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Heist-Schnell family papers
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Held at: Old York Road Historical Society [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Old York Road 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 Heist family once owned virtually all the land bounded by Easton Road, Church Road, Limekiln Pike and Glenside Avenue in Glenside, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Through marriage into the Schnell family, they later owned land in Flourtown and developed many of the early suburban communities in that area. Five generations of the Heist-Schnell family lived in the same house spanning a period of about 150 years.
Harry Schnell was owner of the Central Hotel in Flourtown, Pennsylvania.
Eleanor Heist Slifer was an entomologist active in the mid-20th century. Born in Glenside (Pa.) in 1900, she earned a B.S. degree from Temple University in 1923, and an M.S. degree and Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1926 and 1930, respectively. She also worked at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Slifer moved to Iowa City around around 1929 for a fellowship position, later earning a full professorship at the University of Iowa in 1957. Slifer passed away in 1986.
Bibliography:
The vast majority of the Heist collection,circa 1903-1988, consists of check stubs, bank statements, cancelled checks, account books, and other financial records. The collection also contains a significant amount of ephemera from local schools (primarily Glenside and Cheltenham) and churches. There are also some entomology reprints by Eleanor Heist Slifer and other articles and ephemera. Most materials were created by the Schnell and Slifer families.
The collection also includes about 10 maps and blueprints of Schnell, Slifer, and Heist properties.
Gift of Ruth Ann Schnell Rude and family, 2007.
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2011-2012 as part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania’s Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR), using data provided by the Old York Road Historical Society. The HCI-PSAR project 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 done in the HCI-PSAR project.
People
Subject
- Cheltenham High School (Wyncote, Pa.)
- Entomology
- Glenside Elementary School (Cheltenham, Pa.)
- Religious institutions
Place
- Publisher
- Old York Road 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.
- Access Restrictions
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Contact Old York Road Historical Society for information about accessing this collection.