About

Search collection guides from archives, libraries, and historical societies across the Philadelphia area, all in one place. Each guide shows you what a collection holds and where to see it.

What is Philadelphia Area Archives?

This Philadelphia Area Archives site provides access to descriptions of around 18,000 collections from over 200 regional institutions documenting the region's vital role in our collective history, from colonization to the present day, from the everyday citizen to some of America's best-known thinkers and celebrated individuals. On this site, researchers will find collection guides, or "finding aids," to collections relating to local, national, and world history; the natural and social sciences; medicine; literature; religion; art and architecture; business and industry; the performing arts; and many other topics.

When describing archival collections, staff at archival repositories make choices about what language to use when describing not just the papers and records, but also the people and organizations who created or are represented in them. For a variety of reasons, researchers may encounter outdated language in the finding aids of PACSCL member institutions. For more information, see PACSCL's Statement on Archival Description and Harmful Language.

What is a Collection Guide (also known as a Finding Aid)?

A Collection Guide is a description of an archival collection. An archival collection is usually a collection of primary sources (unpublished and unique materials created by a person, a business, an institution, or a family through the course of work and life). Archival collections may contain a huge variety of materials such as correspondence, diaries, reports, artwork, writings (including drafts and versions), photographs, minutes, oral histories, etc.

A Collection Guide will always provide an overview of the collection's contents (e.g., what types of materials are present) and provide some context (such as biographical or historical information). Often, it will include an inventory or list of materials arranged to facilitate use. Note that this inventory is typically a listing of folder titles; rarely are individual documents listed. Think of the inventory as the table of contents in a book, rather than its index. Collection Guides will also provide information about restrictions and how to request material from the holding repository (an archives, historical society, library, museum, etc.).

It is important to note that these are not always the only finding aids in existence for participating repositories. Other finding aids may be available via individual repositories. Unless specifically noted, the holdings described within the guides are physically available in the respective reading rooms of the participating repositories, not online. Most repositories require visitors to schedule an appointment in advance. Individual repositories are responsible for their content. If you have a question about a collection, use the "Contact the archive" button in the finding aid to ask a reference librarian.

What are the ways to search this site?

You can search by creator, topic, repository, and keyword. This diverse and ever-growing group of finding aids is an ideal starting point for researchers to discover related collections across more than 200 regional repositories, large and small.

The easiest way to start is to do a keyword search for your topic; then use the facets along the left-hand side of the page to narrow your search.

Once you find something you want to look at, contact the repository holding the material and make an appointment to use it.

What is the history of the Philadelphia Area Archives site?

This site, formerly known as the Philadelphia Area Archives Research Portal (PAARP), was originally established as the PACSCL Finding Aids Site. It was developed by the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL) and the University of Pennsylvania Libraries during a consortial processing project. The initial group of finding aids provided on this site results from the two CLIR-funded Hidden Collections projects that began in July 2009.

Recognizing that increasing the quantity and scope of finding aids would better serve the research community, PACSCL (an informal cooperative group with a shared agenda ranging from access to public programs and development) opened the site to a larger group of repositories.

As a result, this site now hosts a large number of finding aids for smaller institutions in the region prepared through the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories in 2011-2016, as well as for other regional archives, historical societies, libraries, and museums.

This site has been made possible through a CLIR Hidden Collections grant.

This site was developed collaboratively with the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL).