American Philosophical Society Digital Library

The APS Digital Library is currently undergoing maintenance. Once it is back online, we will include a detailed description of its digitized materials.

Bethlehem Digital History Project

The Bethlehem Digital History Project makes available the digitized materials of the Moravian Archives. Much of these digital collections focus on European and indigenous relations in the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly the Moravians’ missionary work amongst the western Indian tribes. Personal Papers include the Journals of Moravian missionaries, several Letters respecting the Moravians’ missionary work, and the Memoirs of a couple dozen Moravian ministers and missionaries. Various Community Records chronicle life in and around the Moravian settlement of Bethlehem. Digitized Land documents consist of Maps & Surveys in and around the town. Several Education records document the long history of the Bethlehem Boarding School for Girls as it transformed into the Moravian Seminary and College for Women. There are also several digitized items related to Art and Music among the Moravians.

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Digital Collections

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh houses several collections that have been digitized. These materials are made available by various external online databases, including Historic Pittsburgh, the Power Library, and the Internet Archive. Among the early collections are American Marketplace, a compilation of digitized catalogs featuring consumer products from various industries. Also available is Old Stone Tavern, Pittsburgh, which features a digitized account book of Pittsburgh’s oldest commercial structure.

Free Library of Philadelphia Digital Collections

Much of the Free Library of Philadelphia’s special collections have been digitized, including early American materials. The Fine Arts Collection features hundreds of digitized items, including works of early American art. Early Philadelphia is well represented in the Historical Images of Philadelphia. A robust Map Collection consists of several 18th and 19th century maps of early America, especially Philadelphia. One of the Free Library’s most unique collections related to early Pennsylvania is its collection of Pennsylvania German Fraktur and Manuscripts. More early American sources can be found in From Our Collections, a general grouping of the Free Library’s materials.

Friends Historical Library Digital Collections

The Friends Historical Library Digital Collections makes available some of the special collections from the Friends Historical Library. Digital items include dozens of photographs, especially those of the Carlisle Indian School and Lucretia Mott. There is also a signed letter from Mott as part of her work with the American Anti-Slavery Society.

Historical Society of Pennsylvania Digital Library

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) provides wide digital access to many of its collections, especially those related to early America in general, and Pennsylvania in particular. Some of the papers of early Pennsylvania’s most prominent individuals and families are represented in its Digital Library. Among these are the Cadwalader Family Papers, the Charles Jared Ingersoll Papers, the Coles Family Papers, the Conrad Weiser Papers, the Drayton Family Papers, the George M. Meade Collection, the Henry Ernest Muhlenberg Papers, the HSP Collection of Benjamin Franklin Papers, the James Pemberton Diary, the Jasper Yeates Papers, the John Dickinson Papers Project Collection, the Pemberton Family Papers, the Penn Family Papers, the Sarah Roberts Cookbook, the Shippen Family Papers, the Simon Gratz Collection, the William Trent Fort Pitt Journal, and many others. The HSP has also digitized some of its presidential papers, including the Abraham Lincoln Collection and the James Buchanan Papers. Other early manuscripts include the Bank of North America Records, the Bricklayers Company of Philadelphia Records, the Germantown General Court Records, the Hendrick Aupaumut Narratives of His Mission to the Western Tribes of Indians, the Nicholas Haussegger Orderly Books, and the Pennsylvania Abolition Society Papers. Cartographic materials can be found in the Benjamin H. Smith Atlas of Delaware County. Much of the HSP’s art collections have also been digitized. They include the August Meyer European Cavalry Sketches, the Benjamin West Drawings, the HSP Art and Artifact Collection, the Horace Trumbauer Architectural Drawings, Life in Philadelphia by Anthony Imbert, Original Drawings of Early Philadelphia by Jerry Paul. There are also several photograph collections available in the Digital Library, such as the Earl, Collins, and Robeson Families Cased Photos, the HSP Cased Photographs Collection, the HSP Daguerreotypes and Ambrotypes, and the Roberts Family Photographs.

The Library Company of Philadelphia Digital Collections

The Library Company of Philadelphia (LCP) has digitized a decent amount of its early American holdings. Its African Americana Collection includes African American art, Civil War ephemera, photographs, political cartoons, and more. There is a robust Album Collection featuring dozens of digitized catalogs, picture books, and scrapbooks. Many of the Library Company’s rare prints have also been digitized and can be found in its 19th Century Cloth Bindings Database and its Book Collections. Drawings, paintings, sculptures, and other fine works of art can be found in its Art and Artifacts Collection. Much of the Library Company’s political prints can be found in the Political Cartoon Collection. Music is well represented in the digital collection; over 5,000 lyric sheets and other musical prints are available in the American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads and Poetical Broadsides Collection. Another valuable resource is the Map Collection, which features a large and unique selection of 18th and 19th century cartographic materials. The American Civil War is well documented in the Library Company’s collection of Civil War Graphics and Ephemera. Pennsylvania German-American folk culture is reflected in the Roughwood Collection. Some of the Library Company’s manuscripts have been digitized for the Manuscript Series. Also of interest is the Popular Medicine Collection. There are also many collections of early photographs, including the Cased Photograph Collection, the Library Company’s Photographic Albums, the William and Frederick Langenheim Stereograph Collection, and many more. Several Miscellaneous Collections are also available.

Pennsylvania State Archives Digital Collections

The Pennsylvania State Archives (PSA) digitizes much of its holdings, but access to them is spread across several external databases. Some of the commonwealth’s most popular documents are available through the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission’s Our Documentary Heritage. Colonial era documents include the Pennsylvania Charter, the Great Law, Chamber’s Map, Oaths of Fidelity, the Lancaster Petition, and the Walking Purchase. There are also several collections from the American Revolution through the Civil War. Among these are the Revolutionary War Forfeited Estates, the Abolition of Slavery, the Horseshoe Curve, the Curtin Iron Works, the Chambersburg War Damage Claims, Pennsylvania Canals, the Colonization Movement, the Stephen Smith Letter, and the PA Constitution of 1776. Other records from the PSA can be found in the Power Library’s Pennsylvania State Archives Collection. These materials include digitized documents from Pennsylvania’s revolutionary governments, such as financial accounts, court records, military records, vital statistics, executive correspondence, petitions, and much more. There is also a large collection of Basic Documents of Pennsylvania, such as proprietary charters, Indian deeds, and state constitutions. Most of these items are also available through subscription databases such as Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.

University of Pittsburgh Library System Digital Collections

The University of Pittsburgh Library System (ULS) has digitized over 100,000 items from its holdings. These digitized materials are especially rich for the 18th and 19th centuries. Several early manuscript collections are available, including the Alexander Addison Papers, the Beazel Family Papers, the Burd-Shippen Family Papers, the Daniel Brodhead Papers, the Darlington Autograph Files, the George Washington Collection, the Henry Marie Brackenridge and Family Papers, the Hugh Henry Brackenridge and Andrew Watson Papers, the James Wilkinson Papers, Mrs. Hanlin’s Diary, the Robert J. Walker Papers, the Robert Stobo Papers. There are also several collections of business, government, and associational records that shed light on western Pennsylvania’’s economy, indigenous relations, and politics, such as the Eliphalet Smith Account Book, the Ephraim Douglass Ledgers, a Fur Trader’s Journal, an Iroquois Land Deed, the Isaac and Samuel Miller Farm Account Book, the Northern Liberties Bridge Company Ledger, the Ohio Company Papers, the Pittsburgh Waste Book and Fort Pitt Trading Post Papers, the Railroad Stock Certificate Collection, the Thomas Mellon and William B. Negley Day Book, and the William M. Darlington Collection of Fort Pitt Copybooks. Early maps and photographs make up the University of Pittsburgh Historic Photographs and the Western Pennsylvania Maps collections. Some of the ULS’s digitized artwork includes Pittsburgh Prints from the Collection of Wesley Pickard.