Fondly, Pennsylvania
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Fondly, Pennsylvania
Fondly, Pennsylvania is HSP's main blog. Here you will find posts on our latest projects and newest discoveries, as well articles on interesting bits of local history reflected in our collection. Whether you are doing research or just curious to know more about the behind-the-scenes work that goes on at HSP, please read, explore, and join the conversation!
For the past few weeks, I have been taking some time off from transcribing documents for the Greenfield digital editing project to work on a 20th-century collections guide. (Dana and I are almost done transcribing the 325 documents that we're using to tell the story of Bankers Trust Company! Yay!)
Beginning my work on the David J. Kennedy collection as a distance intern has been a great opportunity to expand my knowledge and experience as well as to provide patrons of the HSP with greater ease in searching and browsing the collection. Though it was a little confusing at first, it did not take long for me to become comfortable with the system used to edit each entry. I have since been adding new metadata to each image, such as subject headings, the dimensions of the image, and other entities related to the image. Much to my surprise, this process has been relatively simple, and is actually quite enjoyable. While working as a distance intern is more challenging than working in the same physical building that the collection is housed in, I do not feel significantly hindered in being able to complete the work required for the project. However, there are certain aspects of the project that have been an interesting challenge for me.
Happy Valentine's Day from various members of the Hartshorne and Batcheler families! All of the images below were found during the processing of the Batcheler, Hartshorne, and Sahlin families papers (collection 3173). These valentines have a little something for everyone: there are sweet valentines, handmade valentines, lace doilies, misspelled childrens' cards, a charming poem from wife to husband, and one card featuring open heart surgery.
Whether you are joining us for the first time, or traveling here via our old Wordpress site, or just stumbling around the Internet, we welcome you! At HSP we rung in the new year with work, and a lot of it. Many projects were pushed to the backburner as all staff members devoted their engeries into getting this new site up and running, and we certainly hope you like what you see.
We are nearly finished with phase one of the Greenfield Digital Project -- transcribing and adding basic XML encoding to 300+ documents selected from HSP's collections to help tell the story of Bankers Trust Company, the first large bank to fail in Philadelphia during the Great Depression.
Since becoming HSP’s Rights and Reproductions Associate in July 2011, I’ve fielded countless questions about what exactly “R&R” entails. I often tell curious folk that I handle orders for digital copies of HSP materials and the rights to publish these materials in books, exhibitions, and other media, but this description only skims the surface of how a reproduction request goes from first contact to completed order. Inspired by my colleague Cary Majewicz’s fabulous blog entry on a day in the life of an archivist, what follows is an insider’s look at a day in MY life as HSP's Rights and Reproductions Associate.
At the end of every holiday season, I, along with millions of others exasperated celebrators begin to take stock of all the spending. Where did you let loose your holiday funds this year? If recent trends are any indication, most people did their shopping online. Though brick-and-mortar stores saw many spenders as well, it seems likely that online shopping will continue to be a very viable (and preferred) choice for most shoppers.
I’m posting this on behalf of Jenna Marrone, intern for the processing of the Indian Rights Association records.
The story of Native Americans in the United States is not an unfamiliar one. Most of us are at least somewhat aware of the complicated and tragic relationship between the U.S. government and Indian tribes throughout the country’s history. For contemporary audiences, well-known phrases like “The only good Indian is a dead Indian” and “Kill the Indian…and save the man” sound like bad dialogue from an old Western film.
Oftentimes, history can seem like an accumulation of paper trails, a collection of stories told through the letters, diaries, and other written records that our ancestors leave behind. However, graphic materials are also compelling historical artifacts, as I’m continually reminded while working on rights and reproductions orders at HSP.
