PHILADELPHIA, PA - The Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) is pleased to announce the release of its finding aid to the Bank of North America (BNA) collection [1543].

The culmination of several years' worth of work by HSP's archivists, the BNA finding aid allows researchers to quickly navigate the collection's146 linear feet of materials, including 672 boxes and 29 volumes.

The BNA was the first de-facto central bank in the United States, proposed by Robert Morris and Alexander Hamilton and chartered by the Second Continental Congress in 1781. The institution was established primarily to provide Congress with financial resources as it waged the Revolutionary War.

Spanning the years 1694-1939, the BNA collection includes dividends and stocks, daily records of bank clerks, ledgers and minute books, account books, early American currency, and much more. HSP's archivists have also prepared a glossary of financial terms commonly found in the BNA records.

Finding aids provide background information, descriptions, and inventories for HSP's archival collections, and are especially useful for such gargantuan collections as the BNA. Finding aids are one of many catalogs and research tools made available by HSP.

In tandem with the archival processing work, HSP's Conservation Lab worked to re-bind books, mend tears, remove mold, clean documents, and re-house the collection in acid-free folders and boxes. The repairs will ensure that generations of researchers and scholars will have access to the records for years to come. HSP's archivists and conservators regularly posted about their work on the Fondly, Pennsylvania blog. For posts specific to the BNA project, explore the sidebar located to the right (under “Related”). Photographs of the conservation process are also available on HSP's Flickr stream.