Archival Adventures in Small Repositories
![Printer-friendly version Printer-friendly version](https://hsp.org/sites/all/modules/contrib/print/icons/print_icon.png)
Archival Adventures in Small Repositories
![](https://hsp.org/sites/default/files/styles/250px_thumb/public/signature_images/img_35881.jpg?itok=Nb70ds2n)
The property on which local historian Ned Harrington lived in Carversville (Bucks County, Pa.) has a long, complex history. At times a school, a resort, a sanitarium, and an orphanage, chronicling the property's tangled background might have taken a lesser historian decades.
This past Saturday (April 13), HCI-PSAR staff held a symposium for Philadelphia and Montgomery County repositories that participated in the Small Repositories Project at The Highlands Mansion and Garden located in Fort Washington.
During the late 1930s and early 1940s Bensalem High School was a powerhouse for girls' sports. Their basketball, softball, and field hockey teams, led by Coach Helen M. Smith (d. 1989), all won several championship titles.
Did John Fitch start the transportation revolution in Warminster, Bucks County, Pennsylvania? The John Fitch Steamboat Museum argues that the answer to this question is a resounding "Yes!" After all, it was in Warminster in 1785 that Fitch invented the first American steam engine feasible for propelling a boat. Several years later, he ran the world's first commercial steamboat service in 1790, along the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Trenton. (Although, even free beer, rum, and sausages could not entice enough customers to keep the operation viable.)
Mark your calendars! The second annual History Affiliates Awards Luncheon will be held on October 25, 2013 at the Union League of Philadelphia.
If one thing is clear about Perkasie Historical Society's archival collection it's that it is not lacking in materials relating to World War I and World War II.
The United States unemployment rate for February 2013 was 7.7%, which isn't great, but really isn't that bad. Especially when compared to unemployment rates during the Great Depression. When William E. Collier began working for the Pennsylvania Bureau of Employment Security in the 1930s, the national unemployment rate was upwards of 20%. His work with the Works Progress Administration, unemployment compensation, and labor unions--as well as his local history research and photographs of Bucks County--are meticulously documented in Collier's collection at the Historical Society of Hilltown Township.
Since it's Women's History Month, I thought I would highlight some of the collections relating to women's history that Celia and I have surveyed since beginning Phase II of the Small Repositories project.
When the New Hope Public Health Nursing Association was organized in 1920, it was the only public nursing group in that part of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The first nurse who was employed traveled her coverage area on a bicycle! The story of the organization, which dissolved in 1969, contains embedded narratives about changes in public health needs, the professionalization of the healthcare industry, women's roles, and many others subjects.
Kaiser-Fleetwings Corporation played a significant role in its production of aircraft and aircraft components during World War II. The Kaiser-Fleetwings XBTK, a dive and torpedo bomber developed for the United States Navy starting in 1944 was its best-known product.
- ‹ previous
- 13 of 21
- next ›
Image Permissions
Unless otherwise noted, all images in this blog post are property of the organization profiled, not the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. To reproduce any image or obtain a higher quality version, please contact the organization directly.