I was initially disappointed that we had a January appointment to survey the archival collections at the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania--nothing would be in bloom! But luckily for us, and for researchers everywhere, over 1,000 historic photographs from the Arboretum's archives have been digitized and can be viewed online. You don't have to use your imagination to see the Arboretum in springtime or in 1890: just look at http://morrisarboretum.pastperfect-online.com!

Frankly, we've been merry-making all weekend and we're not in the mood to write a proper blog post this week. Instead, we're going to share with you some of our favorite Christmas- and New Year's-related finds from the archives of small repositories. 

This week's blog post is over on the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's new genealogy blog, Roots & Branches. Head over to http://hsp.org/blogs/roots-branches/genealogy-research-off-the-beaten-path to read the full text of "Genealogy Research off the Beaten Path," highlighting some of the excellent resources for genealogy research at small archival repositories.