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Edward R. Barnsley research files
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Held at: Newtown Historic Association [Contact Us]Centre Avenue and Court Street, Newtown, Pennsylvania
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Newtown Historic Association. 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
"Edward R. (Ned) Barnsley [(1906-1989)] was involved in historic preservation in Bucks County [Pennsylvania] for many years, including the reconstruction of Pennsbury Manor during the 1930s...
"Mr. Barnsley was born in Newtown, the son of J. Berman and Elizabeth Roberts Barnsley. A graduate of Penn State, he was elected president in 1941 of the Bucks County Historical Society and served as president of the Newtown Library Company until 1967.
"Mr. Barnsley's lifelong principal interest was history. He was a member of the Newtown Historic Association, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution, the Colonial Society of Pennsylvania, the Mayflower Society, the American Philosophical Society, the Long Beach Island Historical Society, and was a life member of the American Numismatic Society.
"He served as director of the Bristol Trust Co. in the 1930s and as historian for the Consolidated Vigilant Society of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, was a member of the Newtown Reliance Co. and trustee of Newtown Hall. He was a member of many other historical societies in Bucks County and Ocean [County], N.J., and the author of 'Historic Newtown,' a text on the history of the colonial seat of Bucks County.
"During World War II, Mr. Barnsley served as a medical technician and chaplain's assistant. From 1937-38 he was involved in the rebuilding of Pennsbury Manor in Falls [Township] and was employed at Fairless Works of U.S. Steel Corp. until his retirement in 1959. Mr. Barnsley moved to Long Beach Island in 1966."
Bibliography:
Quoted text from: "E. Barnsley Dies; Historian." May 5, 1989. Clipping from Newtown Historic Association obituary file.
This collection consists of the research notes of Newtown-based historian Edward R. Barnsley on local businesses, buildings, and people. There are primarily copies of older documents, such as deeds, legal and property records, and invoices and receipts; articles by Barnsley and others on local history topics; and newspaper clippings. There is a small amount of original materials, including original manuscripts written by Barnsley and incoming correspondence. The files were compiled from 1941-1985. An item-level inventory is available in a database on-site.
Gift of Edward R. Barnsley.
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2012-2014 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.
Detailed, computerized inventories of all of the items in this collection are available on site at the repository where this collection is held; please contact Newtown Historic Association directly for more information.
People
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- Newtown Historic Association
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Celia Caust-Ellenbogen and Faith Charlton 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 Newtown Historic Association for information about accessing this collection.