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Germantown Historical Society collection on the Wister family

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Held at: Germantown Historical Society [Contact Us]5501 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19144

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Germantown 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 members of [the Wister] family were descendants of Johannes Caspar Wister and his wife, Anna Katherine Wüster, of Hillspach (near Heidelburg), Germany. Two of their sons came to America: John (1708-1789) and Caspar (1696-1752), the owner of a glasshouse in New Jersey. John became a merchant and real estate investor in Philadelphia, Pa. John's son, William (1746-1800), became one of the most eminent and wealthy merchants of the city. William's nephew, Charles Jones Wister (1782-1865), was also a merchant and was interested in such scientific pursuits as botany and mineralogy."

Bibliography:

Quoted material from finding aid for Wistar family papers, 1739-[ca.1854]. Winterthur Library, Col. 94. Accessed March 14, 2012. http://findingaid.winterthur.org/html/HTML_Finding_Aids/COL0094.htm.

This is an assembled collection of materials created by various members of the Wister family of the Germantown section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It features an index scrapbook of receipts from Germantown business transactions of the Wister Family, 1815-1870. From Charles Jones Wister Jr. (1822-1910), this collection includes receipts, correspondence, and manuscripts, circa 1865-1910. There is also an unidentified weather diary, circa 1814-1817, which may have belonged to Charles Jones Wister Sr. From Rachel Wister, this collection includes knitting patterns, 1859. There are photographs in this collection, some of Wister family homes (circa 1910s-1920s) and a few of family members.

There is also a series of 14 newspaper clippings scrapbooks, "Notable Persons and Events," collected by Elizabeth B. Wister and dating from 1892 to 1966.

Materials donated to the Germantown Historical Society by various members of the Wister/Wistar family.

Publisher
Germantown Historical Society
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.
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