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Marie Kitto local history collection
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Held at: Springfield Township Historical Society (Montgomery County, Pa.) [Contact Us]1432 Bethlehem Pike, Flourtown, PA , 19031
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Springfield Township Historical Society (Montgomery County, Pa.). 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
Marie C. Kitto (Mrs. John B. Kitto) of Flourtown, Pennsylvania, was a founder of the Springfield Township Historical Society in 1985. Recognized as the unofficial township historian, she served as the historical society's executive director for many years. In 2007, the Springfield Township Historical Society began distributing an annual Marie Kitto Memorial Award to a person who has made significant contributions to the historical society's tenets of research, preservation, and education.
This collection is comprised of materials compiled by Marie Kitto relating to the history of Springfield Township. It includes chain of title research, slide presentations, and research notes and essays.
The largest section of this collection is chain of title research files, including photocopies of deeds and indentures, sketches of plot plans by Kitto, hand-written notes, and newspaper clippings. The materials relate to properties in Erdenheim, Flourtown, Oreland, Whitemarsh, and Wyndmoor. Most of Kitto's research was done at the Montgomery County Historical Society, which holds most of the original documents referenced.
The collection also includes slides and lecture scripts used for Kitto's lectures on local history topics. Her topics include: local estates, railroads, trolleys, the history of Springfield Township, Whitemarsh Hall, "White City" amusement park in Chestnut Hill, Guildford (Wharton-Sinkler estate), and Historic Fort Washington. Inventories of the slides are available on-site.
Lastly, the collection contains Kitto's research notes and essays on the history of Flourtown, Erdenheim, and Wyndmoor, local estates, and other topics. Some of the manuscripts include photographs and maps. Of special interest is the manuscript for "A Brief History of Springfield Township for 'Second Hundred Years,'" 1980.
Gifts of Marie Kitto.
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2011-2012 as part of a pilot 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 Springfield Township Historical Society directly for more information.
Organization
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- Springfield Township Historical Society (Montgomery County, Pa.)
- 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 Springfield Township Historical Society for information about accessing this collection.