The Founders Collection (1753-1758) contains 45 volumes remaining from the holdings of the Providence Library Company.

Catalogue of the Providence Library Company, 1768.

The first catalogue of the library was compiled by Stephen Hopkins in 1768. It is shown with a selection of the books that belonged to the Providence Library Company prior to the fire of 1758. The collection is known as the Founders Collection.

Pierre Gilles. The Antiquities of Constantinople...

With a description of its situation, the conveniencies of its port, its publick buildings, the statuary, sculpture, architecture, and other curiosities of that city, with cuts explaining the chief of them. In four books. Written originally in Latin by Petrus Gyllius ... Now translated into English, and enlarged with an ancient description of the wards of that city, as they stood in the reigns of Arcadius and Honorius. With Pancirolus's notes thereupon. To which is added a large explanatory index. Translated by John Ball. London: Printed for the benefit of the translator, 1729.

James Fraser. The History of Nadir Shah...

Formerly called Thamas Kuli Khan, the present emperor of Persia, to which is prefix'd a short history of the Moghol emperors, at the end is inserted, a catalogue of about two hundred manuscripts in the Persic and other Oriental languages, collected in the East by James Fraser. 2nd. ed. London: Printed for A. Millar, at Buchaman's Head, over against St. Clement's Church, in the Strand, 1742.

George Bickham. The Universal Penman, or, The art of writing made useful to the gentleman and scholar, as well as the man of business.

London: Printed for, and Sold by H. Overton, 1743. The Universal Penman was one of the first books ordered for the library in 1753. It was published by subscription in fifty-two parts over a period of eight years, and the Providence Athenæum owns one of the few complete copies that survive. It includes over 125 copper-plate pictorial scenes. In 1802, the Board voted to loan the volume to the local public schools for students to practice their fine penmanship. It lends its name to the Athenæum’s print newsletter.

The original collection of 345 volumes was lost in 1758 during a fire at the old Town House where they were located. However, 70 volumes on loan at the time survived the fire, and 45 of these remain in the Athenæum’s collection. As a body, this collection offers unique and valuable insights into the formation of a publicly accessible library in the mid-eighteenth century – representing a variety of subjects including biography, natural history, the classics, travel and exploration, and instructional texts about law, chemistry, penmanship, and animal husbandry.