The Long-Awaited Finding Aid

Today is the last day of the Chew processing project, and I am proud to announce that the finding aid is now live and available on the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's website for your reading pleasure.

Finding Aids: (Scroll down to "C"), and there you will find the xml and pdf versions. The xml file does not include the inventories, but it is all there in the pdf files. Total page count: 650.
http://www.hsp.org/default.aspx?id=35

Coming to a Close

We have been hard at work here in the 4th floor processing room, tidying up our finding aid, working on EAD tagging, labeling boxes, and just generally tying up loose ends. There are just 13 work days left in the project, and we are simply thrilled that we have managed to make this formidable collection much more accessible to researchers.


one of the many surveys in the collection

Here is a sneak-peak at some of the subjects that this collection touches upon: agriculture, architecture, child-rearing, family relationships, city planning, colonial life and culture, the Revolutionary and Civil wars, slavery, economic development, industrialization, shipping, relations with the Delaware Indians, politics, international relations, diplomacy, legal history, real estate, health, early medical care, women's history, cartography, land speculation, class, and the history of Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and Delaware.

These topics are only the beginning. The Chews were involved in nearly every major happening in Philadelphia, and kept the records of their activities for nearly 300 years. The finding aid should be available online in August.

I hope to complete some subject-specific posts in the next few weeks to help guide researchers in their search through our very-lengthy finding aid. Stay tuned.