Last month, the Small Repositories team visited the Greek American Heritage Society of Philadelphia and surveyed their archival collections. Their records focus primarily on the local Greek American Community and include institutional records of the Society, photographs, correspondence, and papers of the Criticos family.

I was first introduced to the Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories project a year ago when I served as an intern. I processed archival collections at the Independence Seaport Museum and the Radnor Historical Society. You can learn all about my experiences by reading the blog post Pirates and Prima Donnas:  an Intern’s Adventures Archives.

Have you been looking for a new cinnamon buns recipe? Or perhaps catsup? Or, even better, pickle for hams?

If so, you’re in luck. A handwritten recipe book at the Northampton Township Archives in Richboro, Bucks County, Pennsylvania has this, and more!

From 1905, this handwritten recipe book by Margaret A. Weiss includes instructions for making chocolate marble cake, catsup, and cinnamon buns. 

National History Day (NHD) is a great program to help students in grades 6-12 practice research and critical thinking skills, elements important to their future in the workplace and school. For students and teachers particularly interested in local history, or who live far from HSP and want to find primary-source documents close to home, a small repository may be a good place to do research. Below, see a couple of small repository collections we highlighted that relate to the NHD 2016 theme of "Exploration, Encounter, Exchange."