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Dowley family collection
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Held at: Chestnut Hill Historical Society [Contact Us]8708 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, PA, 19118
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Chestnut Hill Historical Society. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
The Dowley family, a prominent Chestnut Hill family, was comprised of Helen Blackburne Dowley and her four children, Dwight, born 1913, Francis, born 1915, Elise, born 1917, and Ruth, born c. 1918. The family came to Chestnut Hill c. 1948 from New York City after the death of their father, Francis H. Dowley. It is believed that Mrs. Dowley had old Philadelphia connections. The Dowleys were a wealthy Catholic family. The children were well educated, each had a career, none of them married. Helen Blackburne Dowley's mother was a Priestman. The Bliss/Watkins line are likely cousins, but it has yet to be establish to which side of the family they are related to.
This collection is comprised of miscellaneous documents and photographs which belonged to the Dowley family. The collection includes the following:
Dowley family records, 1960-2007
Miscellaneous family correspondence. 1945-1960
Miscellaneous records of Helen Dowley 1939-1974
Assorted records of Elise J. Dowley 1934-1978
Assorted records of Ruth S. Dowley. 1945-1951
"The Sheaf", Mt. St. Joseph Academy 1938 Year Book.
"The Sheaf", Mt. St. Joseph Academy 1939 Year Book.
"The Almanack", 1943.
Diary of the Women of the Class of 1943 University of Pennsylvania.
Gift of Dwight Dowley, 2001.
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2011-2012 as part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania’s Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR), using data provided by the Chestnut Hill Historical Society. The HCI-PSAR project was funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This is a preliminary finding aid. No physical processing, rehousing, reorganizing, or folder listing was done in the HCI-PSAR project.
- Publisher
- Chestnut Hill Historical Society
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by staff of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories using data provided by the Chestnut Hill Historical Society.
- Sponsor
- This preliminary finding aid was created by staff of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania’s Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR) using data provided by the Chestnut Hill Historical Society. The HCI-PSAR project was made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- Access Restrictions
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Contact Chestnut Hill Historical Society for information about accessing this collection.