Franklin-founded Philadelphia library receives 1,500 books on sexuality

The Library Company of Philadelphia, created by Benjamin Franklin in 1731, has received 1,500 volumes on sexuality dating back centuries.

The Library Company of Philadelphia, the institution created in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin, has received a gift of 1,500 volumes about sexuality, including works dating back to the 17th century, according to a New York Times report cited in the source bundle.

The donation adds a substantial sex-related rare book collection to a library with origins in Franklin’s colonial-era Philadelphia. The reported date range gives the acquisition a long historical sweep, linking contemporary interest in sexuality to printed works produced centuries earlier.

The gift is notable both for its size and for the setting: a nearly three-century-old library associated with Franklin’s civic and intellectual legacy. With 1,500 volumes entering the collection, the acquisition broadens the material available around the history of sexuality at one of Philadelphia’s landmark cultural institutions.