Central Library's 75th Anniversary Collection

The Central Library, on Philadelphia's beautiful Benjamin Franklin Parkway, was dedicated on June 2, 1927. Seventy-five years later, it is a dynamic, evolving destination where the world is at your fingertips and you can travel anywhere in time or place through books and multiple electronic media. Learn more about this collection. For advanced searching filters for this collection, please use the link "Advanced."

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Main Entrance Hall of the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia looking toward the doorway on Vine Street
Hathaway and West Philadelphia Shakespeare Clubs commemorate the 314th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, April 24, 1930.
Step 11. In the Main Reading Room of the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia, a member of the library staff charges the requested book to the patron's account. The entire process took only two to four minutes
Mummers strut on the Parkway on New Year's Day 1928
Exterior of the Free Library of Philadelphia at 1217-1221 Chestnut Street
Removal notice for the closing of the Free Library of Philadelphia at 13th and Locust Streets, October 30, 1926
Children's Reading Room at the Free Library of Philadelphia at 1217-1221 Chestnut Street
Exhibition of children's books from the Rosenbach Collection in the Main Entrance Hall of the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia, 1947
Exterior of the Free Library of Philadelphia at 13th and Locust Streets, first occupied in 1910
Main Entrance Hall of the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia looking toward stairway with the Dr. William Pepper statue on the stairway landing
Step 9. The box with the requested book is raised by a dumbwaiter from the first mezzanine level to the Main Reading Room of the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia
Step 8. Eventually the box with the requested book makes its way to the sixth level of the Bookstacks and across the first mezzanine floor to a point directly under the Main Reading Room of the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia
Step 7. The box with the requested book winds its way through the Bookstacks toward the Main Reading Room of the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia
Step 6. The book is placed in a box which will be transported to the Main Reading Room of the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia
Step 10. In the Main Reading Room of the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia, a library staff member retrieves the requested book from the dumbwaiter and hands it to patron
Step 5. The book is taken to a central station in the Bookstacks of the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia where it will begin its automated journey on the conveyor system to the Main Reading Room
Step 3. The call number of the book requested is received on the teletype receiver on the correct floor in the Bookstacks in the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia. A runner is dispatched to retrieve the book from its place on the shelf
Step 4. The runner retrieves the book from the shelves takes it to the central station on that floor of the Bookstacks in the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia
Step 1. The patron searches the card catalog in the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia for the call number of the book which she is interested, in this case Edward Everett Hale's Franklin in France
Step 2. After finding the call number in the card catalog for a book the patron wishes to borrow, she requests the book from the library staff member in the Main Reading Room in the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia.