Collection Highlights
New Purchases for the Library, as of May 2024
Model-Buchs, dritter Theil: von unterschiedlichen Vögeln, Blumen und Früchten by Rosina Helena Fürst, 1675.
Folk Religion of the Pennsylvania Dutch: Witchcraft, Faith Healing and Related Practices by Richard L.T. Orth. McFarland, 2018.
German Appalachian Folklore: Signs, Cures & Witchery by Gerald Milnes. Univ. of Tennessee Press, 2007.
Apology of the Augsburg Confession by Philipp Melanchthon, 2020
The Powwow Grimoire: Being a Compendium of Knowledge and Lore for the Practitioner of Pennsylvania German Powwow by Robert Phoenix, 2017.
The Braucherei Grimoire: A Compilation of Six Historical "How-To" Manuscripts on the Subject of Braucherei by compiled by Connor Moriarty, 2021.
The Walam Olum by Daniel Garrison Brinton, 2008.
Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet by Lyndal Roper. Random House, 2016.
Runaway Servants, Convicts, and Apprentices Advertised in the Pennsylvania Gazette, 1728–1796 compiled by Farley Grubb. Clearfield, 2011.
German Immigrant Servant Contracts Registered at the Port of Philadelphia, 1817-1831 compiled by Farley Grubb. Genealogical Publishing Company, 1994.
A Brief History of the Delaware Indians by Richard C. Adams. Legare Street Press, 1906 (reprint).
The Infortunate: The Voyage and Adventures of William Moraley, an Indentured Servant, edited with an introduction and notes by Susan E. Klepp and Billy G. Smith. Penn State Press, 2005.
Bibliotheca Dissidentium: Répertoire des Non-conformistes Religieux des Seizième et Dix-septième Siècles, Fondé par André Séguenny, Dirigé par Martin Rothkegel. Valentin Koerner, 2025.
The “Lower Sort”: Philadelphia’s Laboring People, 1750-1800, by Billy G. Smith. Cornell University Press, 1994.
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Collections of Note
Almanacs
Bookplates
Broadside Collection
Cased Images
Church Records
Copy and Cyphering Books
Family Bibles
Family Research
Indentures
Krauss Organ Papers
Pamphlets
Samuel W. Pennypacker Book
Sammelband
Scrapbooks
Theses
Tunebooks
Wills
Some Special Archival Collections
Corpus Schwenckfeldianorum Papers
This manuscript and glass plate negative collection, begun in the 1880s, contains the copied writings of Caspar Schwenckfeld, which were edited and published between 1907 and 1961 as the nineteen-volume Corpus Schwenckfeldianorum. The majority of “the Corpus” is yet to be translated from German and Latin.
H. Winslow Fegley
Photograph Collection
The collection of photographs and glass plate negatives by Fegley, a local professional photographer, recorded views of rural Pennsylvania life in the early 1900s. These images are among the best existing depictions of rural work, trades, and society in a vanishing way of life.
Deed and Land Draft Collections
The deed and land draft collections contains over 4000 original documents from the 1700s through 1900s. Property in and nearby the Perkiomen region is documented in this collection. The deeds are indexed by township, and within the township by grantee. All surnames appearing on the deeds are listed on their index sheets. Land drafts are indexed by township, and copies are provided for researchers to allow access while preserving originals.
Taufschein Collection
Known also as birth and baptism certificates, these documents contain helpful genealogical information such as maiden names, dates, and places of birth. Many of the Taufscheine were collected from families who lived outside of the Perkiomen region. They are useful to anyone doing genealogical research in the broader southeastern Pennsylvania region.