Archival Adventures in Small Repositories
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Archival Adventures in Small Repositories
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Raise your hand if you knew that Delaware County is home to eastern Pennsylvania’s own version of Colonial Williamsburg! Nestled on 112 acres of Ridley Creek State Park in Edgmont, PA is the beautiful Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation. In the early 1970s, a local historical society established the beginnings of what would become Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation, formerly known as Bishop’s Mill Historical Institute, with the goal of showing visitors what life was like for an everyday person living and working at a farm or mill in the colonial period.
Newlin Grist Mill is the only historic site I know of where you can learn about history and do your grocery shopping all at once. The gift shop sells cornmeal ground on the site's 300 year old, still operational mill!
We hope everyone is enjoying a pleasant holiday season and we wish you all a happy new year!
Over the course of more than two years on the HCI-PSAR project, we have discovered many large and interesting collections of school-related materials. Between attendance registers, student workbooks, teachers' papers, and school board records, schools are among the most documented subjects in small repositories' collections. The Israel R. Berry family papers at West Caln Township Historical Commission (Chester County, Pa.), however, present a unique perspective into school administration. Berry was involved with the West Caln Township school board for several decades, from 1900 until around 1940, and his papers provide an intimate glimpse into the workings of a rural school system.
Edward Clyde Eichholtz (1875-1963) was an early photographer in Upper Darby, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Although an amateur, his technique was advanced for the time period. "Dutch" Eichholtz built his own enlarger, experimented with water color tinting, and was a member of Temple Camera Club--pictured here reminding themselves that "Walking is Good!" after missing the train home from a photography excursion.
Many artists often seek bucolic and natural landscapes for inspiration. For this reason, the Philadelphia Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA)-- whose main campus is located in the center of Philadelphia-- decided to open a rural campus at Yellow Springs out in Chester Springs, Chester County, Pa. The Academy, which inhabited the village from 1916 to 1952, was one of many organizations that occupied Yellow Springs throughout the village's storied history that spans 300 years.
"Welkinweir," an old English word that translates to "where sky meets water," is the name of an old farm estate in East Nantmeal Township, Chester County, Pa. that was purchased and completely transformed by the property's last owners, Everett and Grace Rodebaugh.
This past Friday, HCI-PSAR staff, including me, Celia, and project director Jack McCarthy, held a session about our project at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference that was held here in Philadelphia. We were among many HSP staff who presented at the conference.
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