Initiated by the efforts of Dr. William Pepper, the Free Library of
Philadelphia was chartered in 1891 as "a general library which shall be
free to all." The library opened in March 1894.The Free Library is home to 54 locations and 7.2 million circulating
items. In addition, the system has free Wi-Fi at each of its locations
and nearly 1,000 public access computers, making it one of the largest
providers of free internet in Philadelphia.
It has several rare and unique special
collections. The Rare Book Department at Parkway Central Library
features one of the world’s most renowned Charles Dickens
collections—featuring first editions, personal letters, and Dickens’s
stuffed pet raven, Grip—as well as the largest Beatrix Potter collection
outside of the United Kingdom. The Department also houses robust
collections of cuneiform tablets, medieval and Oriental manuscripts, and
Pennsylvania German fraktur, as well as the extensive Children’s
Literature Research Collection.
In addition to the collections housed in the Rare Book Department, the
Free Library also features the Edwin A. Fleisher Collection of
Orchestral Music, which is the largest lending library of orchestral
music in the world. The Library’s Automobile Reference Collection is one
of the most extensive public resources of its kind, and the Print and
Picture Collection houses roughly half-a-million circulating pictures in
the largest public picture lending library in the nation, in addition
to thousands of fine art prints, drawings, and photographs. The Free
Library also has an extensive special collection devoted to maps.
Loved watching around the pictures
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