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Sellersville Museum local history collection
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Held at: Sellersville Museum [Contact Us]120 East Church Street, Sellersville, PA, 18960
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Sellersville Museum. 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
Originally settled in 1738, Sellersville, Pennsylvania was incorporated as a borough in 1874. The town is named after Samuel Sellers, a prominent citizen who served in the Pennsylvania legislature and as Bucks County Sheriff. Samuel built Sellers' Tavern, on the main road in town, and it was around this structure that the rest of the settlement grew. The tavern also served as the town's post office, which was called Sellers' Tavern until 1866, when the name changed to Sellersville.
When the railroad expanded to the area in 1856, Sellersville experienced a population increase. After the borough's incorporation in 1874, there was even more growth in the area. Cigar, textile, and other industries established companies in Sellersville, including the U.S. Gauge Company (now a division of Ametek Inc.) and Schulmerich Bells (one of the world's largest producers of electronic carillons and hand bells).
As of 2014, Sellersville is largely a commuter town. Many of the local industries have closed, although historic structures such as the Sellersville Theater and the Washington House have been restored and are local attractions.
Bibliography:
Sellersville Historical and Achievement Authority. 100 Anniversary Incorporation of Sellersville, 1874-1974. Sellersville, PA: 1974.
This collection contains both primary and secondary-source materials, such as business ledgers, deeds, scrapbooks, photograph albums, newspaper clippings, and subject files relating to the people, businesses, organizations, and other aspects of Sellersville, (Bucks County) Pennsylvania. Many photographs, pieces of ephemera, newspaper clippings, and other paper materials are on display throughout the Museum, accompanied by related artifacts.
The collection includes organizational records from local clubs, including scrapbooks and ephemera from branches of Kiwanis, Lion's Club, Boy Scouts, and Sea Scouts; and from nearby churches, including St. Michael's Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church, and St. Paul's United Church of Christ. There are also business records, such as two client ledgers from Schulmerich Bells, 1950-1996, listing clients and addresses from across the country; a ledger from Kooker's, a fuel supply and animal feed business; fashion sketches by designer Katherine Berkemeyer; and drawings and blueprints (about 100 items) for Church-related objects and buildings in regional locations, such as Ardmore and Philadelphia, many by Joseph W. Daub.
A wide variety of formats are represented in this collection There are dozens of deeds, dating from 1770 to the 20th century; area maps; newspaper clippings on Sellersville; about a dozen reel-to-reel recordings; some Super-8 tapes; slides; and postcards, some of which are from local printer and publisher Charles Berkemeyer. A large number of photographs depict school classes as well as scenery and other local topics; there are also family photographs and albums from the Nase family, Daub family, and other sources.
A portion of the collection, consisting mostly of clippings, ephemera from the late 20th and early 21st centuries, and secondary-source materials, is organized into subject binders and subject files. Of special interest amongst the subject binders is a volume of football programs from Sellersville-Perkasie High School, 1964-1994. Most of the subject files cover local businesses and citizens. There is also a series of property files containing printouts of real estate listings from the 2000s.
Materials collected by or donated to the Museum from various sources over time.
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.
In some cases, more detailed inventories or finding aids may be available on-site at the repository where this collection is held; please contact Sellersville Museum directly for more information.
People
Organization
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- Sellersville Museum
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Celia Caust-Ellenbogen and Sarah Leu 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 Sellersville Museum for information about accessing this collection.