Does your Chester County-based historical organization hold archival materials (such as papers, letters, maps, ledgers, and photographs)? Would you like your archival collections surveyed by professional archivists and descriptions of your collections made accessible online?

If so, we hope you will participate in the Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR). As part of HCI-PSAR, professional archivists will visit your institution to survey your archival collections, create descriptions, and post them online. The Chester County Historical Society and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania are co-sponsoring a “Meet & Greet” to explain more about the HCI-PSAR project at the Chester County Historical Society on Monday, May 13, 2013, from 6:30-8 p.m. Both the event, and participation in HCI-PSAR, are free!

HCI-PSAR is a project of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (a private non-profit based in Philadelphia) and is funded by grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The goal of the project is to make better known and more accessible the largely hidden archival collections of the many small, primarily volunteer-run historical organizations in the five-county Philadelphia area, such as local historical societies, historic sites, and small museums with archival collections.

We have already conducted surveys at more than 60 small archival repositories in Philadelphia, Montgomery, and Bucks counties. Now, we are focusing on Chester County. We hope you will be next!