Call Number:

34SM

Repository:

Germantown Historical Society

Extent:

8.0 linear feet (one filing cabinet ("box 1"), two boxes ("box 2" and "box 3"))

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Germantown Historical Society small manuscripts collection, 1701-1987, Germantown Historical Society.

Date:

1701-1987 (inclusive)

Form:

Business records and Manuscripts

Abstract:

Germantown, a neighborhood in the northwest section of Philadelphia, was the site of several nationally significant events. It was settled in the late 1600s by Mennonite and Quaker German-speaking emigrants and incorporated as a borough in 1689. Germantown is sometimes called the home of the American anti-slavery movement; the first organized protest against slavery in the Americas was begun by four members of the Germantown Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in 1688. In 1777, the courage displayed by American troops at the Battle of Germantown helped to spur the French to assist the United States in the Revolutionary War. During the yellow fever outbreak of 1793, government officials escaping the epidemic in Philadelphia relocated to Germantown, and it served as the temporary home of George Washington and the First Bank of the United States. Germantown was incorporated into the City of Philadelphia in 1854. The Germantown Historical Society small manuscript collection, dated 1701 to 1987, is an artificial collection containing small accumulations of family and personal papers, as well as business, government, and organizational documents, mostly evidencing the eighteenth and nineteenth century history of Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood.

Germantown, a neighborhood in the northwest section of Philadelphia, was the site of several nationally significant events. It was settled in the late 1600s by Mennonite and Quaker German-speaking emigrants and incorporated as a borough in 1689. Germantown is sometimes called the home of the American anti-slavery movement; the first organized protest against slavery in the Americas was begun by four members of the Germantown Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in 1688. In 1777, the courage displayed by American troops at the Battle of Germantown helped to spur the French to assist the United States in the Revolutionary War. During the yellow fever outbreak of 1793, government officials escaping the epidemic in Philadelphia relocated to Germantown, and it served as the temporary home of George Washington and the First Bank of the United States. Germantown was incorporated into the City of Philadelphia in 1854.

The Germantown Historical Society small manuscript collections, dated 1701 to 1987, is an artificial collection containing small accumulations of family and personal papers, as well as business, government, and organizational documents, mostly evidencing the eighteenth and nineteenth century history of Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood.

This collection is divided into two series: “I. Personal and family papers, 1732-1986” and “II. Business and organizational records, 1774-1919.” Folders may contain a single item or a small collection of related materials.

Series “I. Personal and family papers” dates from 1701 to 1987 and is organized alphabetically by family name. This alphabetical run ends with papers and records that had been grouped by subject in the legacy filing system, such as: “Indentures of Apprenticeship” and “Marriage certificates.” A final set of assorted records had been housed together in sets of three or four by a previous record keeper. These legacy groupings were preserved and they are alphabetized by the first family name that appears in the original set.

This series includes a wide range of materials, including poetry albums, autograph and commonplace books, manuscripts for published works, ephemera, letters, a patent certificate, and diaries. Some family business records are occasionally grouped with personal papers. A number of folders in this collection also contain donor correspondence and genealogical notes from a later date; these materials were left in place. Some items were previously identified with accession records, and in this case an accession number is included in the folder title; these accession records are available through the Germantown Historical Society. Notable items in this series include Thomas Meehan’s notes for botanical papers later published in Meehan’s Monthly and William Staedelman’s diary kept during his stay in the Germantown Almshouse. Most of the items in this series pertain to earlier Germantown history, but the Roger Scattergood papers document more recent community activities, such as those of the Germantown Business Association.

Series “II. Business and organizational records” dates from 1763 to 1972 and is organized alphabetically by the individual’s last name, a business name, or a government entity. In a few cases, records may be identified by the type of business or work record (such as “Grocery” or “Journeymen’s wages”) when no other identifier was available. Many of the folders in this series contain one or two bound volumes, usually comprised of financial records, but may also contain meeting minutes and organizational rules and regulations. Volumes also contain loose or subsequently attached documents, such as letters, postcards and clippings. Two organizations documented in this series that may be of particular interest to researchers of Germantown history are those of the Germantown Freedmen’s Aid Association and the Site and Relic Society of Germantown. Prominent local businesses are also represented, such as the Germantown Brewery and the Woolspun Yarn Company. The Billmeyer waste books contain 18th century financial records and were later embellished with drawings and collage materials by Anna Billmeyer. Series II ends with two document boxes and two bound volumes. The first, identified as “Manuscript I,” is a scrapbook with an assortment of family papers and occasional business and organizational records adhered to its pages. A typed index inside the front cover identifies most of its contents. This index is alphabetically arranged by family name or topic of each item (e.g., Cassel, churches). Two more sets of such documents have been evidently removed from similar scrapbooks, foldered with the original page number noted on the folder title, and boxed. These page numbers correspond with the index, which is stored at the start of the document box identified as “Manuscript II.” A second document box, identified as “Manuscript IV,” contains similarly foldered and labeled materials, but with no accompanying index. The large bound scrapbook that these pages were removed from remains in the collection (“Manuscript IV: Notes only, documents removed”). It is largely empty with the exception of a few notes (which may provide helpful supplemental information) and the index that remains adhered to the inside front cover. The time frame of this project did not permit the transcription of the contents of these indexes, but the documents contained in Manuscript I, II and IV are rich with names of prominent Philadelphians such as the Logan, Langstroth and Rittenhouse families.

This collection represents only a small portion of the manuscript collections held at the Germantown Historical Society and, as such, complements other larger family paper collections in this repository. While no one topic is documented comprehensively in this collection, it does offer a useful, brief overview of many topics in Germantown’s eighteenth and nineteenth private and public history. Researchers of early American civic and philanthropic associations, as well as trade and business practices, may find this collection to be of interest.