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.

*** Now you can also use this page to adopt a piece of equipment that HSP needs to do its work. See below. ***

Ultrasonic Welder

After 20 years of good service our ultrasonic welder is beyond repair. The welder is an essential piece of equipment for our conservation lab.  Fragile documents and photographs are placed between sheets of clear polyester. The polyester is welded together with sound. This process – called “encapsulation” – does not create heat, ensuring the document’s safety. The welder can handle very small documents as well as quite large ones with special attachments.

The conservation lab makes every attempt to mend documents with paper, but many manuscripts, maps, and photographs are damaged beyond a reasonable amount of repair. Those documents are best encapsulated to keep them available to our researchers.  The polyester does not interfere with visibility or photocopying.

A brand new welder, fully installed costs $27,500. By recycling all possible components of our old welder, we can bring the cost down to $14,250, a savings of almost fifty percent. We are hoping to raise the $14,250 to replace our welder as soon as possible. Any donation toward this goal would be much appreciated.

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 $500 will enable us to preserve, organize, and catalog this collection.

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 $2000 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.

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 $2700 will enable us to preserve and write a finding aid to this collection.

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 $800 will enable us to preserve and write a finding aid to this collection.

Thomas Hutchins papers (Collection 308), 1759-1788, 1.33 linear feet

Thomas Hutchins (1730-1789) was born in New Jersey and became first geographer general of the United States in 1781. This small collection of his papers documents the topography of the United States in the late 1700s, prior to westward expansion; observations on the coast of Florida; and navigability of rivers.  There are also Hutchins’s journals of surveying parties, in which he described the land surveyed and recalled relations with Indian, French, and Spanish settlements.  The journals are quite detailed and offer accounts of wildlife, vegetation, and inhabitability of the land. This collection provides an excellent account of North America while European settlement was still relatively limited and reflects both the scientific thinking of the era and the growing interest in westward expansion.

Your contribution of $200 will enable us to preserve, organize, and catalog this collection.
Good news: this collection was adopted on September 16th!  Please check back for a link to the finding aid when the processing is complete.

Jonathan Potts papers (Collection 521), 1766-1780, 1 linear foot

Dr.  Jonathan Potts (1745-1781) was medical director-general of the Northern Department of the Revolutionary Army.  His papers include letters, muster rolls, and other documents relating to medical supplies and hospital service in the Revolution, which offer details concerning battles, sick and wounded soldiers, and food and equipment shortages.  In particular, Potts’ role as a medical officer during the Revolution is highlighted, as are medical practices of the time. There are also essays on the pre-revolutionary controversies between England and the colonies.

Your contribution of $100 will enable us to preserve, organize, and catalog this collection.
Good news: this collection was adopted on October 16th!  Please check back for a link to the finding aid when the processing is complete.

William Morris Davis correspondence (Collection 164), 1853-1879, 0.33 linear feet

William Morris Davis was a Philadelphia sugar refiner, abolitionist, and member of Congress, from 1861 to 1863.  This small collection consists primarily of letters from William Morris Davis to Henry Kirke Brown, a New York sculptor. Also included are letters to and from Davis' wife, Elizabeth, and their friends Catherine Brooks Yale and her husband, Linus Yale, developer of the Yale lock.  The correspondents discuss Brown's sculptures, fly fishing, forging and casting, religion, machine tools, the Panic of 1857, and Republican politics.  Davis also reports on other topics, such as Passmore Williamson's imprisonment for contempt of court during an 1857 fugitive slave case and John C. Fremont's 1856 presidential candidacy. 

Your contribution of $100 will enable us to rehouse and catalog this collection.
Good news: this collection was adopted on October 16th!  Please check back for a link to the finding aid when the processing is complete.

WPA posters collection (V99), 1934-ca. 1941. 1.5 linear feet.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was created in 1935 and renamed the Work Projects Administration in 1939. Part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, it was a federal agency to provide work to unemployed people.

The Federal Art Project (FAP) was formed as a part of the WPA in 1935. The primary goals of FAP were to promote American art and artists; increase art education, especially for children; and research the history of American art and design.  FAP subsidiaries were eventually formed in each state; in Pennsylvania it was called the Pennsylvania Art Program (PAP).  It employed artists such as Charles Reed Gardner (1901-1974), Dox Thrash (1892-1965), and Michael J. Gallagher (1898-1965), who created numerous works for the war effort; public buildings, displays, and exhibitions; and for the general support of American art and graphic design. 

The WPA posters collection (V99) consists of over 900 examples of artworks, many of which are originals, produced primarily by PAP artists during the early 1940s, including photographs, prints, costume plates, drawings, and watercolors.  The styles and subjects of the artworks are quite diverse and range from watercolors depicting laborers and landscapes, to woodblock prints inviting visitors to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Zoo, to costume plates showing the daily wear of Romanian peasants. 

Your donation of $1200 will enable us to preserve, organize, and catalog this collection.
Good news: this collection was adopted on July 21st!  Please check back for a link to the finding aid when the processing is complete.

Thomas McKean papers (Collection 405) 1759-1847, 2.7 linear feet

Thomas McKean was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and would go onto become a prominent lawyer and politician.  He represented Delaware at the 1765 Stamp Act Congress, served as a Continental Congressman from Delaware from 1774 to 1776 and 1777 to 1783, and was Governor of Pennsylvania from 1799 to 1808.

McKean’s papers include incoming and outgoing correspondence with prominent figures in the Early Republic, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Laurens, and Caesar Rodney.  Such letters discuss government structure, foreign aid, military affairs, camp conditions, and army morale.  There is also a group of letters from McKean to his wife, as well as miscellaneous commissions, diplomas, and documents. 

Your donation of $400 will enable us to preserve, organize, and catalog this collection.
Good news: this collection was adopted on May 29th!  Please check back for a link to the finding aid when the processing is complete.

Chew Family Papers

In March 2007, HSP received a competitive government grant to process our largest collection of family papers. This award, given by the National Endowment for the Humanities, will provide a total of $170,000 to preserve and improve access to the papers of the Chew family, one of HSP’s most significant collections.

Spanning approximately 400 linear feet and 300 years, the Chew papers provide a rare lens onto the diversity of people and issues that shaped America’s cultural landscape—including the extraordinary stories of more “ordinary” Americans. Amid the plethora of professional and personal material are explicit descriptions illuminating the experiences of not only Philadelphia’s elite, but also slaves and servants, craftsmen, women, and young children. This material has the power to change the way we understand our past—it will add a wealth of new voices to the story of our nation.

For example: Richard Allen, a slave of the Chews in Delaware, purchased his freedom and went on to become a prominent black leader and founder of the first AME church in the country. 

The NEH grant will support arrangement of the papers, conservation treatment, and development of a detailed finding aid for the collection. But here’s where you come in: HSP must contribute $35,000 from its own budget to match the federal funds.

The Chew Family Papers are now processed!  Thank you to Cathleen, Willhem, Leah and all of the various HSP staffers, interns, and volunteers who unfolded, cleaned, organized, researched and did whatever else was needed to get this massive project completed on schedule.  Check out the finding aid for this collection on our website's alphabetical list of finding aids. (Scroll down to "Chew" and click on the links for the different sections.)