Digital Collections and Resources

The digital collections and online resources of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of primary source and educational materials related to the local history for this state.

America's Library

The resources on this site are designed for elementary and middle school students.

Explore the States: Pennsylvania

Architecture and Historic Buildings

Part of the digitized image collections, these architectural and engineering records can be useful in researching local history and genealogy.

Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey
The collection includes photographs, measured drawings, and written historical documentation on thousands of structures from about 1933 to the present. Search the collection to find the communities and buildings where your ancestors lived, worked, or visited.

Bibliographies and Guides

These research guides provide additional digital and print state-specific resources.

American Folklife Center Collections: Pennsylvania
This guide provides access to ethnographic resources documenting expressive culture in the state of Pennsylvania at the Library of Congress.
Guide to Law Online: U.S. Pennsylvania
This guide, prepared by the Law Library of Congress, includes links to free online legal resources regarding Pennsylvania, focusing on its constitution; executive, legislative, and judicial branches; legal guides; and general sources.
Horn Papers: Forged Local History
The three-volume set, entitled “The Horn Papers,” was published by the Greene County, Pennsylvania Historical Society in 1945. This guide comprises resources related to the discrediting of the first two volumes by historical scholars as forgeries.
Pennsylvania: State Resource Guide
This guide provides access to digital materials related to the state of Pennsylvania at the Library of Congress, as well as links to external websites and a selected print bibliography.

City and Telephone Directories

Telephone directories are used by genealogists and historians to identify people and businesses from a particular place and era.

Images Online

U.S. Telephone Directory Collection
This collection provides access to the telephone directories that have been digitized. For a convenient list, click on the COLLECTION ITEMS tab. Scroll down the sidebar to LOCATIONS and click MORE LOCATIONS. This will allow you to organize the location list alphabetically. Once you select the city of interest, you can use the SORT BY box in the top-right corner to arrange the directories for that city by date.

If you do not find the city of interest in the online collection, study the "Lists of Available Directories" below for complete lists of print and microform directories.

Lists of Available Directories

U.S. City Directories: Pennsylvania
Guide to Microfilm in the Library of Congress Microform Reading Room.
U.S. Reverse Directories by Address and Phone Number
These include directories that allow you to search by address or telephone number instead of by name.
U.S. Telephone Directories: Pennsylvania
This inventory, organized by state, details the available directories by city/town and year.

Maps

The following online map collections include maps and views of Pennsylvania cities, battlefields, and geography. Explore each collection using the search box on the upper-right. Type in Gettysburg, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and other city or town names to view related items. Search all digitized map collections to find additional local and state geographical documentation of Pennsylvania communities from the colonial era to present day.

Cities and Towns
This category includes maps that depict individual buildings to panoramic views of large urban areas. These maps record the evolution of cities illustrating the development and nature of economic activities, educational and religious facilities, parks, street patterns and widths, and transportation systems.
Civil War Maps
Brings together materials from three premier collections: the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Library of Virginia. There are over 100 items related to the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in this collection.
Panoramic Maps
The panoramic map was a popular cartographic form used to depict U.S. and Canadian cities and towns during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Known also as bird's-eye views, perspective maps, and aero views, panoramic maps are nonphotographic representations of cities portrayed as if viewed from above at an oblique angle. Although not generally drawn to scale, they show street patterns, individual buildings, and major landscape features in perspective.
Railroad Maps, 1828-1900
Type the state name into the search box on the upper-right to reveal state-specific railroad maps that represent an important historical record, illustrating the growth of travel and settlement as well as the development of industry and agriculture in the United States. Included in the collection are progress report surveys for individual lines, official government surveys, promotional maps, maps showing land grants and rights-of-way, and route guides published by commercial firms.
Sanborn Maps
The Sanborn maps are arranged by state, then city and release data. The Sanborn Map Company, the best known of the U.S. fire-insurance map producers, has made maps since 1867. The fire insurance maps produced by Sanborn show building footprints, building material, height or number of stories, building use, lot lines, road widths and water facilities. The maps also show street names and property boundaries of the time. This collection of maps is historically significant as it is sometimes the best detailed map of a town or city dating from the mid 1800s. Additional Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Pennsylvania External are also available through the Penn State University Libraries.

Newspapers

Historic newspapers also provide important content for historical and genealogical research.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Chronicling America contains more than 16 million word-searchable newspaper pages from 1777-1963, covering 48 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The headlines, articles, and advertisements capture the life and times of the American people, shining new light on historic events as they unfolded. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
Directory of US Newspapers in American Libraries
Use the Directory of US Newspapers to find information about American newspapers published from 1690-present.

To search the Directory, click the "Collection Item" tab and then choose "Advanced Search." Once you generate the search results, click on each entry to learn more. Scroll down to the "Libraries That Have It" tab to discover which repositories house the archives or determine if digital issues are available through Chronicling America.

Personal Papers of Pennsylvanians

The Library's manuscript collections provide a wealth of research materials related to important individuals in state and local history.

James Buchanan and Harriet Lane Johnston Papers
The papers of James Buchanan (1791-1868), representative and senator of Pennsylvania, secretary of state, and fifteenth president of the United States, and those of his niece and White House hostess Harriet Lane Johnston (1830-1903) contain approximately 1,600 items dating from 1825 to 1887. James Buchanan’s papers include correspondence, notes, drafts of remarks, commissions, land patents and other papers relating chiefly to Buchanan’s career in the United States Senate, as secretary of state, and as minister to Great Britain prior to his presidency. Subjects include politics in Pennsylvania and nationally, sectional disputes, nullification, the National Bank, relations with Mexico, the Oregon question, trade treaties, tariffs, and the Ostend Manifesto. Harriet Lane Johnston’s correspondence relates primarily to fashion, social affairs, family matters, and the selection of a biographer of James Buchanan.
John Carvel Arnold Papers
The collection principally contains correspondence of Arnold with his wife, Mary Ann Arnold, during his Civil War service with Company I, 49th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, U.S. Army, relating chiefly to his views on the military situation in Virginia and Maryland (1864-1865), army rations and pay, the Confederates, Copperhead Democrats, family finances, and his wife's difficulties in maintaining a home and educating the children. Mary Ann Arnold was unable to write, thus none of the correspondence in the collection is in her own handwriting. The collection also includes correspondence between Mary Ann Arnold and her children, Carrie E. Arnold, Edwin S. Arnold, Grant S. Arnold, Idabell Arnold, and Mary M. Arnold, dating primarily from the time of the children's attendance at the McAlisterville Soldiers' Orphan School in McAlisterville, Pennsylvania, following the Civil War.
Thaddeus Stevens Papers
The collection materials document the involvement of Thaddeus Stevens in Pennsylvania state politics and national politics, the anti-Masonic movement, and the Whig and Republican Parties. The largest portion of the correspondence centers on issues surrounding the Civil War and its aftermath. Subjects discussed in the Civil War correspondence include Abraham Lincoln, slavery, secession, wartime finance, African American troops, and the army experience of Stevens's nephews A. J. (Alanson) Stevens and Thaddeus Stevens, Jr. Topics from the Reconstruction era include the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (Freedmen's Bureau), the political situation in the South, complaints from loyal Union men at the election of former Confederates, the treatment of African Americans in the postwar South, suffrage, and Andrew Johnson's policies and impeachment. Other subjects addressed in the collection include education in Pennsylvania, mining of coal and iron ore in Pennsylvania, destruction of Stevens's Caledonia Iron Works operations by Confederate troops in 1863, railroads, and financial issues.

Prints and Photographs

The Library of Congress has digitized a wealth of unique and historical visual materials important when researching local and family history.

Search the digitized print and photographic collections to view images related to Pennsylvania history, locations, events, and people.
To learn more about locating local and family history photographs, view the Library of Congress Using Local and Family History Photographs to Tell the Stories of Your Ancestors Research Guide.

The Teacher's Page

The resources on this site are designed for teachers of elementary through high school teachers and students.

Primary Source Set: Pennsylvania
The extensive collections at the Library of Congress contain historic artifacts and cultural materials from across the U.S. This list is just a sample of the many Pennsylvania resources available for free on the Library's Web site.

Today in History

These web pages highlight important events connected to particular dates in history.

October 14, 1644
Birth of William Penn: William Penn, English religious and social reformer and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, was born on October 14, 1644, in London. After suffering persecution in England for his adopted Quaker faith, Penn would establish freedom of worship for all inhabitants of his North American colony. Pennsylvania, while predominantly Quaker, soon became a haven for minority religious sects from across Europe, as well as the most culturally diverse of the thirteen original colonies.
June 4, 1754
Fort Necessity: On June 4, 1754, twenty-two-year-old Colonel George Washington and his small military force were busy constructing Fort Necessity, east of what is known today as Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Washington’s men built the fort to protect themselves from French troops intent on ousting the British from the territory northwest of the Ohio River. Washington’s troops were surrounded at Fort Necessity, and forced to surrender to the French on July 3, 1754. Washington’s military activity in the area marked the beginning of the French and Indian War, the American phase of a worldwide war between Great Britain and France.
September 21, 1784
The First Newspaper: The Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser, began publishing daily editions on September 21, 1784. Having first been launched as The Pennsylvania Packet by John Dunlap in 1771, it became the first daily newspaper in the country.
December 12, 1787
Pennsylvania Ratifies the Constitution: On December 12, 1787, delegates to the Pennsylvania ratifying convention meeting at the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall) voted to ratify the Constitution of 1787.
July 1, 1863
The Battle of Gettysburg: The Battle of Gettysburg began on July 1, 1863.
July 2, 1863
The Battle of Gettysburg: On July 2, 1863, the lines of the Battle of Gettysburg, now in its second day, were drawn in two sweeping parallel arcs. The Confederate and Union armies faced each other a mile apart. The Union forces extending along Cemetery Ridge to Culp’s Hill, formed the shape of a fish-hook, and the Confederate forces were spread along Seminary Ridge.
July 3, 1863
The Battle of Gettysburg: On July 3, 1863, Union troops repelled a massive artillery assault on Cemetery Ridge during the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg in southern Pennsylvania. During the early morning hours Confederate General Robert E. Lee ordered General Longstreet to prepare General Pickett's troops for the assault.
November 19, 1863
Gettysburg Address: On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered a short speech at the close of ceremonies dedicating the battlefield cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Honoring a request to offer a few remarks, Lincoln memorialized the Union dead and highlighted the redemptive power of their sacrifice. Placing the common soldier at the center of the struggle for equality, Lincoln reminded his listeners of the higher purpose for which blood was shed.
October 3, 1902
Coal Strike: On October 3, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt met with miners and coalfield operators from the anthracite coalfields in Pennsylvania in an attempt to settle the strike, then in its fifth month. The country relied on coal to power commerce and industry and anthracite or "hard coal" was essential for domestic heating.

Veteran's History Project

The Veterans History Project (VHP) collects and preserves the remembrances of American war veterans and civilian workers who supported them.

Veteran's History Project: Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania: Local History & Genealogy Resource Guide

Local History & Genealogy: Ask a Librarian