John Van Horne

John C. Van Horne is the Director of the Library Company (after having served
from 1985 to 2014). Founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1731, the Library Company is
the nation's oldest circulating library and holds one of the largest collections o
primary sources documenting every aspect of American history and culture from the
17th through the early 20th centuries. Particular strengths include early American
economy, African American history, women's history, and visual culture. Dr. Van
Horne holds a bachelor's degree in history from Princeton University and a master's
degree and doctorate in history from the University of Virginia. He was elected to the
American Philosophical Society in 2005. His publications include a dozen articles,
many volumes of The Papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe (Yale), and other edited works
such as Religious Philanthropy and Colonial Slavery: The American Correspondence of the
Associates of Dr. Bray, 1717-1777 (1985); The Abolitionist Sisterhood: Women's Political
Culture in Antebellum America (with Jean Fagan Yellin, 1994); Traveling the Pennsylvania
Railroad: The Photographs of William H. Rau (2002); and America's Curious Botanist: A
Tercentennial Reappraisal of John Bartram (1699-1777) (with Nancy Hoffmann, 2004).