Speaker:  James N. Green (Librarian, Library Company of Philadelphia)

Title: Memory, Reason, Imagination: Subject Classification in the 1789 Catalogue of the Library Company of Philadelphia

This talk is about the Library Company of Philadelphia’s 1789 printed catalogue and its innovative subject arrangement, which was derived from d’Alembert’s classification of human knowledge according to the three fundamental faculties of the mind: Memory, Reason, and Imagination. The catalogue inspired an enigmatic allegorical painting that the Library Company commissioned in 1792, which has startled and confused generations of visitors.