Fondly, Pennsylvania

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Fondly, Pennsylvania

Fondly, Pennsylvania is HSP's main blog.  Here you will find posts on our latest projects and newest discoveries, as well articles on interesting bits of local history reflected in our collection.  Whether you are doing research or just curious to know more about the behind-the-scenes work that goes on at HSP, please read, explore, and join the conversation!

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3/11/14
Author Erin Paulson

We in the conservation department are excited to share that many of the volumes in the Bank of North America collection are now available to researchers. Over three hundred volumes and boxes are now finished, covered in sleeves for their further protection, and labeled.

Upon the completion of this huge percentage of the collection (almost half!), we made the decision to move the volumes to their permanent home in our newly renovated second floor vault so that they can now be accessed by public researchers.

Comments: 2

2/26/14
Author Cary Hutto

Hello again folks, and thank you for coming back to Fondly, Pennsylvania this month for more transcriptions from the George F. Parry Civil War diaries (George F. Parry family volumes, Collection 3694). If you're just joining us, in 2012 HSP acquired the diaries of Bucks County resident and Civil War veterinary surgeon George F. Parry. In that collection are three diaries he kept during the Civil War dating from 1863 to 1865, when he served with the 7th Pennsylvania Cavalry.

Comments: 0

2/12/14

As we finalize our new digital history project centered on the Underground Railroad, we're looking for volunteers who can give us 15 minutes here at HSP on Wednesday Feb. 19 between 5 - 8 pm.

If you're in the Philadelphia area and can help us out, please email project manager Dana Dorman at ddorman@hsp.org ASAP.

Comments: 2

2/5/14

The financial records that fill the 671 volumes in the Bank of North America Collection offer up a veritable goldmine of historical information, vital and pertinent to more areas of research than can be readily imagined.   And yet these pages, being written out by hand, also contain a sort of history that goes beyond the academic. 

Comments: 6

1/29/14
Author Cary Hutto

Happy New Year everyone! Thanks for returning to Fondly, Pennsylvania for more transcriptions from the George F. Parry Civil War diaries (George F. Parry family volumes, Collection 3694). If you're just joining us, in 2012 HSP acquired the diaries of Bucks County resident and Civil War veterinary surgeon George F. Parry. In that collection are three diaries he kept during the Civil War dating from 1863 to 1865, when he served with the 7th Pennsylvania Cavalry. In celebration of Parry's work and the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, I'm providing monthly posts on Fondly, PA of transcripts of entries from his diaries.

Comments: 0

1/23/14
Author Sarah Leu

This past fall I worked as an archives intern for the Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR). It was a great experience, and it’s not hard to understand why. I was exposed to both large repository and small repository environments, I was able to work with a variety of collections and produce multiple finding aids, and I met a lot of great people. For all of these reasons and more, this internship was not only fun, but also rewarding.

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1/15/14
Author Kelley Hirsch

This fall we delved deeper into the interactive geographic map for the William Still Digital History Project.

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1/1/14

During World War I, from 1917-1919, the U.S. Treasury issued five bonds to help raise money for the war effort in Europe. The War Loan Organization oversaw the sale of these bonds, known as the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Liberty Loans, as well as a fifth Victory Loan. Because the first two bonds didn’t sell well, the War Loan Organization undertook a massive drive to promote their sale.

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12/27/13
Author Becca Solnit

I started working in September as a joint digital collections intern at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and Villanova University. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania and Villanova are in the process of creating a digital exhibit that highlights World War I-era resources from institutions within the Delaware Valley region. The project will go live on the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 2014, and will continue to commemorate the Great War over the next four years.

Comments: 0

12/25/13
Author Becca Solnit

In 1915, the German passenger liner turned auxiliary cruiser, Kronprinz Wilhelm, interned in Philadelphia. After capturing 15 merchant ships since the outbreak of World War I, the ship was low on fuel and ravaged by sickness in its crew. While the ship was laid up in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, its crew lived in a nearby camp. However, when the United States joined the war in 1917, the United States seized the Kronprinz Wilhelm and relocated its crewmembers to Fort McPherson in Georgia as prisoners of war. 

Comments: 6