Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
Archives and Special Collections Catalogue

Compiled by Cheryl Leibold

***Collection Contents as of April 21, 2024***

Note: this document is frequently updated by the TEHS archivist.
Changes will appear in the on-line version only when it is updated usually in January of each year.

Changes / updates since the last edition of 2023 are in yellow highlighting.

The Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society began as the Tredyffrin Easttown History Club in August of 1936. Renamed in 2005, the Society is now a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with about one hundred members. From the society’s earliest days strong leadership and enthusiastic volunteers have allowed the club to thrive. Its two main activities have been the publication of a magazine of local history, and a monthly field trip or speaker.

A list of the speakers from 1990 to the present appears on the website (www.tehistory.org). Prior to 1990, the speaker was usually a TEHS member with an informal presentation. The Society magazine, the Tredyffrin Easttown History Quarterly (hereafter the History Quarterly), with the exception of issues since 2012, is fully digitized, and available, with full search capability, on the website’s “Digital Archives” tab.

Over the years, a collection of local history research materials has been amassed, even though this was not part of the organization’s original mission. The research collection consists of photographs, manuscripts, printed matter, researcher notes, maps, atlases, artifacts, graphic materials, artwork, clippings, and items in a few other formats. From the club’s inception the collection was stored in various members’ homes. Upon the death of club president Robert Goshorn in 1995, the research materials and archives (which had been stored in the basement of his home since 1970) were moved to a Tredyffrin-Easttown school district building in Berwyn. In 1997, member Barbara Fry wrote a summary of what she found in the collection at that time. Her article “What Do We Have in The Archives?” was published in the History Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 3, July 1997. In 2009 the school building was scheduled for demolition, and the Society’s research files needed to be moved.

A new location for the collection was found at Public Storage, located at 592 Swedesford Road, in Berwyn. The move was documented in the History Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 2, July 2010. After the transfer to the new location, Board member Michael Morrison, along with some old and some new volunteers, began to re-house and organize the collection according to professional archival standards. The work was essentially completed in 2013.

The personal files of Robert Goshorn, dating from his seventeen-year tenure as editor and frequent contributor to the History Quarterly, and his presidency of the club, were found in one four-drawer filing cabinet, but were in bad condition due to mildew. They consisted of (1) duplicates of articles published in the History Quarterly; (2) copies of short local history articles published in The Great Valley News between 1984 and 1994; (3) a drawer of research files; and (4) the early nineteenth-century textbooks apparently used by Goshorn's great-great-grandfather Almeron W. Case.

Duplicates of History Quarterly articles were discarded. The Great Valley News articles were in fair condition and were filed by subject, and a list of all the titles was placed in Goshorn's biographical file. The research files were in poor condition, and items deemed important enough to save were cleaned and filed within the main research files. The Almeron Case textbooks were in fair condition, and were transferred to acid- free boxes. See the catalogue entry below. Goshorn's original manuscript titled "Today in Chester County," and his World War II memorabilia were also found, and are described below.

In 2018 the collection was moved to a second-floor office space at 8 Waterloo Ave. in Berwyn. The new quarters allowed the Society to dedicate a small room for its collection of library books, as well as provide a large open space for work or meetings. Donations of new material to the TEHS Archives and Special Collection are accepted within the guidelines of its Collecting Policy. The policy can be found on the TEHS website (www.tehistory.org).

When using this catalogue note that new acquisitions are added as they arrive, and may not be in the current print or digital version. For most of the larger collections listed below there is a separate, detailed finding aid. The records amassed by the Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society in the course of its business, e. g. minutes, annual reports, publications, and event photography are described in a separate finding aid.

RESEARCH FILES: The research files are housed in metal filing cabinets. They contain primarily newspaper clippings, with smaller amounts of printed matter, photocopies, and researcher notes. The files have been accumulating for well over fifty years. Many contain the original research and artwork used to produce an article in the History Quarterly. The files are organized as follows:
Biographical Files, A-Z
Subject files, A-Z
Files on Municipalities (all types), A-Z

MANUSCRIPTS: In this document, the relative size of manuscripts collections is indicated by the number of folders or boxes the records occupy. A box is a standard archival document case measuring six inches in width, so two boxes equal one linear foot of material. In some cases, the specified container is a records storage carton, which is a larger box measuring 10 by 15½ by 12 inches. One records storage carton holds about three archival boxes of material. The word volume is used where information survives in bound volumes. The word oversize indicates material stored in the flat drawers of a 43 by 32-inch map case.

Account Ledger and Clippings Book [maker unknown], 1799 - ca. 1820s Financial accounts are written on the left-hand page, commencing with the year 1799, and apparently going into the 1820s. For about the first 40 pages, the right-hand page contains newspaper clippings, many of which are religious writings or poems. After about 40 pages the clippings cease, and the accounts appear on both left and right-hand pages.

Account Ledger [maker unknown], ca. 1917-19 This account book records expenses for outlays of road construction supplies in Tredyffrin and Easttown townships.

Aero Club of Chester County, ca. 1962-2008 (1 records storage carton) By-Laws, Financial Information, Treasurer's Report Book, 1962-99, Minute Books, Meeting and Trip Announcements, Newsletters, Photographs (banquets and award presentations), Artifact (an embosser). The collection also contains an interview with Frank Ferrante, the final president of the club, recorded in 2009.

Benjamin C. Betner Company (see Continental Can Company)

Berwyn Citizens Association Minute Book, 1905-1915 Minutes of meetings, commencing with Oct. 3, 1905, and ending with March 9, 1915, with various printed membership lists and correspondence tipped in, and Report of the Berwyn Citizens Association for 1906, 1907, and 1912 (printed leaflets).

Berwyn Neighborhood League Minute Book, 1913-15 Minutes of meetings, commencing with June 30, 1913, and ending with February 23, 1915, with various printed membership lists and correspondence tipped in.

Berwyn Memories 1976. This is a large unbound scrapbook compiled by students at Berwyn elementary school in 1976 to celebrate the U.S. Bicentennial. The scrapbook contains original artwork, writing, and memorabilia created by the students. Each classroom contributed a page, and most display the names of the students and some of their favorite things. One page predicts what several students will be doing in the year 2001. The word "Memories" is found on the back cover. Also see the student scrapbook Journey into Yesteryear.

Franklin Lorenzo Burns (1868-1946). History of Berwyn manuscript; personal scrapbooks; and ornithology notebooks (2 records storage cartons, 2 boxes, and 35 loose photographs.)

Franklin Burns, a charter member of the TEHS and its second President, wrote almost 40 articles for the History Quarterly. His manuscript comprises 400 pages. This work was probably written over a period of many years. The manuscript is a draft of a book-length study of the history of Berwyn and the surrounding region. One set of the typescript pages contains numerous editorial changes or insertions in Burns' hand. He divided the manuscript into large chapters, called "Volumes," as follows:
I Legendary Period, 1320-1681
II Pre-Revolutionary Period, 1760-1774
III Beginnings of Local Industrial and Educational Periods, 1834-1860
IV Civil War and Reconstruction, 1860-1875
V Centennial and Cistern Periods, 1876-1885

There are two copies of the typescript. One is bound and stored with the TEHS library books. An unbound set and extensive research notes are stored in boxes. These notes consist of at least 22 small notebooks, some headed with his "Volume" titles (see above), and others with titles such as Indians, Horses, Deeds, Churches, the Welsh, Quakers etc. Much of this material is in very poor condition. See the article on Franklin Burns in the History Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 2, April 1996, and a 7-page autobiographical essay he wrote for the Wilson Bulletin, XXXVIII, no. 3, September 1926, stored in his Biographical file in the TEHS Archives. Also see the Wadsworth-Burns Collection, described below, and the separate finding aid for it.

In 2022, fourteen volumes of ornithology notes and clippings by Franklin Burns were donated by George W. Pyle, Jr., whose father knew Burns as a mentor. The books are dated from the mid-1880s to the 1940s, attesting to Burns' lifelong passion for ornithology. The huge volume of written notes in these volumes may relate to his important work Ornithology of Chester County (1919). See the separate finding aid for this collection.

Almeron W. Case (1808-1877) - Mathematics Lesson Books (3 volumes) These three books were apparently the property of Almeron Case, and came into the collection through Robert Goshorn, his great-great-grandson. There is also a typed sheet of genealogical notes on Almeron Case compiled by Goshorn. It can be assumed that Case was a teacher. One volume consists of lessons and problems worked out for weights and measures, basic arithmetic, currency conversion, and other mathematics. It is inscribed on the front cover: "A. W. Case's Book," and on the last page: "Almeron W. Case / Westford / Feb. 16, 1831 / Otsego Co. / State of N.Y."; Almeron W. Case would have been about 23 years of age at the time of the inscription.

The other two workbooks, of identical size and manufacture, contain problems and their solutions in mathematics and trigonometry. These books are apparently written in the same hand as the volume described above. One is titled "Practical Rules for Solving All the Cases of Plane Trigonometry." Page one carries the notation: "Case 1st per E. Lewis / Oct. 8th, 1838." The second volume is missing a title page, but is clearly a similar workbook in mathematics. On page seven a date of 1827 can be found. Each of these books is estimated at 75 to 100 pages.

Marcia Tripp Case (born 1813) - Farewell Book (1 volume) The volume contains about 22 messages of goodwill and farewell, dated between 1834 and 1845. Some of the messages are in verse and some in prose, and most are addressed to Marcia Tripp. Several are addressed to Marcia Case. Marcia Tripp married Almeron W. Case in 1836. See the genealogical notes for the Almeron W. Case mathematics lesson books.

Chesterbrook Farm Records, 1906-59, (2 boxes) Correspondence and business records for Chesterbrook Farm operations, during the ownership of Edward B. Cassatt, 1907 to 1922, and subsequently, his widow Eleanor Cassatt Laird, 1923 to 1959. There are also items of printed matter related to livestock breeding, horse racing, and ephemera including milk bottle caps, printed forms, a Christmas card, and a map. See the separate finding aid for this collection.

William D. Christman - Letter to his sister, March 1, 1863 The letter was written from Christman's army encampment near Stafford, Virginia. 4 pp., Transcribed. Provenance unknown.

Continental Can Company (formerly Benjamin C. Betner Company) - Employee Materials, 1959-1972 The Continental Can Company manufactured metal and paper packaging materials in factories worldwide. Its Devon and Paoli, Pennsylvania plants produced primarily paper bags. The packaging business, along with the Devon plant, had been acquired in 1953 after the death of Benjamin C. Betner who had operated a paper packaging company under his own name since 1927. A lengthy history of the Benjamin C. Betner Company, and its successor, the Continental Can Company, appears in the History Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 3, July 1993. There is a file of newspaper clippings on the Benjamin C. Betner Company in the research files.

Employee newsletters: The Package Post, September 1959 - Spring 1968; Paoli Patter, October 28, 1966 - June 9, 1972 (3 folders)
Human resources, union, and marketing materials, 1966-68 (1 folder)
2 photographs of the Continental Can Company plant, 1962, and 2 undated photographs of the assembly line 1 pen and ink rendering of the Benjamin C. Betner Company plant, ca. 1930s 21 8 x 10 photographs of employee activities and events, 1960s (2 folders)

This collection was the gift of Kathleen DiAddezzio Canal, whose father, and several other relatives, worked for Continental Can Co. Her father, Fred DiAddezzio, is the source of this collection. He appears in many of the employee photographs.

Anna Davenport Letter, 1865 (1 folder) This item is a letter from Anna [W. Davenport?] to her brother Alfred, dated September 11, 1865. It is enclosed at the back of the Annie Potts Walker Diary for 1897-1900 (in the Walker Family Farm Account book). It is not known who put the letter in the volume, or if it has any relevance to the Walker Family. The eight-page letter is a long description of sights seen and excursions taken in Switzerland. Five pages were transcribed in 2011.

Devon Horse Show and Country Fair (DHSCF) The collection of archival material from the DHSCF was in the care of the TEHS for about 4 years. In 2016 it was transferred to the custody of the DHSCF board, and is no longer housed with the TEHS collection. Since 2016 several DHSCF photographs and items of memorabilia have been donated to the TEHS. See the research file "Equestrian," and the Artifacts boxes.

Fritz Lumber Collection, late 19th century to mid-twentieth century Fritz Lumber, on the north side of Lancaster Avenue in Berwyn, operated from 1860 to 2016. The business was started in 1860 by Henry Fritz and William Lobb. In more recent times the business was owned and operated by Bill Fritz III and his son Howard. After the property was vacated, various manuscripts, photographs, clippings and printed matter were collected and donated to the TEHS by Eadeh Enterprises. See the separate finding aid for this collection.

Barbara and C. Herbert Fry Collection, mid-19th century to late-twentieth century Herb Fry (1926-2108), longtime member and former president of the TEHS, amassed a very large collection of vintage photographs, books, and printed matter. These were donated to the Society by his executors. See the separate finding aid for this collection.

Garber-Pyle Family Papers, 1884-ca 1970s Henry Oscar Garber (1862 - 1943) owned a store in Berwyn for over fifty years. His daughter (Sarah) Elizabeth Garber Pyle, ran the store for a few years after his death. This collection consists of over 300 photographs and a small number of manuscripts relating to Henry O. Garber and his descendants. See the separate finding aid for this collection.

Genealogical research materials [maker unknown], (1 box) The materials relate to several families: the Thomas family (Hilltown, Bucks County); the Reichner (or Ritner) family; and the Hill family. There are both printed and autograph books of notes and research, as well as several packets of letters and small folded documents. Contents have not been inventoried due to dirt and probable mildew problems. The materials are in extremely fragile condition. Provenance unknown.

Robert Goshorn (1919-1995), Today in Chester County, (1 folder) This undated manuscript was prepared by TEHS member Robert Goshorn, in the form of a retrospective calendar. For each month of the year, one or more important events in Chester County history are recorded according to the day of the month on which they occurred. The events for each date range from the mid-eighteenth through the mid- twentieth centuries. The unpaginated typescript comprises at least 150 pages. Also see Artifacts, for Goshorn's World War II memorabilia.

Green Bank Farm, History of the House and Land of Alfred M. Campbell, 1950s. This item is a manuscript, of 30 typed pages and 8 hand-drawn maps, author unknown, a history of Green Bank Farm.

John Haslett, character reference letter, 1808 (?), and citizenship certificate, 1816 (2 items)

Martha Henderson, Recollections of Old Berwyn, 1961, 5 pp. (1 folder)

Journey into Yesteryear Scrapbook, (162 pages)

This scrapbook contains 162 pages of original art and writing which went into the production of a printed book, and one copy of the final book. The published book reproduced the artwork in black and white, and the writing was typed and then printed. The book was a bicentennial project of 220 contributing students in the Tredyffrin- Easttown School District from the spring of 1976 to completion in 1978. 345 copies of the final product were printed. The subject of all of the various contributions was eighteenth-century life in the greater Valley Forge area. Also see the student scrapbook Berwyn Memories.

Krider (Crider) / Jones Family Papers, (ca. 40 items in 7 folders) This collection includes a family history by Ronald A. Jones (2010); about a dozen photographs, most of which document the Berwyn Carriage Works (1891 to 1919), and its owners Frank and George Krider. There are also materials relating to descendants of their sister Elizabeth Krider Jones. Mr. Ronald Jones also donated a family history written by him. See the separate finding aid for this collection.

Mary Lamborn, Autobiographical Manuscript, 1999, 11 pages (1 item) This item is filed in the Biographical research files along with obituaries of other Lamborn family members.

Frances Ligget's Reminiscences, 1966, 2 volumes. Frances Ligget's Reminiscences consists of two bound volumes of what are essentially transcribed oral history interviews or short subject-driven essays. Volume I is titled "Distant Drums," and deals with the period of the American Revolution in the Tredyffrin area. Volume II is titled "Great Valley Days," and is devoted to nineteenth century Tredyffrin. Each volume comprises about 100 typescript pages. In most of the interviews, many of which are very anecdotal, someone recounts what they knew about a specific subject. In addition to the interviews, there are dozens of photographs, printed items, and newspaper clippings (some original and some photocopied) interspersed with the typed pages. These volumes have been referred to as notebooks, but in fact are more like scrapbooks. The original pages are housed at the Chester County Historical Society. The TEHS received its photocopied set with much added ephemera from the Paoli Library in 2017. There are numerous clippings about Frances Ligget, and her project, in the TEHS Biographical files. Many of the photographs in the volumes have been scanned into the TEHS data base. See the History Quarterly, Volume 54, No. 4, Spring 2019.

Mansley Family Papers, (14 documents and 36 photographs) This collection relates to John Mansley of Wilmington, Delaware, and his son William T. Mansley, later of Berwyn, Pa. The few manuscript items date from 1850 to 1927. There are 36 photographs, of which about half are portraits of William T. Mansley. This collection was donated through their niece Dorothy Reed. The photographs are stored with the TEHS photograph collection. See the separate finding aid for this collection.

Barbara Mazza, Recollection of Blue Stone Farm in the late 1950s, 1 page (1 folder) This item is filed in the Biographical files. Gift of Barbara Mazza, 2012.

Howard L. Moore, Recollections of Early Berwyn Days, and class poem, 1913 (1 folder) Howard L. Moore apparently attended Tredyffrin-Easttown High School about 1913-17. The class poem is dated June 10, 1913 and consists of eighteen stanzas, each devoted to one of his classmates. The undated Berwyn notes are written in pencil on the front and back sides of 13 small notebook pages.

George (“Pat”) Moran – Personal memorabilia, reminiscences, and genealogical notes, 1927-35 (1 box) George Francis Moran donated photographs and printed memorabilia from his years at Tredyffrin-Easttown High School, and from his life for about five years thereafter. His collection also includes his reminiscences of growing up in Berwyn, and some genealogical notes on Aaron Foulke, his wife’s ancestor, and on the Timothy Moran family. See the separate finding aid for this collection.

Neilly Family - Collection of school copy books, and ephemera (1/2 box) Folder 1: school copy books for: Katherine Neilly, ca. 1811; Sallie Neilly, 1839; Kate Neilly, 1855, 1861, 1862; Sarah Neilly, 1855, and some undated. Folder 2: Printed ballad book owned by Sarah Neilly; and a printed broadsheet titled “Young America” inscribed on the front with the name Rob’t Neilly, ca. 1853. The Neilly family is the subject of an article in the History Quarterly: Vol. 34, No. 3, July 1996. See p. 86 for the spelling of the name.

A. Edward Newton (1864-1940) - printed booklets. Collection of 10 printed booklets written by Newton, and sent as Christmas messages to friends, 1913-38. Each contains a short literary essay. Gift of Bob and Joan Thibault of Sea Isle City, NJ. See the separate finding aid for this collection.

Richardson Brognard Okie (1875-1945) - Research materials, (1 box, about 40 items) 10 TEHS Collection Catalogue, 2024 This collection consists of copies of deeds and maps, as well as original sketches and notes for articles Okie published in the History Quarterly. In the early days of the publication, he did a series of pieces on land titles in the Berwyn and Paoli areas, and much of the collection relates to these. He wrote in the first of them: “It is planned to publish a number of these abstracts of title from time to time as they supply a background of our community from Colonial times with some record of the early settlers and those who followed them.”

Old Eagle School - Printed matter, correspondence and legal papers, 1895-1928, (1 box) The Old Eagle School traces its roots to the 1760s when German settlers built a church and a small schoolhouse on the property in the southeast corner of Tredyffrin Township. The building was used as a school for about a century. Part of the ground was also used for burials as early as the 1770s. It is now administered as a local historic site by a board of area residents. See the separate finding aid for this collection. Note that newspaper clippings about the Old Eagle School are stored with the research files. A copy of The History of The Old Eagle School, by Henry Pleasants, 1909 (with 8 illustrations) is in the TEHS library.

Paoli Post Office - Correspondence and printed matter, 1955-65, (2 folders) Paoli Postmistress Eleanor C. Brennan, compiled a scrapbook of clippings, correspondence and photographs related to three successive Paoli Post Offices, for the years 1955 to 1965. The scrapbook also contained two file folders of material, one of loose correspondence and notices related to postal service matters, and another of printed matter related to the 1965 dedication of the newly constructed post office. The thickness of the two folders was damaging the spine of the scrapbook, and thus the files are stored with the manuscripts collection. Due to its size, the scrapbook is stored with other scrapbooks. See the Photographs section for a more detailed description of the scrapbook.

Paoli, Pasquale - Miscellaneous material, (1 box) A collection of items given to the Paoli Business and Professional Association in 2011, and donated to the TEHS in 2012. The collection consists of: an article titled “The first portraits of Pascal Paoli,” (by Francis Beretti, in The British Art Journal, Vol. II, No. 3, Spring/Summer, 2001); Studià in Corsica, a 2011 publication of the University of Corsica and the Pasquale Paoli Foundation (in Italian and French, 189 pages); script of a play titled “Paoli City,” by Catherine Sorba and Francis Aiqui, 2007; Mediterraneans, a literary review, special issue devoted to Corsica, Summer 2001. There are also two items of digital media: a DVD of images from a trip to Corsica by Ed Auble of the Paoli Business and Professional Association; “Looking for Paoli,” a film directed by Catherine Sorba.

Also see the file of clippings and correspondence with the TEHS about Pasquale Paoli in the Biographical files.

Harry (Henry) B. Rumrill (1867-1951), Travel Journals, ca. 1910-20, (2 folders) The earliest journal describes a vacation trip to the Hudson River area. It is undated, but would appear to be from about the first decade of the twentieth century. Rumrill mentions his children (both born close to 1900) and how they enjoyed the trip. On the front and back flyleaf pages Rumrill tipped in verses by James Whitcomb Riley and S. Weir Mitchell. The 16-page manuscript is illustrated with original photographs and commercial postcards. The second journal, “Journal of a trip by rail to Natural Bridge, and return on foot,” (1919), was transcribed and published by Elizabeth Rumrill in the History Quarterly, Vol. 24, No. 4, October 1986. The original manuscript of this journal includes tipped-in maps, postcards, and an eight-page illustrated brochure titled “Grottoes of the Shenandoah.”

The collection also includes a small photograph album containing a route map for some of his travels and 14 photographic views (7 of western America, 3 of Tennessee, 3 from Delaware County, 2 of his Berwyn home, and 1 shot of his backyard telescope). This album is stored with the TEHS photographs collection.

Also see an article describing Harry Rumrill’s activities as an amateur astronomer: History Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 3, July 1997. Elizabeth Rumrill, his daughter, is the assumed donor of the albums described above, and also a small wooden door plate which reads “Tredyffrin Observatory, stored with Artifacts.” She also donated her report cards for grade school and high school, which are stored with the printed matter for the Tredyffrin-Easttown School District.

Sharp Family Papers (4 boxes), ca. 1818-1920 This collection consists of about 50 bound volumes. The two largest volumes, in Box 1, appear to be records of a commercial business founded in Philadelphia by Joseph Sharp (1793-1848) after he emigrated to the U.S. in 1818. One is embossed on the spine “J. Sharp,” and the other “Day Book.” The first page of the larger book is headed “Store Expenses,” and the two volumes seem to concern goods purchased and sold, for his dry- goods store in Philadelphia. The remaining volumes are smaller, and contain diary-type entries such as births, marriages, deaths, travels, weather, as well as land purchased and planted. These volumes encompass the years 1833 to about 1910, and thus come from the lifetime of Joseph Sharp’s son, Joseph Webster Sharp (1828-1908), who was a major figure in Berwyn and Paoli history as a businessman, banker, farm owner, and builder, in 1858, of the Victorian farmhouse “Hawthorne Farm.” There are also two ledgers which relate to tax assessments, 1910-20, and thus post-date Jos. W. Sharp’s life.

The volumes are in poor condition (leather rot, crumbling pages, broken bindings). There are many sheets of loose correspondence or notes within the books. There are a few researcher notes in the first box. The Joseph W. Sharp family has a long history in the Berwyn-Paoli area, through several generations bearing the name. The family seat was Hawthorne Farm in Easttown Township. See articles in the History Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 4, October 1993, and shorter references in Vol. 17, No. 2, April 1979, and Vol. 33, No. 3, July 1995. The collection was donated by Hugh Warnock, a descendant, in 2001.

A. [Arthur?] B. Shunk, Account Book, 1833 This ledger book contains about forty pages of entries for payments made to A. B. Shunk for a wide variety of general merchandise. The first line reads “Upper Providence / 1st Mo. / 1833.” A small undated certificate of merit for school performance, awarded to Jesse Francis Shunk, was found in the volume.

Strafford Village Design Album, 1939 This album documents the architectural vision of the developers of Strafford Village, a housing development northeast of the Strafford train station in Tredyffrin Township. Builder Stephan Schifter built several homes before the start of World War II, and continued construction at the war’s conclusion. The designs of these homes are presented in the pages of this scrapbook, along with other loose drawings prepared by architect Harold Edward Williams. The homes depicted are examples of the revivalist styles popular in the pre-war era and include designs inspired by English, French, and Early American architecture. The album contains a total of 58 sheets of plans and renderings, and one overall plot plan of the development pasted to the inside cover of the disassembled scrapbook. Above description by Greg Prichard. These images have been entered into the TEHS Image Collection (see STR27 to STR87). The album was a gift of Angela Scully in 2020. There is a comprehensive history of the Strafford Village development in the History Quarterly, Winter 2004

S. Paul Teamer (1890-1940) - Teaching notes and other materials, undated, (1 box) S. Paul Teamer was the principal of Tredyffrin-Easttown High School from 1915 to 1940. He was a founding member of the TEHS and a frequent contributor to the early years of the History Quarterly. See the latter Volume 56, No. 1, Summer 2021, pp. 34-5.

Van Leer Cabin Restoration Project, (1 box) Donation lists, banking statements and invoices, 1960s. Also see below under Scrapbooks, and Artifacts.

Wadsworth-Burns Collection, 1898-1945, (3 clipping scrapbooks, 3 folders and 35 photographs) This collection consists of three newspaper clipping scrapbooks mostly dealing with Berwyn and Paoli, from the early 1920s to the mid-1940s. The 35 photographs were added to the TEHS photograph boxes. It was determined that the collection (with the exception of the Wadsworth family reunion materials) was assembled by Franklin Lorenzo Burns. See the separate finding aid for this collection. Gift of Judith Wadsworth.

Walker Family Farm Accounts, 1815-45, and the Annie Potts Walker Diary, 1897-1900 Both manuscripts are in one volume, and both have been transcribed. The accounts transcription and a six-page genealogy for the Walker family are enclosed in the book. The diary transcription was published in three articles in the History Quarterly, October, 1983, January 1984, and July, 1984. At the back of the volume a letter written by Anna Davenport, dated Sept. 11, 1865, has been enclosed. See Davenport, above. Also see a Walker Family ancestry chart (in Oversize Printed Matter).

Walker School Papers, 1863-1971 (17 items) The Walker School was built in the northwest part of Tredyffrin Township in 1863, and closed in 1923. This collection consists of several deeds, four photographs, and some miscellaneous printed matter. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. Mark Montgomery, 2015. See the separate finding aid, and the History Quarterly, Vol. 53, No. 4, June 2017.

Wilds Family Papers, 1756-1899, and mid-20th century, (4 folders) The collection relates to several generations of the Wilds Family of Tredyffrin Township. The material was inherited by a descendant Shirley Kirk, who donated it in 1993. There are un-inventoried Wilds Family deeds in the box of Deeds and Land Titles. See the separate finding aid for this collection.

Wilson, Dorothy Sheridan, Autobiographical manuscript, 28 pp., typescript, 1977 Dorothy Sheridan Wilson was born about 1895 in Tredyffrin Township. Her parents were Henry Ritter Wilson and Belle Esler Wilson. In her recollections she describes her life, schooling, siblings, marriage to John Lumsden, children and grandchildren. This manuscript was donated by Suzanne Livermore in 2016. See also TEHS Q Volume 56, Number 4, Spring 2023, "Gifts Received by the TEHS Archive in 2019, 2020, and 2021".

Wilson Family The Wilson Family were the owners of Elda Farm in Tredyffrin Township, which became Wilson Farm Park. See below under Photographs, and also see a large ancestry chart “The Ancestry of David Wilson (1860-1925) and Ruth West Wilson (1859-1929) of Elda Farm.” (36 x 43½â€ - stored rolled in the Oversize drawers). The chart was made by Conrad Wilson in 1964. See the History Quarterly 41/4 for his history of Elda Farm, and 42/2 for his In Memoriam.

DEEDS: The TEHS collection houses over 30 deeds, in various formats.

[NOTE: These items need description and inventory. If these materials are unfolded, additional flat storage space will be required.]

Deeds that have been unfolded are in the flat file. There are 8 deeds in the drawer.

Deeds that have not been unfolded, over 25 items, are in a document case. Most of these are accompanied by a small sheet of paper with the names and date, taken from the deed. There are several folders in this box with a title on the tab:
Easttown Civic Association (1 item)
Berwyn Land Titles (2 items)
775 Conestoga Rd. (1 deed)
Wilds Family (1 deed)
Glassley Land Titles, 1802-80

The remaining folders in this box have no modern identification information.

PRINTED MATTER:

Nineteenth Century Printed School Books

A New Compend [sic] of Geography, by John Smith, M. A., 1816

Comly’s Spelling and Reading Book, by John Comly, (Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co.), 1853

The Second Book of 100 Pictures, (Philadelphia, American Sunday-School Union, 1862)

A New Spelling Book, by John Comly, (Philadelphia: Uriah Hunt & Son), [mid-19th century]

Brooks’s Primary Arithmetic – The Normal Primary Arithmetic, (Philadelphia: Sower, Potts & Co.), [mid-19th century]

Tom Brown’s School Days by an Old Boy, (London, Macmillan & Co., 1880)

The Westminster Question Book (Philadelphia, Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1891)

The Royal Alphabet or Child’s Best Instructor, a 1950 reproduction of the eighteenth century original.

McGuffey’s High School Reader for Advanced Classes, Embracing About Two Hundred Classic Exercises, Stereotype Edition, undated.

The Principles of Geometry and Trigonometry, translated from the French of A. M. Legendre By David Brewster L. L. D., Written and adapted to the course of Mathematical Instruction in the U. S. by Charles Davies, 1834, Philadelphia: A.S. Barnes and Co.

Analytical Fifth Reader: General Principles of Elocution … and New … Selections for Exercises in Reading and Elocution, by Richard Edwards L. L. D., 1907, New York: Taintor & Co.

The Principles of Arithmetic Analyzed and Practically Applied for Advanced Students, by Joseph Ray M. D., Edited by Chas. E. Matthews M. A., Revised Stereotype Edition, undated.

Also see the Almeron W. Case Mathematics Lesson Books (early 19th century) in the manuscripts collection.

Tredyffrin and Easttown Townships - School Printed Matter, 1892-and forward This collection consists of printed matter such as graduation programs, yearbooks, diplomas, report cards, special events programs, and copies of The Eastfrin, a student magazine produced in the 1930s. There is also a collection of class reunion printed and manuscript materials which occupies a separate box. The townships of Tredyffrin and Easttown combined their high schools in 1908. The two school systems were fully consolidated in 1953. The T-E School District’s large collection of historic printed matter is currently in storage, and not catalogued. The Tredyffrin Public Library has copies of the yearbooks and The Eastfrin. Also see the detailed separate finding aid for this collection, which was significantly expanded in 2023. Also see the History Quarterly article "Secondary Education in Tredyffrin-Easttown: The Tredyffrin Easttown High School, first joint high school in Pennsylvania,” by Mildred F. Fisher, Vol. 8, No. 4, October 1955.

NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS: There are thousands of loose clippings, filed into three categories: General Subjects, Biographical, and Municipalities. These are stored with the Research Files above, and also, for all oversize clippings, see the relevant drawer of the flat file.

CLIPPING SCRAPBOOKS: Little Journeys in Chester County - a small scrapbook compilation of twenty newspaper articles by J. Carrol Hayes. The fifth article is headed “Little Journeys in Chester County, For School Children of the County, With Kartoons for the Kiddies by Katharine Hayes.” Probably 1924-25, (No. 10 is dated Dec. 29, 1924). Cover page signed at the bottom: “Ida Kathryn Matthews.” Gift of Ida Matthews Hardester.

Van Leer Cabin Restoration - two scrapbooks, one containing exclusively newspaper clippings about the project, in which students and other volunteers restored the Van Leer Cabin, located on the grounds of Conestoga High School. The second scrapbook contains a mix of clippings, printed matter, and photographs, assembled in a ring binder. The project was undertaken in the years 1960-64.

Home Rule Charter - scrapbook of clippings dated between 1972 and 1974 relating to the issue of a home rule charter for Tredyffrin Township.

The Leisure Hour Club Scrapbook - (green cover with gold stripes at left), containing clippings, correspondence, minutes, by-laws, and photographs from this club, from 1956 to about 1971. The Leisure Hour Club provided weekly recreational or informational activities for senior citizens in the Berwyn area.

Old Eagle Garden Club – 8 scrapbooks of clippings & photographs covering the years 1956 to 2015.

Paoli Post Office Scrapbook - (red cover with gold stripes at left), containing correspondence, clippings and photographs about the U. S. Post Office buildings in Paoli. The material dates from the early 1950s to the late 1960s. The scrapbook was apparently compiled by Eleanor C. Brennan who served as the Paoli postmistress from 1935 until 1966. The first item in the scrapbook is a list of the Paoli postmasters from 1828 to Mrs. Brennan’s appointment in 1935. Also see above in the Manuscripts section for two files of correspondence and printed matter which were found in the scrapbook. Note that many items in this scrapbook have come loose from their adhesive corners.

Wadsworth-Burns Collection: three newspaper clipping scrapbooks related to the Berwyn and Paoli areas, from the first half of the 20th century, are part of this collection, which also included important photographs. Gift of Judith Wadsworth, 2016. See the separate finding aid for the Wadsworth-Burns Collection.

PAMPHLETS: A small collection of pamphlets is in two categories: Chester County, and Miscellaneous. Stored with the library books. Many more pamphlets will be found in the various Research Files.

REGIONAL PERIODICALS (newspapers, magazines, etc.):

The Chester and Delaware Federalist. 4 issues: April 16, July 16, Aug. 6, Aug. 13, 1817. All are folded in half, and have been previously restored. Their condition is poor. The Chester County Historical Society has a complete run of this paper on microfilm, covering the period from Jan. 15, 1809 to Dec. 31, 1817. Gift of Edmund Jones, 1991

The Berwyn Post, a newspaper produced for servicemen from the local area during World War II, ran from April of 1943 to May of 1946. It contains a wide variety of local news, and death notices for area servicemen. It is heavily illustrated with both cartoons and photographs. A full run of The Berwyn Post is bound, and stored in orange boxes marked “Ted Lamborn.” There is a second unbound set of every issue and several incomplete sets. In 2018 former TEHS president Herb Fry’s bequest provided a ca. 50-page “Excerpts from The Berwyn Post” typescript.

Almost all of the photographs that appeared in The Berwyn Post are credited to Ted Lamborn as the photographer. Ted Lamborn was the grandson of Joshua Lamborn, the photographer represented by the collection of glass plate negatives from the early 20th century. Both The Berwyn Post bound set and the glass negatives were donated by Ted Lamborn’s widow, Mary. Also see the Biographical file on the Lamborn family for Mary Lamborn’s eleven-page recollection of her life, and obituaries of several Lamborn family members (no mention of any photographers).

The Berwyn Post’s editor, Robert Goebel (1915-1945), died at age thirty, before the final issue appeared. There is a file of clippings and photographs about him in the Biographical files. A large bronze plaque dedicated to Goebel is also in the TEHS collection. About ninety of the photographs in The Berwyn Post were digitized in 2008 (photographs of area servicemen were omitted). See an article about The Berwyn Post in the History Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 1, January 1995.

The Chester County Daily Local News, 5 issues from November of 1972, noted as the “100th Anniversary” issues.

The Constitution and Chester County, 1787-1987, a tabloid style magazine insert to The Daily Local News, Sept. 13, 1987.

Chester County Day, a newspaper-type publication of the Chester County Day Committee, with information on the celebrations for October of 1982, 1987, 1988, 1998, 2000 - 2006, 2009.

Easttown Township, 1704-2004, 300th Anniversary, a tabloid-style magazine, 2004, with articles and photographs on local places and events. There are many advertisements.

The Picket Post, a Record of Patriotism, title later changed to The Valley Forge Historical Society Journal. There are in total 61 issues, with some gaps, for the years 1944 to 1992.

MAPS AND ALTASES:

Maps, either flattened or folded, are stored in the flat file and are organized as follows: Tredyffrin, Easttown, East Whiteland, the Main Line, Chester County (plus Montgomery County and Philadelphia), Valley Forge, American Revolution, Valley Forge, and East and West Whiteland Townships, Deeds, Oversize Photographs (2 drawers), and Oversize Printed Matter (2 drawers). The maps are not inventoried. Some unique items are:

World War II Evacuation map: a printed map including Tredyffrin, Easttown and Willistown Townships, and the borough of Malvern, inscribed lower right “[Arrow] indicates nearest Red Cross station to be used as evacuation centers,” dated in ink lower left “12/16/41,” (42½ x 33 inches, mounted on board). Due to its size and warping this map is not in the flat file.

Surveyors’ Drawings of Tredyffrin and Easttown properties: collection of about 50 items. Gift of the Radnor Historical Society. These drawings arrived, folded, in file folders. Until space permits unfolding for flat storage, they will stay in document cases.

Group of commemorative maps of the American colonies as they existed in 1787 (18 total). These are stored with the Chester, Montgomery, and Philadelphia County maps. See above.

Sectional Aviation Chart dated 1940, used by pilots to plot flight plans. The chart shows several flights plotted to and from the Main Line Airport.

ATLASES: The atlases are stored on shelving in the library room. An inventory of the atlases was created in the 1990s, and is stored with the atlases. In 2012, the list was compared to the atlases in the collection and it was clear that there are several atlases unaccounted for. Two atlases have been donated since 2012. Most of the atlases are available on the internet.

PHOTOGRAPHS: Also see Oversize Photographs drawer.

The Society’s photographs have been amassed in ring binders or boxes over the course of several decades. There are over 30 such containers housing well over 2500 photographs. The arrangement of the photographs is random in some binders and subject-oriented in others. Almost all of these photographs have been scanned and entered into a data base, which is accessible through the Society’s website, at http://the2nomads.org/ImageDatabase/index.html. There are also hundreds of photographs which have been digitized with the permission of the private owners.

The following descriptions relate to special collections within the larger body of the Society’s photograph collection.

Baugh Family Photograph Album This item is a photograph album containing over 150 snapshots dating to the 1914-1920 period. The album was apparently compiled by Marion E. Baugh, the daughter of TEHS founding member Dr. Anthony Wayne Baugh (1867-1938). See articles about him in the History Quarterly, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1945, and Vol. 16, No. 4, Winter 1978. The photographs in the small album are all identified, and depict primarily family members. There is one identified as Miss Baugh’s mother and father. Another is noted as the “Brinton Family.” Several are of Tredyffrin area locales. Note: Dr. Baugh’s notebooks, in two volumes, were purchased from a book dealer by the Tredyffrin Public Library in 1978, and are held in the Local History Collection there. A photocopied set of the notebooks is housed with the TEHS manuscripts.

William Burwell, Valley Forge Buildings and Views (the “Generals’ Quarters”), 1898- 1900. This collection consists of 17 photographs of buildings, and 10 photographs of subjects other than buildings, in and around Valley Forge National Park. The images of buildings are almost all structures that have come to be known as the “Generals Quarters,” i.e. buildings occupied by General Washington’s officers during the Valley Forge Encampment of 1777-78, or by British generals at other times. In addition, the file contains original photographs of 4 additional buildings taken in 1940 by Paul Pritchard, a member of the TEHS. Some of the Burwell images have been attributed to the name William Burrell, due to a clerical error on the part of an unknown person who created captions for some images in this collection. The photographs were published in the History Quarterly, Vol. 49, Nos. 1 and 2, July 2012. The Burwell photographs were the gift of his daughter, Helen Burwell, in 1988. The Pritchard photographs are assumed to be the gift of Paul Pritchard.

Dallin Aerial Photographs There are about 60 images of local aerial photography taken by J. Victor Dallin in the 1920s. All of the original Dallin negatives and prints are in the collection of the Hagley 21 TEHS Collection Catalogue, 2024 Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware. The images of the local area have been copied with permission, and are available for the use of the TEHS. They can be viewed on the Society website at this link, https://tehistory.org/dallin/dil_index.html. Several of these have been printed and framed.

Determination of Eligibility Report, Total Reconstruction, MP 230.03 to MP 326.0, STV Inc., Project No. 40-13059 for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, September 2012. Garber Family Photographs. See the separate finding aid for this collection. This consultant-prepared report described thirty sites potentially affected by a turnpike widening project in Tredyffrin and Upper Merion Townships. Each site is described in a short narrative history and documented with two to six photographs, the latter carrying significant historical value. These 315 photographs have been entered into the TEHS Image Collection. See Book 29 in the TEHS photograph collection.

Joshua Lamborn Glass Negatives - a group of about 180, 4 x 5” glass negatives, plus about six 5 x 7” glass negatives, and about twelve 5 x 7” film negatives. The photographer was Joshua Lamborn (active in the early twentieth century). There is also a small photographic record book “The Wellcome [sic] Photographic Exposure Record,” 1914. It contains seventy pages of printed photographic instructions, and of the remaining daily record pages only about three have been filled in. There are several scraps of paper with identifications for a few of the negatives, but these were found separated from the negatives when processing was begun. Gift of Mrs. Ted (Mary) Lamborn.

Mansley Family Photographs - an album of 44 photographs relating to the Mansley family of Wilmington, Delaware. See the Mansley Family Papers entry above for more information.

William Morrison Photographs of Tredyffrin and Easttown Estates William Morrison published his book The Main Line - Country Houses of Philadelphia’s Storied Suburb, in 2002. Thereafter he donated his negatives and prints from the project to the Radnor Historical Society. In 2013 the RHS donated just the prints for the Tredyffrin and Easttown locations to the TEHS. There are 65 photographs (with as many as 6 for some properties), documenting 22 estates. There are also 3 photographs of unidentified stables. Only 7 of the properties documented in this donation were included in Morrison’s book. The relevant pages from the book were photocopied. Six of the properties are in Tredyffrin Township; the rest are in Easttown Township. A list of all the properties is filed with the photographs.

Each set of photographs arrived at TEHS accompanied by a cover sheet headed “Main Line Estate Data Sheet.” These sheets list basic information such as date of construction, architects’ and owners’ names, etc. There are a variety of numbers written on the data sheets and on the backs of some of the photographs, but the numbers do not correspond to any list or index that was shared with the TEHS. Some biographical information on the owners of the homes was also provided. More information on these photographs may be available from the Radnor Historical Society (as are the negatives). For the Tredyffrin properties, the relevant page from the 2003 Tredyffrin Historic Resources Survey has been added to each file. All of the photographs in the Morrison collection have been entered into the TEHS Image Data Base.

Daniel Smith Newhall Residence Collection of twenty-three 8 x 10 glass negatives depicting the Daniel Smith Newhall (1849-1913) home in Strafford, Pennsylvania. There were also several pages of Newhall family biographical information photocopied from unknown sources. These photocopies are stored with the Newhall biographical file. The photographer is presumed to be H. Parker Rolfe, of Philadelphia. Gift of the Lower Merion Historical Society, 2012.

Harry B. (Henry) Rumrill (1867-1951) - Travel Journals. (See the manuscripts collection, above, for information on the photographs in these journals.)

Julius Sachse (1842-1919) Collection 16 photographs depicting locations along the Devon to Paoli corridor in the late 1880s. Sachse was an author and historian, as well as a photographer. He spent childhood summers in Berwyn, and moved there in the 1870s. From about 1870 to his death in 1919, he wrote history pieces for West Chester and Philadelphia papers. He also wrote on German Protestant religions and was an expert on the Ephrata Cloisters. His book The Wayside Inns Along the Lancaster Roadside Between Philadelphia and Lancaster, published in 1915, is still the major source of information on this subject. Thus, his research preceded the formation of the Society by several decades, but the Society has benefitted from his work in many ways.

Lucy Sampson Collection, 1898-1920. Lucy Sampson (1852–1920) moved to the Radnor area as a young woman and later lived with her sister and brother-in-law (their last name was Francis) on Francis Ave. in Berwyn. She never married. She began taking photographs in 1898 at about age forty-six. She captured many churches, homes, and landscape views. Some of her images were published. She also photographed groups of schoolchildren with their teachers, often on the steps of the school. She frequently printed her photographs on postcard stock, and identified the image in handwriting along one margin of the card. Many of her mounted prints are stamped or signed on the back: “L. A. Sampson / Photographic Artist / Berwyn, PA.”

The over one hundred Lucy Sampson photographs in the TEHS collection are contained in three boxes (numbered as containers 21-23 within the larger body of Society’s photograph containers). The Lucy Sampson Collection was enriched with over 70 postcards in 2018, from the estate of C. Herbert Fry. See the article on her in the History Quarterly, Vol. 48, No. 2, June 2011.

Springhouses Photograph Album, ca. 1989 This item is an album of about 45 Kodachrome snapshots of area springhouses and a few other structures. They were taken by Meg Fruchter, a TEHS member. All carry location information. She made small pen and ink sketches of about half of them for a short article she wrote for the History Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 3, July 1989. Due to the uniformity of subject matter, this album has been kept intact.

Wilson Family

4 photographs related to the history of Elda Farm (Tredyffrin Township):

2 portrait photographs of David Wilson, Jr. (1791 - 1873), and Eliza Siter Wilson (1789 - 1870), both dating from the 1860s.

2 large, framed portrait photographs of Winfield Scott Wilson (1825 - 1905) and his wife Emma Jane Wilson (1825 - 1907), both dated to about the 1890s. Photographs above, Gift of Joy Oakey, 2019. See History Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 4, Fall 2004.

LINE DRAWINGS AND OTHER ARTWORK:

The TEHS collection houses many line drawings, either the originals or photocopies. Most were done as illustrations for articles in the Quarterly before photographic reproductions were feasible. The subjects are almost all buildings, such as inns, taverns, churches and schools, in Tredyffrin and Easttown townships. There are a few images of other sites such as Valley Forge, the King of Prussia Inn, and Mill Grove. The artists include Sue Andrews (initialed S. E. A.), Barbara Gibb Webster, H. T. MacNeil, Laszlo Bagi, and Jane Curtis. These items are stored in two places: larger items are in a drawer of the flat file, and small items are in a ring binder.

The ring binder contains about 60 postcard-size drawings. Many of these are reproduced on note card or postcard stock. Most of these small images have been scanned into the TEHS Image Data Base, and thus this binder is numbered as Book 28 in the Photograph collection.

The flat file drawer houses oversize line drawings, a few engravings, as well as all Tredyffrin and Easttown diploma certificates.

Below is a list of some of the oversize line drawings.

Suite of 8 reproductions of drawings by Jane Curtis, of Main Line train stations: Rosemont, Devon, Radnor, Berwyn, Wayne, Bryn Mawr, Ardmore and Merion. All dated and copyrighted between 1972 and 1980. 11 x 14 inches

Reproduction of an engraving by E. T. S. Scowcroft, depicting a stage arriving with passengers at the Spread Eagle Inn, undated. 10 ¼ x 14 inches

Reproduction of a drawing of “Lighthorse” Harry Lee’s quarters at Signal Hill, by Victor J. Wagner. This image illustrated an article by Franklin Burns in the History Quarterly Vol. 2, no. 3, July 1939, p. 79. 3 7/8 x 7 inches

Reproduction of a drawing of the Knox covered bridge by Dennis Minch, (1967), reproduced in the History Quarterly Vol. 28, no. 3, July 1990, p. 111. 8 ½ x11 inches.

Reproduction of a drawing of the Diamond Rock School by Dennis Minch, (1967), 8 ½ x 11 inches.

Anonymous ink drawing on tracing paper of a group of Christmas toys. 9 x 24 inches

Two oil paintings by [first name unknown] Atkinson. Gift of Robert Yeoman, 2013 gift. (Loaned to the Tredyffrin Public Library)

Large bronze plaque dedicated to Robert Goebel, editor of The Berwyn Post, and presented to his mother after his death, 20 x 25.” Gift of Robert Bunce

Watercolor and ink drawing of the Knox Bridge by Marion B. Guthrie, undated, unframed, 8¾ x 11½â€, Gift of Erin Duffy, on behalf of the Chatley Family of West Chester, PA., 2020.

Reproductions of two charcoal drawings, both signed at lower left “Rueul Sides.” One depicts the Diamond Rock Schoolhouse, and the other an unidentified building. Gift of the Charlestown Township Board of Supervisors, accompanied by a letter thanking Ron and Peg German who gave these items to the township. Both are framed with a mat opening of 9 x 13¾ inches. Information from his death certificate: born in Philadelphia in 1878, and died in Harrisburg in 1953. Occupation listed as guide at the PA State Capitol Harrisburg. His name is listed as S. Reuel Sides (his father’s name was Samuel).

“Country Fair at the Devon Horse Show,” by Wilson Eyre, a sepia-print based on an ink and watercolor original that is in the University of Pennsylvania Architectural Archives (ID #: 032.364, which is signed and dated 1919, the first year of the Country Fair). Size: 39 x 28.” Gift of the Radnor Historical Society.

Reproduction of a drawing of the Eliza Cathcart Home, signed and dated in the lower right corner: “E. L. Malberti / 3-80.” Sheet size 9 x 12 inches. Gift of Mrs. Barbara Grimes. Stored oversize.

Three small undated oil sketches (4 ½ x 6 ¼ inches) by Adelaide Cilley Ward of Paoli, depicting the Knox Bridge, the Diamond Rock School, and the old sanctuary at St. David’s Episcopal Church, Radnor. These paintings were acquired by Mary Robertson Ives after the death of her mother. She mentions them in an article about “The Cilley Shop,” in the History Quarterly, 46/3, Summer 2009, p. 86. Other references to the artist are in: 28/3 and 50/4. Gift of Roger Thorne who received them from Mary Ives. Stored unframed.

Watercolor signed by “Lyster,” showing the first gyroscope (a predecessor to the helicopter) which was built at the Main Line Airport, and test flown in 1931. The plane’s body bears the letters WRK GYRO on the body. An expanded description is kept with the watercolor. Gift of Roger Thorne.

ARTIFACTS:

Artifacts are stored in boxes, and as each box becomes full, it is inventoried and closed. An inventory of each box’s contents is stored in the box. Some boxes are closed as soon as the contents arrive at the archives, due to size, or content. Other boxes might remain “open” for as long as it takes to fill. Not all boxes are of the same size or stored on consecutive shelving, and oversize Artifacts, which cannot be boxed, are stored in various locations in the TEHS office. Artifacts created by or for the Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society are stored with the main body of Artifacts boxes in Artifact Box 1.

Box 1: TEHS artifacts
See the separate finding aid for the TEHS Archives.

Box 2: Clothing
T-E High School: felt jacket patches, 5 items, and pin won by Thomas Burkey, T-E Class of 1952, for pole-vault.

Caps: two caps (American Legion, Devon, Pa, and Lions Club, Devon-Strafford, Pa.), owned by Nunzio DeVitis. Gift his son Dominic DeVitis.

Cap worn by the T-E Junior High School band, Gift of Sally Nelson Kuhns.

Tredyffrin Township Police shirt and two cloth badges, ca. 1999-2016

T-shirt made for the 50th anniversary of the Tredyffrin Public Library

Fritz Lumber Apron, gift of Edith Blair Perry

2 conical hats with green tassels, for the “Tall Cedars of Lebanon” lodge, a women’s auxiliary of the Thompson Masonic Lodge in Paoli. Gift of Spencer Pyle

BOX 2 IS CLOSED

Box 3: Clothing
An Eisenhower-style army jacket, and an overseas cap, worn by Cpl. Howard Lyndaker, while serving at the US Army Nike Missile Base in Tredyffrin Township in the mid- 1950s. Gift of Patty Delles and Barry David Lyndaaker.

Box 4: Five small pottery fragments; a glass bottle w. remains of a cork; and metal fragment about 8” long with a ring attached. These items were found buried on the property at 527 Daventry in Berwyn. See the finding aid for this donation. Gift of Erik Eichinger.

Box 5: Church Road Log Cabin, tree ring segment, and tree ring analysis report, 2009. BOX 5 IS CLOSED

Box 6: Bottles and bottle caps

Milk bottle from Panhurst Farms, now the site of the Church of Our Savior on N. Wayne Ave. Gift of Lynne Ellis.

Two milk bottles from Warner Dairy in Berwyn (one flattened), Gift of Charles P. Stone.

Milk bottle from Chesterbrook Farm, and one from Crumdale Farm, Gifts of Edith Blair Perry.

Chesterbrook Farm: 2 milk-bottle caps, formed into cups. Additional items from the farm are stored with the manuscripts.

BOX 6 IS CLOSED.

Box 7: (open box) Hires Root Beer bottle, Gift of Liz Willow. (This box remains open box for similar items, if acquired)

Box 8: Miscellaneous Artifacts

World War II medals awarded to Robert Goshorn; also, his service identification card; his dog tags, identification bracelet, uniform insignia and buttons.

Main Line Airport lapel pin in the form of aviator’s wings, 1 1/8 inches wide; and documentation from the donation. Gift of Roger Thorne.

Deck of playing cards, with one card affixed to the top of the box showing the Banquet Room at the Paoli Inn (see 2018 gifts list for donor and details of this individual card).

Wooden box-lock and key, face mounted, 6 x 4 inches

Door plate: wooden plaque, 3 x 6 inches, “Tredyffrin Observatory,” 1933, probably a gift of Elizabeth Rumrill. (See the article “The Tredyffrin Observatory,” by Elizabeth Rumrill (died 1986), in the History Quarterly, Vol. 17, No. 4, October 1979, pp. 95-98.)

Engraving Plate carrying a drawing of the Van Leer Cabin, by Henry T. MacNeill, 1960

Printing plate depicting “Pennokla,” the main house on a horse farm, just west of the GV Presbyterian Church (n. side of Swedesford Rd.). Mr. Elliott, coming from Oklahoma, bought the property and named it Penn-Okla. He had been in the oil business and came to Philadelphia as the president of the Atlantic Refining Co. The Elliotts and their daughter Alice lived there until the 1950s. See Roger Thorne’s 2004 interview with Alice Elliott Young, donor of the plate). Subsequent names for the property: Victoria Farm and Crescent Wings Farm. Photographs of the farm are in the Image Collection. Valley Forge Historical Society lapel pin, 5/8” diameter, thrift store purchase.

Lapel pin: “Great Valley Corporate Center Welcomes President Reagan, May 31, 1985.” 3-inch diameter

Group of Fritz Lumber pens, pencils and other items. Gift of Larry De Young.

British Cap Badge worn by the 49th Regiment of Foot. 2 ½ x 1 ¾ inches, and correspondence from the donation. See History Quarterly, Vol. 53, No. 1, July 2016, pp. 28-29.

Shipping Receipt: a small, framed, printed form documenting a shipment of corn from Philadelphia to Cadiz, dated 31 July, 1787. (provenance unknown)

BOX 8 IS CLOSED

Box 9: (open box)

Upper Main Line Bank - one check box, 1960s?

Berwyn National Bank - cash bag, date unknown

Currency: two Confederate bills, a $20.00 bill (very poor condition); and a $100 bill (torn in thirds) and dated Feb. 17, 1864.

Devon Horse Show and Country Fair (DHSCF): Archival material from the DHSCF was in the care of the TEHS for about four years. In 2016 it was transferred to the custody of the DHSCF board, and is longer housed by the TEHS. After 2016 several items, purchased on-line, were donated to the TEHS: a cardboard fan, 1920s-30s; and a ribbon- rosette imprinted with “Diamond Jubilee / 1956.”

Two paper fans from Berwyn Walking Tours, 2000 and 2002

A collection of medals, ribbons and pins for athletic events, dating from 1900 to 1928, and produced by the YMCA and other organizations. There is also a small photograph of an unidentified young man, dated 1898, who may have been the donor.

Seed bag from Berwyn Hardware, ca. 1950, Gift of Larry and Joyce DeYoung.

Box 10: (open box)

Van Leer Cabin, three hand-wrought nails

Wooden peg, inscribed: “wooden peg from the old ramparts, Valley Forge,” 7 inches long

Wood fragment, stamped in ink: “G.? Wash. Sentry tree / A. Barr / 25? Walnut St. / Royersford, Pennsylvania,” 4 ½ x 1 ½ inches

Two fragments of a white oak tree, known as “The Travelers’ Rest.” This tree, thought to be 300 years old, was located on the west side of Waterloo Ave. It came down March 24, 1996. (See History Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 2, April 1996, pp. 81–82, and Vol. 20, No. 4, October 1982, pp. 111–14; and in the Image Collection see BE20-23).

Cigar Box: wooden cigar box embossed on the top “Paoli News / Paoli, Pennsylvania.” Gift of Richard Kurtz.

Box 11: (open box)

Decorative plate commemorating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the First Presbyterian Church of Paoli, 1949.

Roof tile fragment from the 1920s Pure Oil Gas station in Devon.

Bronze medallion, showing a right-facing profile of Abraham Lincoln. The profile is 6 ½ inches high and the round wooden support in 8 5/8 inches in diameter. The medallion was part of a group produced for the Governor of Pennsylvania in the late 1940s by the American Non-gran Bronze Company. As described in the TEHS History Quarterly: “During Edward Martin's term as Governor of Pennsylvania, he played host to the Governors of the other 47 states. As a souvenir, each Governor received a plaque with a head of Abraham Lincoln in bronze on it. This mold was made and the heads were cast at the Bronze. Many of you have probably seen them, as quite a few of them are to be found in homes around our community.” (Volume 9 Number 4, October 1957, p. 90) Gift of Neil Sardiñas.

Box 12 (open box)

Berwyn Hardware Co. carpenter’s apron. Gift of Neil Sardiñas.

Small pennant carrying the word “Berwyn School.” Devon School was built in Easttown Township in the late 1950s precipitating Easttown School to change its name to Berwyn School. This pennant is from ca.1960, promoting the school's new name. Gift of Neil Sardiñas.

Match book covers from: The Ship Inn; Martini’s Restaurant; The Paoli Inn; and Philip H. Hancock, Early American [furniture] Reproductions. Business card from Brackbill’s Motel (Paoli).

small clear-glass bottles, each embossed: “Berwyn Pharmacy”

a root-beer extract-bottle embossed: “Charles L. Hires Co., Malvern PA”,/

a root-beer extract-bottle embossed: “Hires Household Extract / For Home Use”

Metal ruler imprinted: ‘Malvern Farm Supply Co.”

Metal bottle opener stamped: “Rams Head Ale – The Aristocrat of Ales” and “Make Friends with Valley Forge Beer”

Metal jar opener: stamped: “Heinz 57”

BOX 13 Uniform from the Conestoga Senior High Band, 1968.

OVERSIZE ARTIFACTS:

U. S. flags stored in a drawer in the map case:

a 38-star flag (56 x 62 inches, ca. 1877, handmade; see the History Quarterly, “The Thirty-eight Star Flag,” Vol. 14, No. 2, October 1966, pp. 32-39.

a 48-star flag

a small flag (or fragment) of unknown description (folded, very fragile)

Sign: wooden sign reading “New Centerville,” 14 inches high x 9 feet long x 3 inches thick, once hung from the porch of the rail station at the southeast corner of the intersection of Route 252 and Swedesford Road. A photograph of it in situ survives. This item was installed in the Local History Room at the Tredyffrin Public Library in 2015.

Real Estate Sign: painted metal sign, 40 x 50 inches, “West Berwyn / New Homes / $5999.00 / Tun Left at Underpass.” The sign was found in the garage at 12 East Central Ave, in Paoli, in 1997. The donor of the sign, Lynne Dawson, was the 3rd owner of the home. The original owner was Robert Funkhouser, a developer who built a group of thirteen homes at the intersection of Conestoga and Old Lancaster Roads, just west of the former T-E High School property and the athletic field. The sign was probably placed at the nearby underpass, near the Daylesford train station, directing the public to the site. The homes appear in the 1950 Franklin atlas, and a clipping from the Philadelphia Inquirer of November 16, 1941 provides the date of 1941, and the developer’s name.

Also see: 6 large wooden sections from the demolished Paoli station northside-shed (westbound tracks). Gift of Neshaminy Construction. See History Quarterly Vol. 54, No. 3 (Autumn 2018), p. 18, middle photograph and caption.

AUDIO TAPES

There are seven reel-to reel-tapes, and twenty-nine cassette tapes. In the box housing the cassettes there are two pages of handwritten information headed: “Bill Mechlin.”

The cassette tapes are marked in difficult handwriting, but these titles could be read:
Mary Eachus
Mazie Hall (2)
Diamond Rock Meeting House
Dave Wilson
Conrad Wilson (2)
Wilson (4)
Meg Twadell: Inns, Tolls and Taverns [see Quarterly 23/3, April 1985]
Lewis Valentine
Norman Reynolds, 5/28/70
Easttown, #71-190; Tredyffrin, #365
Don Saneo [?] (2)
Conestoga Oral History: Mrs. Mechlin, Mrs. Parker (2), Mr. Staats, Mr. Roberts
Goshorn retirement party, 1989
Goshorn (2)
Marker Dedication, 4/27/1980 [Stone Chimney Picket?]
Xian [China?]
Unidentified or illegible (2)

The reel-to-reel tapes are marked as follows: Circus Band, L. Welk Big Band, Big band themes 1, 2, and 3, and one unidentified, and were the gift of Mary Lamborn. [Currently on loan to John Senior for evaluation.]

NOTE: the Chester County Library recorded over 50 local oral-history interviews in 1977-79. The tapes may or may not be transcribed. They are described in a catalogue available at the Chester County Library and District Center in Exton (R974.813 O; reference use only).

TEHS BOOK COLLECTION:

The TEHS books number about 200. A list is available at this link: http://the2nomads.org/TEHSDocumentStore/docs/doc240.html.

CD-ROMs: These discs range in content. There are digitized images of photographs, either from the TEHS collection, or borrowed from institutions or private collectors; video of talks delivered at TEHS meeting; maps; posters; and a few commercially made discs with a variety of programs. Most of the from other repositories are in the TEHS Image Data Base.

Computer Discs - Box List:

Photos from the Hagley Museum

Photos from the PA State Archives

Photos from the Temple University Archives & Special Collections

Photos from the Library Company of Philadelphia

Photos from the RR Museum of Pennsylvania

Miscellaneous Maps

VFNP Historic Structures Reports

Tredyffrin 300 – Quarterly issue devoted to township history, 2007

TEHS color railroad posters, 2016

Miscellaneous discs

Archives Management Workshops

Miscellaneous Events

TEHS Meeting Presentations

Miscellaneous Photographs

Updated by C. Leibold, April 1, 2024. HCS uploaded 4/21/2024.

Document History

• HTML document created by MB 2024-04-13
• HTML document updated by HS/MB 2024-04-24