The choice of Franklin’s Autobiography, containing account of his journey of self-education as the cornerstone of the Harvard Classics demonstrates Charles Eliot’s mission in creating the five-foot shelf of books: “to afford a good substitute for a liberal education to anyone who would read them with devotion.”

Exemplifying the inner life of the Society of Friends, Woolman’s Journal also formed part of his crusade against slavery that would only be realized 150 years later.

The Fruits of Solitude of the founder of Pennsylvania published anonymously so as not to be reimprisoned for disloyalty epitomize the simple Quaker truths upon which the Republic would be based.