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Malvern Historical Commission oral histories
Notifications
Held at: Malvern Historical Commission [Contact Us]Borough of Malvern, 1 East First Avenue, Suite 3, Malvern, PA, 19355
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Malvern Historical Commission. 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
In the 17th century, Welsh immigrants settled in the area that would later be known as Malvern, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Originally part of Willistown Township as a village called West Chester Intersection, Malvern was the site of the Battle of Paoli in 1777, which took place during the American Revolution. This site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 as the Paoli Battlefield Site and Parade Grounds. In 1873, when the Pennsylvania Railroad laid its tracks through the village, it was renamed Malvern. Economic development in the small village led residents to officially incorporate in 1889 as the Borough of Malvern, separating it from Willistown Township. Following incorporation, the Borough of Malvern continued to grow, including the creation of the Malvern Fire Company, the Malvern water system, and other organizations. As of 2015, the Borough of Malvern remains a small town with a railway station and a variety of cultural and civic organizations, and as a result of recent revitalization efforts, boasts a wide assortment of local shops in its business district.
Bibliography:
Schmitt, Nancy B. A Century in Malvern. Malvern, PA: Malvern Historical Commission, 1989.
This collection consists of about fifty oral histories conducted by the Malvern Historical Commission during the 1980s and 2000s with residents or former residents of Malvern discussing their memories of the Borough and family members. The earlier interviews were conducted by Dean Lathrop, with more recent interviews conducted by Joan Stackhouse and Betty Burke. Many, if not all, of the oral histories have been digitized onto CDs. About ten of the oral histories have been transcribed.
Interviews include Malvern residents discussing their lives, relations, memories, and other aspects of growing up or living in Malvern. Of special interest is an interview with Calvin Wright, the first African American postmaster in Malvern.
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2014-2016 as part of a 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 Malvern Historical Commission directly for more information.
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- Malvern Historical Commission
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Sarah Leu and Anastasia Matijkiw 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 Malvern Historical Commission for information about accessing this collection.