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John Robrecht papers
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Held at: Fireman's Hall Museum [Contact Us]147 North 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA , 19106
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Fireman's Hall Museum. 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
John "Jack" Robrecht (1916-1993) was historian of the Philadelphia Fire Department and an honorary Deputy Chief there, in recognition of his authoritative knowledge of fire history and firefighting equipment. Born in 1916, he graduated from St. Joseph's Preparatory school and attended the University of Pennsylvania. Robrecht wanted to be a firefighter and tried out for the Philadelphia Fire Department twice. He passed the second time, but by that age was over the maximum age limit. Instead, he worked in a chemical testing lab at Atlantic Refinery for 31 years, but remained fascinated with firefighting. He was president of the Delaware Valley Fire Buffs, a board member of the Fireman's Hall Museum, and president of the Union Historical Fire Society.
Bibliography:
Wallace, Andy. "John Robrecht, 76, Friend to Firefighters." The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 29, 1993. Accessed May 14, 2012. http://articles.philly.com/1993-07-29/news/25977190_1_firefighting-philadelphia-fire-department-trucks-and-chiefs.
This collection consists of research materials on fire fighting history, newsletters of Harrisburg fire-fighters and the Union Historical Society, and correspondence. There is a large amount of historical data on fire departments and fire apparatus, and a small amount of World War II ephemera.
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2011-2012 as part of a pilot project conducted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to make better known and more accessible the largely hidden collections of small, primarily volunteer run repositories in the Philadelphia area. The Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR) 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 accomplished during the HCI-PSAR project.
In some cases, more detailed inventories or finding aids may be available on-site at the repository where this collection is held; please contact Fireman's Hall Museum directly for more information.
Organization
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- Fireman's Hall Museum
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Celia Caust-Ellenbogen and Michael Gubicza through the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories
- Sponsor
- This preliminary finding aid was created as part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories. The HCI-PSAR project was made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- Access Restrictions
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Contact Fireman's Hall Museum for information about accessing this collection.