Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c1049IR // #c1049Synthesis

"by thus clubbing our books to a common library, we should, while we lik'd to keep them together, have each of us the advantage of using the books of all the other members" "fifty persons, mostly young tradesmen, willing to pay down for this purpose forty shillings each, and ten shillings per annum."

— In our words · Source: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Benjamin Franklin)

[Use when]

You need to fund something useful and no single patron will pay for it.

[Why it matters]

The Junto first pooled its own books in one room. When that worked, he turned it into a subscription: small payments from many people, renewed each year. He calls it "the mother of all the North American subscription libraries"; that is his claim.

More from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

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