The Pennsylvania State Archives is the official archive for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, administered as part of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Located at 1681 N. Sixth St. in the state capital of Harrisburg, it is a part of the Pennsylvania State Capitol Complex. [1]
The primary function of the Pennsylvania State Archives is to acquire, preserve and make available for study the permanently valuable public records of the Commonwealth, with particular attention given to the records of state government. [2] The State Archives also collects private papers relevant to Pennsylvania history.
The State Archives was created in 1903 as the Division of Public Records in the State Library. In 1945, it was combined with the State Museum and the Pennsylvania Historical Commission to form the Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission (PHMC). Created in 1903 as the Division of Public Records in the State Library, it was combined in 1945 with the State Museum and the Pennsylvania Historical Commission to form the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC). [2] It was officially designated as the Bureau of the Pennsylvania State Archives within the PHMC. The original placement of the Archives in the State Library, the same arrangement used by many other states, was just an administrative convenience, but it reinforced a blurring—in the minds of the general public—of the functions of books and of “archival materials,” a term just coming into use. [3]
The PHMC works through two divisions of the Bureau of Archives and History; the Division of Archives and Manuscripts and the Division of Archival and Records Management. The Division of Archives and Manuscripts is responsible for preserving, publicizing, and making available historical records at the Archives’ search room and responding to inquiries about its holdings. The Division of Archival and Records Management Services is responsible for appraising and scheduling records on all levels of government and helping government officers meet their responsibilities for creating and maintaining records. [3]
The State Archives collection, as of 2000, contained one hundred and sixty-five million pages of documents, seventeen thousand reels of microfilm, and one million special collection items, including photographs, maps and blueprints, motion picture rolls, and audio and video tapes [3] covering the period 1664 to the present. It nearly filled the twenty-story Archives Tower. The temperature in the Archives Tower is maintained at 68 °F (20 °C) and humidity is kept at forty-five to fifty percent. Records are stored in acid-free folders and boxes. [3] Among the items housed at the State Archives is the 1681 Charter from Great Britain's King Charles II to William Penn, the 1737 Walking Purchase, an 1857 photograph of the Horseshoe Curve, photographs of the ruins of Chambersburg taken in 1864, the 1878 Death Warrant for John J. Kehoe [4] and a letter to Governor Duff relating to the 1948 Donora smog disaster. [2] In 2018, archivists negotiated the acquisition of the original Minutes of General Assembly taken on March 16, 1779, which documented Revolutionary War-era deliberations of the Pennsylvania Assembly regarding the purchase of supplies for the Continental Army, pay rates for members of state militia units, and the pension eligibility of military widows. [5]
Adams County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 103,852. Its county seat is Gettysburg. The county was created on January 22, 1800, from part of York County, and was named for the second President of the United States, John Adams. On July 1–3, 1863, a crucial battle of the American Civil War was fought near Gettysburg; Adams County as a result is a center of Civil War tourism.
Dauphin County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 286,401. The county seat is Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's state capital and ninth-most populous city. The county was created on March 4, 1785, from part of Lancaster County and was named after Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France, the first son of King Louis XVI.
Blair County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 122,822. Its county seat is Hollidaysburg. The county was created on February 26, 1846, from parts of Huntingdon and Bedford counties.
Hershey is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Derry Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is home to The Hershey Company, which was founded by candy magnate Milton S. Hershey.
Middletown is a borough in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, on the Susquehanna River, 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Harrisburg. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 9,550. It is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Joseph Ritner was the eighth governor of Pennsylvania, and was a member of the Anti-Masonic Party. Elected governor during the 1835 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election, he served from 1835 to 1839.
David Rittenhouse Porter was the ninth governor of Pennsylvania. Voted into office during the controversial 1838 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election, which was characterized by intense anti-Masonic and anti-abolitionist rhetoric during and after the contest that sparked the post-election Buckshot War, he served as the state's chief executive officer from 1839 to 1845.
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is the governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, responsible for the collection, conservation, and interpretation of Pennsylvania's heritage. The commission cares for historical manuscripts, public records, and objects of historical interest; museums; archeology; publications; historic sites and properties; historic preservation; geographic names; and the promotion of public interest in Pennsylvania history.
The Drake Well Museum and Park is a museum that interprets the birth of the American oil industry in 1859 by "Colonel" Edwin Drake along the banks of Oil Creek in Cherrytree Township, Venango County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The museum collects and preserves related artifacts. The reconstructed Drake Well demonstrates the first practical use of salt drilling techniques for the extraction of petroleum through an oil well. A historic site, the museum is located in Cherrytree Township, 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Titusville on Drake Well Road, situated between Pennsylvania Routes 8 and 27. The museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
Cumberland County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 259,469. Its county seat is Carlisle.
The Walnut Street Bridge also known as The People's Bridge, is a truss bridge that spanned the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania until 1996. Built by the Phoenix Bridge Company in 1890, it is the oldest remaining bridge connecting Harrisburg's downtown and Riverfront Park with City Island. Since flooding in 1996 collapsed sections of the western span, it no longer connects to the West Shore. The bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. A 2014 Cross-River Connections Study notes that the bridge currently serves as an "important bicycle and pedestrian link between City Island and downtown Harrisburg, connecting the city and the Capital Area Greenbelt to special events on City Island."
The Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum is a 100-acre living history museum located on the site of a former rural crossroads village in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Founded by brothers Henry K. Landis and George Landis in 1925 and incorporated in 1941, it is now operated by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Its staff and volunteers collect, conserve, exhibit, and interpret Pennsylvania German material, culture, history and heritage from 1740 through 1940.
Hope Lodge is a historic building located at 553 South Bethlehem Pike in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, in the United States. This mansion has been described as "one of the finest examples of Georgian Colonial architecture in this part of the country. It was used by Continental troops during the 1777 Philadelphia Campaign during the American Revolution.
Upper Pine Bottom State Park is a 5-acre (2.0 ha) Pennsylvania state park in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The park is in Cummings Township on Pennsylvania Route 44 and is surrounded by the Tiadaghton State Forest. It is on Upper Pine Bottom Run, which gave the park its name and is a tributary of Pine Creek. Upper Pine Bottom State Park is in the Pine Creek Gorge, where the streams have cut through five major rock formations from the Devonian and Carboniferous periods.
The Historical Society of Frankford is a historical society and museum is a 501(c)3 corporation located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is located in the Frankford neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia. It was a founding member of the Pennsylvania Federation of Historical Societies.
The Pennsylvania Governor's Residence is the official residence of the governor of Pennsylvania, in the Uptown neighborhood of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The neo-Georgian residence was built from 1966 to 1968 and designed by George M. Ewing, heading an architectural firm in Philadelphia. The mansion was previously only used for official functions and meetings, because then-Governor Tom Wolf commuted from his private residence in nearby Mount Wolf.
Ruth Evelyn Hodge is an American archivist, author, educator, and community activist who has furthered the advancement of African-American and United States military history research and writing during the 20th and early 21st centuries. "African-Americans played a great part in building America," she said during a newspaper interview in 2000. "The more people know, the better they understand and the better they get along."
The Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation (PHF) is a non-profit partner of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), the official history agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
