The mission of the Awbury Arboretum Association is to preserve and interpret Awbury's historic house and landscape, thereby connecting an urban community with nature and history. In 1852 Henry Cope purchased 40 acres of land in the East Germantown section of Philadelphia, where he built a home for his growing family. Over the next 70 years his descendants build 24 houses representing a variety of architectural styles. A portion of this land, now known as the Awbury Arboretum, was left to the City Parks Association in 1916 to protect it from development.

The Awbury Arboretum Archives collects and preserves photographs, records, books, maps, site plans, prints, oral histories, artifacts and more relating to: the history of Awbury's landscape and buildings, members of the Cope family who have lived at Awbury or nearby, life at Awbury since the mid nineteenth century, the City Parks Association, and the history of Quakerism and Germantown. The Awbury Arboretum Archives is comprised of over 50 linear feet of archival materials dating from 1791 to the present.