Adopt a Collection

HSP has many collections that require organization, improved descriptions, and preservation in order to ensure that they are properly cared for and accessible to researchers.  We need your help to move ahead with this work! Donations to assist us with processing collections will provide for preservation and repair of manuscripts as needed, and will also enable us to properly organize, inventory, and catalog collections so that researchers can more easily identify relevant materials. If you have any questions about the collections below, please contact Matthew Lyons at mlyons@hsp.org or 215-732-6200 ext. 301.  If you would like to make a contribution to these projects, please contact Lee Arnold at larnold@hsp.org or 215-732-6200 ext. 237.

These and other collections are available in our shop, where you can adopt a collection or make donations toward adoptions.

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Women’s Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals records, 1870-1970 (Collection 3156), 30 linear feet

The Women’s Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (WPSCPA) was formed in 1869 by Philadelphian Caroline Earle White (1833-1916), an early proponent of animal rights and vegetarianism, as an auxiliary to the men’s organization of similar name. White served as the group’s president from 1869 to 1916, and she helped set forth the group’s original purposes of providing for the inspection and care of horses and providing refuges for stray dogs.   The WPSPCA is also credited with forming the first animal shelter in the nation.  The society still exists today as the Women’s Humane Society in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.  Materials in this collection include annual reports, minutes, correspondence, and their publication (“The Guardian”). This diverse collection represents a significant portion of the history of an early women’s charitable organization.

Your contribution of $2225 will enable us to preserve, organize, and catalog this collection.

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Charles A. Tracy collection of Hardie family papers (Collection 3155), 1777-1901, 0.4 linear feet

The Hardie family of Philadelphia originated from Scotland.  This collection contains personal papers pertaining to several family members, including Robert Hardie, who was born in Philadelphia in 1798 and served on a privateer during the War of 1812, and Robert Hardie (1727-1795), who emigrated from Scotland to Bristol, Pennsylvania, in the 1740s. Making up the bulk of the papers, however, are those pertaining to David Hardie, who was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1838, and later lived and worked in Philadelphia.  David served in the U. S. Navy during the Civil War.  His papers span from the 1850s to the 1880s and include personal correspondence; petitions; letters from the U. S. Treasury and Navy Departments; and printed circulars, bills, and orders.   

Your contribution of $115 will enable us to preserve, organize, and catalog this collection.

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Charles A. Quinn family albums, 1898-1919, 0.6 linear feet

Charles A. Quinn, a resident of Philadelphia and a postal worker, was a talented and meticulous amateur photographer as well as a competent painter.  This collection consists of two Quinn family albums, which contain Charles’s informal portraits of family, friends, co-workers, outdoor scenes, and his hand-painted decorations and thematic images.

These albums provide an exceptionally rich look at the life of a Philadelphia family over the first two decades of the 20th century. Photos document Charles Quinn’s courtship and marriage to Ann Weber, and the growth from infancy into young adulthood of their daughters Viola and Hilda. There are numerous candid photos of leisure activities in Wildwood, New Jersey; Fairmount Park; and other Philadelphia-area locales. All of the photos have captions and most pages include the year.

A donation of $690 will enable us to preserve, organize, and catalog this collection.

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William Redwood records (Amb .7526), 1749-1811, 1.25 linear feet

From the mid 1700s to the early 1800s, William Redwood worked as a merchant in Newport, Rhode Island; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Antigua, West Indies.  This collection contains ten account books from Redwoods’ businesses.  The volumes are exceptionally detailed and highly legible. The Antigua journal and daybook contain detailed plantation records, including the hiring and upkeep of black and white workers, frequent recapturing of enslaved workers who ran away (who are usually identified by name), a high turnover in overseers, crop plantings, and commerce in farm products. Other volumes document Redwood’s involvement in specific voyages (including voyages between Newport and Philadelphia as well as to Canton and London) and records trade in a wide range of items from fabrics and wood to spices and dyes.  Customers and business associates included Thomas and Joshua Gilpin, Edward and Isaac Penington, and James and William Logan.

Your contribution of $1225 will enable us to preserve, organize, and catalog this collection.

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Cox-Parrish-Wharton family papers (Collection 154), 1600-1900, 9 linear feet

 

These three families were all local, prominent Quaker families with strong personal, political, and mercantile ties to each other. The collection consists of information on the religious, humanitarian, social, and economic influence of the Quakers in American life. Of particular interest are the founding documents of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, which include early minutes of the 1770s detailing which members of the community were still holding illegally enslaved or indentured African-American and Indian.  Much of the correspondence is family-oriented and personal in nature, but provides insight into Quaker family life.

Your contribution of $175 will enable us to preserve, organize, and catalog this collection.

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The Abraham Barker Collection of Free Military School for Command of Colored Regiments records(AmS .51 and AmS .511), 1863-1864, 0.4 linear feet

The Free Military School for Command of Colored Regiments opened in Philadelphia on December 26, 1863 under preceptor John H. Taggart, once a colonel of the 12^th Pennsylvania Reserve.  It appealed to the local community of free African Americans to join the ranks of the military by issuing announcements calling for them to fight for America, to fight for their brethren still enslaved, and to fight to prove their equality as citizens.  The school remained open until mid-September 1864.   This collection consists of two volumes: a register of admission to the school and a disbound register and scrapbook.  Papers in the scrapbook include correspondence, printed items such as booklets and broadsides, clippings, and a few prints.  Correspondents include Thomas Webster, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, Governor Andrew G. Curtin, and Henry Winter Davis.

Your contribution of $575 will enable us to preserve, organize, and catalog this collection.

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Pennsylvania Abolition Society Papers (Collection 490), 1748-1979, 41 linear feet

Growing out of egalitarian concerns of members of the Society of Friends, the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, as it is now known, was founded in 1775 as the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, but the Revolution caused its early Quaker members to suspend operations until 1784, when it reorganized with a broader base.  From the beginning, the Abolition Society’s programs were devoted not only to the abolition of slavery, but to the social and economic improvement of black Americans as well.  This large collection includes minutes and reports, correspondence, financial records, manumissions and indentures, and miscellaneous papers.  Researchers will also find materials related to other societies to which PAS members belonged, such as the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society, the Young Men’s Anti-Slavery Society, the South Mulberry Ward (Philadelphia) Anti-Slavery Society, the Junior Anti-Slavery Society of Philadelphia, the Bache Institute, the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Committee on Requited Labor, the American Free Produce Association, the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, the Vigilance Committee of Philadelphia, and the 13th Ward Republican Club of Philadelphia.

Your contribution of $2300 will enable us to write a finding aid to this collection, re-label the boxes, and create an index of names in the manumission records.

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American Negro Historical Society Collection (Collection 8), 1790-1905, 10.5 linear feet

The American Negro Historical Society was founded in 1897 by a group of Philadelphia African Americans to study and preserve materials documenting the American black experience.  Among the founders and early members were Robert Adger, W.M. Dorsey and Jacob C. White, Jr., who donated materials to the society, some of which are present in the collection.

The ANHS collection contains minutes of the society, incoming correspondence and drafts, membership lists, bills and receipts, and land accession books. Additionally, there are records of several schools, churches, and civic and philanthropic organizations, such as the Second African Presbyterian Church, the Zoar Sabbath School, the Banneker Institute, the Statistical Association of the Colored People of Philadelphia, the Benjamin Lundy Philanthropic Society, the Daughters of Africa, and the Pennsylvania State Equal Rights League.

Your contribution of $3100 will enable us to preserve and write a finding aid to this collection.

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Leon Gardiner Collection (Collection 8B), 1822-1979, 1.5 linear feet

Leon Gardiner was a black Philadelphian and U.S. Post Office employee. He had a keen interest in raising consciousness about black history, collected historical manuscripts and spoke on the topic, and was an active member of the American Negro Historical Society.

The Leon Gardiner Collection consists of his own papers as well as those of his wife, Beatrice.   Gardiner’s papers include personal and business correspondence, miscellaneous bills and receipts; and several of Gardiner’s own essays on a range of topics, such as the history of slavery, the results of the Emancipation, black soldiers in the Civil War, black civil right efforts in the late 1700s and early 1800s, and the creation of anti-slavery societies, including the American Anti-Slavery Society and various vigilant societies.  Gardner also wrote about famous individuals such as Robert Purvis and Octavius V. Catto.

Beatrice (Mrs. Leon) Gardiner material includes correspondence from family members and letters concerning the Women’s League, Inc., and materials related to Father Divine’s Peace Mission Free School, and the Gardiner, Newlin, Richardson Family Association.

Your contribution of $920 will enable us to preserve and write a finding aid to this collection.

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