Historical Society of Phildelphia

About Us

Founded in 1824 in Philadelphia, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania inspires people to create a better future through historical understanding. One of the oldest historical societies in the United States, it is home to some 600,000 printed items and more than 21 million manuscript and graphic items. Its unparalleled collections encompass more than 350 years of America’s history—from its 17th-century origins to the contributions of its most recent immigrants. The society’s remarkable holdings together with its educational programming make it one of the nation’s most important special collections libraries: a center of historical documentation and study, education, and engagement.

The society is one of the largest family history libraries in the nation, has preeminent printed collections on Pennsylvania and regional history, and offers superb manuscript collections renowned for their strength in 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century history. With the addition of the holdings of The Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies in 2002 (and those of The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania in 2006 through a Strategic Alliance Agreement), the Society has become a chief center for the documentation and study of the ethnic communities and immigrant experiences shared by people whose American history began more recently-between the late 19th century and our own times. In 2009 HSP formally transferred ownership of its museum collection to the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia.

The Society's building at 1300 Locust Street was designed by Addison Hutton and is listed on the City of Philadelphia's Register of Historical Places.

HSP was recently featured on CNN Money that highlighted our conservation, digitization, and digital history projects. View the video below:

 we have even more excitement as we get more information about where we will be serving on this next mission. Above is the latest info we received from the blog of the Symes (they are serving there now)

More to come as we receive more info

We will need two rather than 3 weeks of training in July as Jim needs to go to Simi and fix our home there. I will go through my stuff and put away things that need to be stored and whittle down my big pile of clothes that I think I should take, My problem has been that, we will work in the library in nice clothes, but not missionary clothes and no missionary tag--no preaching while we are there,  we wear a special white Family History tag

My heart is full of joy as these last few weeks many of our questions have been answered. Yes, I already miss the grandchildren and beautiful mountains we have come to love even more, but I know this is our time to serve.