Pennsylvania Photos and Documents

This collection of audio-only interviews show the impact that COVID-19 had on businesses, local government, the healthcare sector, educational intuitions, non-profits, and houses of worship. Community leaders were invited to the library and asked to give their perspectives on the early days of the pandemic, their emergency response, the strengths and weaknesses of the Erie Community, and the lessons learned.

This collection contains maps of Erie County, PA. which have been scanned from the collection at the Erie County Public Library's Heritage Room. We have selected maps that are not readily available elsewhere online through places like The Library of Congress or the National Archives.

This collection of Erie City / Erie County yearbooks spans 1920-2010 and contains digitized copies from Academy, Northwest PA Collegiate Academy, East High School, and Strong Vincent High School.

This collection of newsletters and newspapers includes activities, events, meetings, and news for Erie's LGBTQ community from 1992-present. This publication included titles such as: Erie Gay Community Newsletter, Erie Gay Community News, Erie Gay News, and Womynspace/Womanspace Newsletter.

The Agentur Records Collection consists of 72 volumes of handwritten ledgers, indexes, logs, reports, and letter books spanning the years 1847 to 1947, recording the efforts of the German Society of Pennsylvania’s Agency to help needy German immigrants and Philadelphia residents of German origin. The collection contains valuable biographical information for local history, social history, labor history, immigration research, and genealogy.

Johann Heinrich Keppele was born in 1716 in the village of Treschklingen, in what is today's German state of Baden-Württemberg. In 1738, at the age of 22, Keppele emigrated to America, arriving in Philadelphia, where he settled, and after beginning as an innkeeper, became a prosperous merchant and importer. In 1741 he married Anna Catharina Barbara Bauer (1725-1774), who was born in the village of Meckesheim, in Baden. They had 15 children, of whom 5 daughters and 4 sons survived into adulthood. Henry Keppele was a successful and well-known butcher, innkeeper, merchant, ship owner, and real estate entrepreneur. Keppele was also a one-term member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and an active member of St. Michael's and Zion Lutheran Church. On 26 December 1764 he was one of the co-founders of the German Society of Pennsylvania, dedicated to helping German immigrants; and he served as its first president, from 1765 to 1781. Keppele died in Philadelphia on June 1, 1797. The Henry Keppele family record book, written in Keppele's own hand, contains biographical information about himself and his family, including a list of his children, with their birth, death, and marriage dates. This is followed by copies of 8 poems in English, in a different hand, copied ca. 1839-1843. The book contains many blank leaves at the back. The Henry Keppele Geburtsregister is approximately 100 pages long. It begins by recording family information similar to what is contained in the Keppele family record book. The remainder and bulk of the book contains prayers and poems written by Keppele. The last entry is from November. 10, 1794, 3 ½ years before his death in June 1797.

Miscellaneous papers of Lutheran clergyman Henry Melchior Muhlenberg from his later years, including two versions of a memorandum in his hand concerning St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Barren Hill, Pa. (1774-1783), three letters addressed to him (1782-1786), and a copy of a marriage certificate signed by him (1771).

This collection consists of the daily German language newspaper "Der Demokrat". Variant titles are: Philadelphia Demokrat, Philadelphia Demokrat und Anzeiger der Deutschen, and Philadelphier Demokrat. It merged with the Morgen Gazette to form the Gazette-Demokrat. This collection includes issues for 1838-1876 with some missing years and issues. The years 1877-1907 were digitized separately and can be viewed at: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102409452/Home

The collection includes various annual reports, programs, letters, financial information, newspaper clippings, and ephemera documenting the history of the African American community in Philadelphia's Germantown neighborhood and vicinity, from circa 1868-1939, and the roles of women in the following organizations. Includes materials associated with the Union Mission for Colored People, the Industrial School for Colored Women, and the Colored Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans Home.

The Welfare History Collection documents the roles and importance of several welfare organizations formerly located in and/ or associated with the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia spanning the years circa 1881-1921. The records include annual reports, charters, and by-laws of the Americanization Committee of Germantown, the Pauline Temporary Home, the Germantown Door of Hope, the Florence Crittenton Home, and the Philadelphia Home for Incurables. The materials document the roles that women had in these organizations, and by extension, in the larger community.

Hempfield High School Student Newspaper The Flash has been in publication since 1933. The collection includes newspaper issues from 1933-2018.

Welcome to the B. Reed Henderson High School Collection, a part of the POWER Library: PA Photos and Documents. Henderson High School, located in the Borough of West Chester, dates back to 1906, and its long history has great significance to the Borough and to Chester County. The Henderson High School Library currently maintains a collection of archival items, and we regularly receive requests from alumni and other community member to view these materials. The collection consists of School publications dating back to 1906; it includes magazines, yearbooks, newspapers, and programs that relate to both School and local news and events. We are interested in preserving these materials to ensure their survival as part of the history of the School, West Chester Borough, and the regional area. We would also like to make them more widely available; the collection has been used in large part for genealogical research, and making it more readily available will facilitate this use.