Images of “by-gone days:” Visualizing the Manayunk of yesteryear

Oftentimes, history can seem like an accumulation of paper trails, a collection of stories told through the letters, diaries, and other written records that our ancestors leave behind.  However, graphic materials are also compelling historical artifacts, as I’m continually reminded while working on rights and reproductions orders at HSP.  Within our rich and diverse collections, [...]

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Transparency in documentary editing

Postmodernist theory, which emphasizes the inevitable existence of individuals’ subjectivity and bias, has for the most part, become commonplace thinking. Within academe, postmodern critical analysis has affected all disciplines, including the “pure” sciences, which are no longer viewed as completely objective and neutral. The reality of subjectivity has caused scholars in the humanities and social [...]

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Mary Elizabeth Hallock Greenewalt and the Magical, Mystical, Musical Finding Aids

Yesterday, April 5th, 2011, we at HSP hosted an event for the new, Musical Finding Aid. What does this mean, you ask? Do not fret, if all your questions aren’t answered in the next paragraphs please leave a comment! Last year Matt Shoemaker, director of digital collections and systems, was awarded a grant from the [...]

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Improving Access Through Technology

I am happy to announce that the Historical Society of Pennsylvania’s new digital assets management system (DAMS) has officially gone live for the public!   You can access the DAMS by going to digitallibrary.hsp.org The implementation of this system, which is driven by the open source software Collective Access, was a major component of the [...]

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