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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These American Lives

With part two of the Digital Center for Americana project underway, collections coming up the digital library pipeline include family album watercolors and oral history sound recordings that provide unique glimpses into Philadelphia family life, as well as how family life changes when individuals leave their country of origin for Philadelphia. Given the role that [...]

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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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It’s here!

The wait is finally over! HSP is happy to announce its first publication in many years; a facsimile of Ellen Emlen’s Cookbook dated to 1865. The manuscript contains over 200 recipes which are clearly organized with a table of contents. Written by Mrs. Emlen’s own hand the recipes are legible and give a sense of [...]

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Ellen Emlen’s Cookbook – Pre-order your copy today!

Now available for pre-order in the HSP Online Store, is Ellen Emlen’s Cookbook! The Historical Society is pleased to present the facsimile of Ellen Emlen’s cookbook. Mrs. Emlen, a nineteenth-century Philadelphia housewife, organized her cookbook into thirteen categories of recipes including meats, vegetables, sauces, food for the sick, and desserts. Written circa 1865 and containing [...]

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Government waste, circa 1863

I recently finished processing the Citizens’ Bounty Fund Committee records, another Civil War-era collection that we are working on as part of the Digital Center for Americana project. The Citizens’ Bounty Fund Committee formed in Philadelphia during the summer of 1862, in response to President Abraham Lincoln’s call for another 300,000 Union troops. Concerned about [...]

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Collections of interest to Hispanics

When you visit the Historical Society of Pennsylvania’s webpage and read the description of what we do, you’ll find a reference to additions to our collection of documents acquired in 2002 from The Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies. Although HSP has excelled in keeping and providing access to valuable documents about American colonial history, we [...]

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Hot soup on a cold day: the records of the The Kensington Soup Society

I recently finished processing a  set of records from the Kensington Soup Society (KSS).  KSS, which closed in 2007, was Philadelphia’s last neighborhood soup kitchen.  It was founded in 1844, at a time when there were other soup kitchens in the city, each one serving a particular neighborhood.  In KSS’s case, its serving boundaries extended [...]

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