The Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in support of Phase II of its Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR). The goal of the HCI-PSAR project is to make better known and more accessible the often hidden archival collections held by the many small, primarily volunteer-run historical organizations in the Philadelphia area.

HSP recently concluded work on Phase I of HCI-PSAR, which was a 14-month pilot project that was also funded by the Mellon Foundation. In Phase I, project staff visited 47 small repositories in Philadelphia and Montgomery counties and surveyed and assessed 541 individual archival collections totaling more than 4,600 linear feet of materials. Finding aids to these collections are available on the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL) finding aid website.

Phase II of HCI-PSAR will be a two-year project that will run from October 2012 to October 2014. It will focus on the three remaining Philadelphia area counties—Bucks, Chester, and Delaware—as well as any un-surveyed repositories in Philadelphia and Montgomery counties. Project staff anticipate visiting more than 100 repositories in Phase II and surveying and assessing more than 1,000 individual collections.

Project staff include Project Director Jack McCarthy, Project Coordinator Andree Mey Miller, and Project Surveyors Celia Caust-Ellenbogen and Faith Charlton. HSP Director of Archives and Collections Management Matthew Lyons serves as Project Supervisor. Follow the project on Facebook to learn more about the interesting repositories and important collections being brought to light through this initiative.