The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, with the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies Institutional Records, 1824-2005

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, with the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies Institutional Records, 1824-2005 Abstract The Historical Society of Pennsylvania was established in 1824 by a group of young Philadelphians who sought to collect and preserve evidence of Pennsylvania’s past. Throughout its long history, the historical society stayed true to this mission, emerging as one of the nation’s largest and most prominent manuscript repositories as well as a leading historical and genealogical research center. One of the most notable events in the society’s history was its 2002 merger with the Balch Institute for Ethic Studies. The Balch was founded in 1971 with a trust established years earlier by Emily Balch and her sons. The organization was created to promote understanding and respect for America’s ethnic, racial, and immigrant diversity. Over the course of its thirty years of existence, the Balch strove to become the premiere museum and research center for scholarship on American immigrant and ethnic experiences. Today, these newly unified institutions constitute one of the leading national repositories of library and manuscript materials. The Institutional Archives of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, including the archives of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, document the governance and activities of these two organizations throughout their respective institutional histories. The archives are arranged into two record groups and further divided into thirty-three series, with each series generally representing a different department or organizational function. The material is vast and varied and reflects the many activities of both the Historical Society and the Balch Institute, including library services, museum exhibits, conservation, administration, educational programming, publishing, special events, fundraising, and more. Background note Historical Society of Pennsylvania 1 In late1824, inspired by the patriotic celebrations and the renewed civic pride brought on by the Marquis de Lafayette’s visit to the United States, seven young Philadelphians established the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The aim of their fledgling organization was to collect and preserve evidence related to the history of the 1 Compiled from Historical Society of Pennsylvania brochures, from the “Brief History of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania” published in the 175 th Anniversary program, and from the Society’s web site, http://www.hsp.org (May 17, 2005). 1 The Historical Society of Pennsylvania Historical Society of Pennsylvania with the Balch Institute Records, 1824-2005 commonwealth, to encourage scholarly research, and to stimulate public interest in American history. This mission remains central to the work of The Historical Society to this day. Throughout the nineteenth century, books, manuscripts, art, and artifacts swelled the collection, and the Society continually outgrew its succession of homes. In 1883, the Historical Society purchased the site it still occupies at 1300 Locust Street in Philadelphia. After extensive renovations, the current building was dedicated in 1910, boasting state-of-the-art fireproof facilities. The late nineteenth century also saw the launch of the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography , a quarterly scholarly magazine that the Society continues to publish. Throughout the twentieth century, the Society grew as a repository of national significance. In the 1990s, The Historical Society refocused its mission to concentrate on its role as a special collections library. In 2002, it transferred limited custody and control of its art and artifacts collection to the Atwater Kent Museum. Today, HSP’s collections include approximately 600,000 printed volumes, nearly 20 million manuscript items, and more than 300,000 graphics and images, with particularly strong holdings for Pennsylvania regional history, Mid-Atlantic family history, and seventeenth through twentieth-century American history. In 2002, this collection was significantly augmented when the Society merged with the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies (background note provided below). The merged institution carries on with a mission of preserving, exploring, and sharing the past with a wide range of constituents. Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies 2 Founded in 1971, the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies was established to promote understanding and respect for America’s ethnic, racial, and immigrant diversity. Over its thirty-year history, the organization worked to become the premier museum and research center for scholarship on American immigrant and ethnic experiences. The Balch’s rich collections and extensive programming offered scholars and the general public access to the nation’s diverse cultural heritage. The Balch officially opened its doors to the public in the midst of the bicentennial celebrations of 1976. Its roots, however, stretched back as far as 1917, to the estate plans of Emily Swift Balch (1835-1917). Balch’s will stipulated that if her sons, Thomas and Edwin, died without heirs, than the family estate was to be used to establish a library in the Philadelphia area. Her will also required that the library be named for the Balch family, who traced their roots back to 1658 when John Balch, an immigrant from Somerset, England settled in the United States. Thomas and Edwin Balch died without 2 The background note was created through a compilation of assorted passages taken from previously published histories, which were found throughout the archives, the Historical Society web page, and from archived web pages of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies. The materials can be located within the institutional archives in various series such as “Balch – Founding and Legal.” Reference copies of most of these papers are also maintained in the “Balch Info” folder, which is filed in the NHPRC project records. Pages from the archived web site were printed out and are housed in the reference folder as well; they can also be re-accessed through the “way back machine” web site at http://www.archive.org/web/web.php 2 The Historical Society of Pennsylvania Historical Society of Pennsylvania with the Balch Institute Records, 1824-2005 heirs in 1927, although the estate trusts were not formally turned over to the City until 1957. The trust funds were invested for a period and not revisited by the Orphans Court until the late 1960s. Apropos to the “ethnic revival” of the time, it was decided in 1970 that the Balch Institute (officially founded in 1971) be established “as a library and exhibition area devoted to the principles of liberty, independence and freedom with emphasis upon the history and contribution of ethnic and minority groups.” 3 Over the next three decades, the Balch would produce more than seventy exhibitions and collect thousands of publications, manuscripts, and artifacts chronicling the lives and cultures of various ethnic and immigrant groups in the United States. Additionally, the Balch’s presence in the community increased significantly as other organizations, including the Immigration History Society and Temple University’s Center for Immigration Research, shared the institution’s building during periods of its history. However, like many nonprofit cultural institutions, the Balch had its share of financial hardship. As a result, addressing the ever-increasing demands of the institution and its important collections was a difficult task for its small staff. These circumstances, among others, led to an institutional merger with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 2002. Scope & content The Institutional Archives of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, including the archives of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, document the governance and activities of these two organizations throughout their respective institutional histories. The archives of the Historical Society, dating from 1824 through the present, chronicle the institution’s evolution from a private society formed “for the purpose of elucidating the history of Pennsylvania,” to a modern, nationally recognized historical and genealogical research library. 4 The archives are strongest, however, in documenting the Society’s activities in the latter half of the twentieth century, when modern business practices led staff members to generate more records. The records of the Balch Institute, however, evenly represent the organization’s history – not only from its incorporation in 1971 through the merger with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 2002, but also its earliest roots in the estate plans of Emily Balch. The Institutional Archives span about 1400 linear feet and feature a wide breadth of materials. They include correspondence, meeting minutes, administrative files, collection records, legal documents, financial records, architectural drawings, membership rolls, publications, exhibit files, development papers, photographs, multimedia, and a wealth of other items. The archives reflect the many activities of both the Historical Society and the Balch Institute, including library services, museum exhibits, conservation, administration, educational programming, publishing, special events, fundraising, and more. 3 Excerpt taken from “A short History of the Balch Family & the evolution of the Balch Institute,” p. 3. This brief history can be located in the folder titled “Founding and Legal – Balch Family Wills and History, 3:3.” 4 Hampton Carson, History of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania , volume 1, p. 55. 3 The Historical

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