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(1700 - 1799)

1731 
Benjamin Franklin and fifty friends start The Library Company of Philadelphia, the country’s first successful circulation library, so that people of moderate means can better themselves through reading.  (Source: The Library Company of Philadelphia)

1743 
Benjamin Franklin helps launch the American Philosophical Society, the first learned society in America. In the course of the twentieth century, over 200 members of the Society have received the Nobel Prize. (Source American Philosophical Society).

1770 
St. George Society was created to help impoverished colonists in New York City. Branches soon followed in Philadelphia and Charleston, and later in other American states and in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. The society exists today as the St. George’s Society of New York and is considered the oldest charity in the United States.  (Source: St. George’s Society of New York)

1776 
Phi Beta Kappa was founded by five students at the College of William and Mary in ancient Williamsburg, VA, on the night of December 5, 1776.  It is the oldest undergraduate honors program in the United States.  (Source: Phi Beta Kappa Society)


(1600-1699) | (1700-1799) | (1800-1899) | (1900-1999) | (2000 +)