  In 2004 the family made a generous grant to the Library through the Vaughan Homestead Foundation to catalogue and conserve the collection.