Fondly, Pennsylvania

Fondly, Pennsylvania is a joint blog of HSP's archives, conservation, and digitization departments.  Here you will find posts on our latest projects and newest discoveries, as well as how we care for, describe, and preserve our collections.  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!

Bankers Securities Corporation
5/9/12
Author: Faith Charlton

Because Dana and I are primarily viewing the history of Bankers Trust Company through the eyes of Albert M. Greenfield- since we’re using his papers- we have come across other story lines relating to Greenfield and his numerous other ventures that continually weave in and out of the story of the bank.

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The John Fryer papers and the Dr. Anonymous affair
5/3/12
Author: Willhem Echevarria

We recently finished processing the John Fryer papers (Collection 3465) and are very proud to have among his documents the original manuscript of the speech Fryer gave at the 1972 Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). The event is considered one of the most significant moments in the history of the gay-rights movement, persuading the APA to remove homosexuality from the list of diseases listed in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM II).

Topics: 20th century
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Interesting discoveries in the Oliver H. Bair Company records
4/25/12
Author: Matt McNelis

An earlier blog post gave a brief introduction of the Oliver H. Bair Company collection, which is now properly preserved and accessible to users at HSP. This collection is comprised of nearly 83,000 burial records that span the time of 1920 to 1980. There were many surprises within these records, and this post is going to highlight some of the most interesting people that were located within these records.

Topics: 20th century, Economics, Genealogy, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Recreation and Sport, Women
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Re-housing History
4/20/12
Author: Matt McNelis

In the fall of 2011, through a generous grant by Ancestry.com I was given the task of re-housing the Historical Society of Pennsylvania’s largest funeral home collection, the Oliver H. Bair Company collection. The collection consists of over 1050 boxes of burial records that the company had amassed over six decades of operation, from 1920-1980 to be exact.

Topics: 20th century
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Treatment of the Abraham H. Cassel Collection
4/18/12
Author: Mary Tasillo

The Cassel Collection (Collection 1610) is one of twenty-one collections documenting immigrant and ethnic history receiving processing, digitization, and conservation treatment as part of the Digital Center for Americana Project Phase II. Abraham H. Cassel (1820-1908) was a collector of books and materials related to Pennsylvania German religious history.

Topics: 18th century, 19th century, Pennsylvania
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On surprises in scrapbooks
4/13/12
Author: Sarah Newhouse

I’m sure many of you have seen the “What I Do” meme that did the rounds a while back. The meme itself is old news, but I recently stumbled across a “What I Do” image for archivists this week on the Syracuse University’s Special Collections Research Center blog.

Topics: 19th century, Arts and Culture
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Learning More About the People Behind the Documents
4/11/12
Author: Dana Dorman

I'm excited to report that we've moved on to the next phase of the Greenfield Digital Project: researching and annotating our 324 selected primary-source documents.

Topics: 20th century, Depression, Economics, Philadelphia
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Nearing 100% Collection Discoverability
4/4/12
Author: Matt Shoemaker

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is proud to announce that more than 6,100 collection level records are now available online through discover.hsp.org.  Many of these records were previously unavailable online making this a valuable addition for researchers.  Information on nearly every collection at HSP is now available on discover.hsp.org. These records provide a summary of each collection that will aid you in your research.  Examples of materials never before described online include:

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Processing Adopt-a-Collections Continues: The Papers of Frank Gordon Bradley and the Brake and Wineman families
3/29/12
Author: Cary Hutto

My work at HSP revolves around our manuscript collections, whether I'm processing, accessioning, researching, or paging.  And I've dealt with many collections over the past several years of all shapes, sizes, and conditions.  Because this work has become somewhat rote for me, and because so many collections regularly cross my desk, it's easy for me to overlook the unique facets of each.  Our collections, known or unknown, each have human histories and carry along with them aspects of their creators.  Two adopt-a-c

Topics: 19th century, 20th century, Pennsylvania, World War II
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Volumes from the Cassel Collection on the Digital Horizon
3/27/12
Author: Ashley Harper

For the last several weeks and for the next several weeks I'll be working with the Cassel Collection # 1610. So far, cataloguing and digitizing them for online use has been challenging.

Handling these often fragile volumes is something that requires delicate attention. They have fragile pages and tight binding which doesn't lend to being photographed easily. I often have to use a book cradle which, is two wedge shaped pieces of foam, to support the book. The cradles go underneath the book and when photographed from above the book usually looks slightly angled.

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