A product of the distinctive culture of reform in antebellum Philadelphia, William Parker Foulke was the scion of the old elite who put a conservative stamp on social change. Trained as an attorney, Foulke spent much of his adult life engaging his deep amateur interest in natural history and mental philosophy and devoting himself to a variety of civic and philanthropic causes, including the colonization of formerly enslaved persons, penal reform, and cultural institutions in his native Philadelphia. The Foulke Papers are the product of the diverse social and intellectual interests of the Philadelphia attorney and philanthropist William Parker Foulke. Consisting primarily of correspondence, notes, and essays, the collection touches on Foulke's many interests. The collection includes numerous lectures delivered by Foulke along with material on the Lancaster County Prison, New York Prison Association, and the Philadelphia Society For Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons; notebooks concerning prisons and prisoners, including a 1846-1852 diary, and a listing of prisoners, their race, age, crime, sentence, and observations; a diary concerning the American Colonization Society (1852); a copy of an arctic diary (1853-1854) by John Wall Wilson, in the hand of Isaac Israel Hayes, which recounts much of the journey aboard the brig Advance, commanded by Elisha Kent Kane. There is also a list of buildings (1820-1841) designed by John Haviland, and material on the American Academy of Music, Philadelphia.

In addition to family and business correspondence, the Charles Nicoll Bancker Family Papers contains various documents, such as a furniture inventory volume (30pp.); a Daybook, 1795-1800 (120pp.); and a very interesting journal (unidentified, but by one of the Banckers, and filed under "Description of a trip..."), from New York to Albany and back, between July 20-Aug. 15, 1793 (1 vol., 31 pp.). It contains detailed observations of the Hudson River and the towns along the way. Bancker was involved in business and trade prior to 1826, and in insurance after that date, so there is material relating to those topics in this collection. He owned a substantial library of the period, which was used by Charles Wilkes's Expedition after 1837 (see Reynell Coates to Bancker). This library, along with Bancker's notable scientific instrument collection, was sold after his death and there are published auction catalogues in the collection. There is much family correspondence from: Anne E. Bancker, Charles Gerard Bancker, Evert Bancker, Sarah U. Bancker, Violetta Bancker Talbot, Elizabeth Bancker Teackle, and John Teackle.

The Peale family is best known as a family of artists; however, family interests and activities were much more wide-ranging. The best known Peale is Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827, APS 1786), who produced more than one thousand paintings, including hundreds of portraits of leading Americans during the colonial and early national periods. Peale was married three times, to Rachel Brewster (1744-1790), Elizabeth de Peyster (1765-1804), and Hannah More (1755-1821). He had eighteen children, eleven of whom reached adulthood. Three of Charles Willson Peale's sons became artists: Raphaelle Peale (1774-1825), Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860), and Rubens Peale (1784-1865). A fourth son, Titian Ramsay Peale (1799-1885, APS 1833), was a naturalist (who made drawings on the exploring expeditions he accompanied) and pioneer in photography, and another son, Benjamin Franklin Peale (1795-1870), became a naturalist and paleontologist. Peale's daughter Sophonisba Angusciola was married to Coleman Sellers (1781-1834), an inventor and manufacturer of machinery, including locomotives. Two of their sons, George Escol Sellers (1808-1899) and Coleman Sellers (1827-1907, APS 1872), were inventors and engineers. The latter served as director of the construction of the hydro-electric power development at Niagara Falls. He was married to Cornelia Wells Sellers (1831-1909). One of their grandsons was Charles Coleman Sellers (1903-1980, APS 1979), a librarian and historian and the author of several studies of the Peale family, including a Charles Willson Peale biography.

The collection of about 850 items covers the period from 1782 to c. 1936, with the bulk dating to the 1780s to 1840s. The collection is divided into four series. Series I contains correspondence relating to a wide variety of topics, including French and English politics, business, trade, religious matters, and personal affairs. Many of the items are letters of introduction. There is also information on John Vaughan's immigration to America, Joseph Priestley, vaccines and inoculation (with Jefferson's comments on the same), Vaughan's business in Philadelphia, and the American Philosophical Society. Also included in this series are 2 boxes with copies of Vaughan correspondence as well as miscellaneous notes by E. W. Madeira, gathered in the course of his research on Vaughan in the 1930s. Series II consists of three volumes. Included are two of Vaughan's commonplace books. One, entitled, "J. Vaughan's book," May 17, 1779 (47 pp., in Latin; 870/L34), includes mostly Latin notations. The other commonplace book, dated 1783 (ca. 66 pp.; B V 462.c), includes comments on several prominent Americans, such as Benjamin Rush and David Rittenhouse, as well as American society generally. The third volume is a copybook with thirty letters spanning the period 1784 to 1801 (B V462.1). Series III includes material relating to Vaughan's administration of the estate of the Philadelphia merchant Samuel Merrick, 1796-1822 (Vaughan-Merrick Papers, B V462.m; 2 boxes). Series IV consists of correspondence between Vaughan and the DuPont Co. for which he served as agent (B V462.4; photocopies of 73 letters).

Captain William Scott (b.1752) was a company commander in the British 17th Regiment of Foot. He participated in many battles and campaigns during the American Revolutionary War, including the Philadelphia campaign. This three-page memorandum describes the events leading up to, and the conduct of, the Battle of Germantown, on October 4, 1777.

This is principally correspondence between Henriette Girard, niece of Stephen Girard, and her husbands, Henri Lallemand and John Yardly Clark. Correspondents include Stephen Girard and other members of the family.

Principal correspondents in the lettes of John Fries Frazer include Alexander Dallas Bache, Louis Agassiz, Joseph Henry, and Titian Ramsay Peale who discuss mainly general scientific topics, although personal and family matters are discussed with Bache. Topics include the University of Pennsylvania, boiler explosions, chemistry, education, the National Academy of Sciences, the Smithsonian Institution, fossils, magnetism, solar eclipses, the American Philosophical Society, weights and measures, the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, scientific instruments, the American Civil War, electricity, the United States Mint, the Franklin Institute, scientists of the period, natural history, and publications.

Major John André (1750-1780) was a British officer during the American Revolutionary War. He is best known in America for his attempt to facilitate Benedict Arnold's surrender of West Point to the British in 1780, but was known in his time as a capable, cosmopolitan officer, who served an interesting and varied career until his death in 1780. A participant in many of the Revolutionary War's most famous battles, André was twice captured by the American army, and served well enough to earn two promotions and numerous important assignments during the conflict. This eight-page letter chronicles the Philadelphia campaign of 1777 and includes descriptions of the Battles of Brandywine, Paoli and Germantown.

The New Sweden Company was founded as a joint stock enterprise in 1637 including Swedish, Dutch, and German investors seeking to trade in American furs and tobacco. Centered at Fort Christina, near present day Wilmington, Delaware, the colony expanded up both sides of Delaware Bay and the Delaware Reiver to present day Philadelphia, but capitulated to the Dutch in 1655. This volume contains selected transcripts in Swedish and German of documents in Swedish archives relating to the settling and governance of the colony of New Sweden in Delaware and Pennsylvania, made at the expense of Jonathan Russel, United States minister to Sweden, 1820. The documents have all been translated into French, and were printed in Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania, vol. 4 (1829), 177-8,200, 314-315, 373-374, 398-400; vol. 5, 14-15, 219-221. No. 27 was not printed. Bound in at the end of the volume is Ch. 5 of Per Lindeström, "Description de la nouvelle Suède et des Indes Occidentales, 1691."

This volume includes several printed and manuscript items related to the death of Caspar Wistar, in January 1818.

This is a collection of letters, letterbooks, account books, scrapbooks, etc., concerning the families of Robert Hare and Thomas Willing. The letters and other documents include early family material, as well as documents written by numerous family relations, and some obviously only collected by them. The Willing family letters (1744-1901) are diverse, concerning family matters, business, society, comments on the Civil War, etc. There are numerous letters from Thomas Willing, many concerning his banking career, as President of the Bank of North America and later at the first Bank of the U.S. The Hare family letters (1724-1965) are more extensive and diverse, including much on travel in the U.S. and elsewhere. There is a letter from Robert Hare Jr. concerning steam engines, and letters from Horace Binney Hare concerning his education at Harvard, 1860, his trip to San Francisco and the west, 1862, and numerous letters written while a soldier in the Civil War. There are many letters from Horace Binney (1780-1875, DAB) to his daughter Esther, who was married to John Innes Clark Hare (1816-1905, DAB), concerning family travel and court cases. There are also letters from outside the family, such as those from Dorothea L. Dix. The bound volumes include, among others: Robert Hare letterbooks (1824-1825, 1841-1857), estate records, and laboratory expense accounts (1818-1860); G. H. Hare's journal or log of cruises aboard the U.S. United States (1841) and U.S. Flint (1845); Horace Binney Hare's 1862 journal of his trip to San Francisco. There are account books and accounts (1754-1795) kept by Thomas Willing; accounts of the controversy over the estate of John Innes Clark; and records of the First Colored Wesley Methodist Church of Philadelphia (receipt book, 1820-1848; minute book, 1827-1844). There are also Philadelphia court records, and minutes of the Common Council of the city, 1832.

From the Sugar Act of 1764 through the Tea Act of 1773, the British Parliament imposed a variety of taxes upon their American colonies in an effort to raise revenue to offset the enormous debts incurred during the Seven Years' (French and Indian) War. Far more efficiently than raising revenue, these duties raised the indignation of the colonits, contributing more than their share to the alienation that fueled the independence movement The two volumes that comprise the Pennsylvania Stamp Act and Non-Importation Resolutions Collection contain 34 manuscript and printed items relating to the political crisis over taxation on goods imported into the American colonies between 1765 and 1773, with a focus on Philadelphia. The first volume is concerned exclusively with agitation over the Stamp Act of 1765 and its repeal, while the second volume relates more specifically to the Non-Importation agreements of the 1760s, the Townshend Duties, and the Tea Act of 1773. Among these are letters of Governor John Penn, correspondence between the Sons of Liberty at Philadelphia and those of New York, 1766, an address of the committee of Boston merchants to a committee of Philadelphia merchants, 11 August 1768. Among the more dramatic letters are those from John Hughes, the would-be Stamp Officer for Pennsylvania who resigned bis commission in the face of public protest, and a seies of threatening letters addressed to James and Drinker, consignees for the sale of tea in Pennsylvania in 1773.

The collection includes letters between Hutchinson and his uncle Israel Pemberton, written while Hutchinson was a student of medicine in London. There are also 12 tickets of admission to medical lectures in Philadelphia and London, including one given by William Hunter, and 3 unused cards of admission to Hutchinson's own lectures. Miscellaneous items include Hutchinson's marriage certificate; genealogical data on the Hutchinson, Hare, and Pemberton families; and stock certificates, 1857-1872, of the McKean and Elk Land and Improvement Company. Materials dated post-1793 are to and from Hutchinson family members.

David Rittenhouse (1732-1796) was one of the most prominent American men of science of the 18th Century. A skilled instrument maker, Rittenhouse was the an astronomer, playing a major role in recording the 1769 Transit of Venus, among many accomplishments. Rittenhouse also conducted important survey work for the state of Pennsylvania, establishing the state's western border, as well as overseeing the completion of the Mason-Dixon survey. In addition to his scientific endeavors, Rittenhouse's work for American independence places him among the important founding fathers. Subordinating his scientific interests for the greater good of Pennsylvania during the American Revolution, Rittenhouse served as a member of both the Pennsylvania Assembly and the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention, and held powerful positions on the Pennsylvania Council of Safety and the subsequent Committee on Safety. Rittenhouse also served as the first director of the United States' Mint, at the behest of President George Washington. Rittenhouse was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1768 and played a major role in placing the Society on the scientific map. He held many positions in the Society, including serving as its President from 1791 until his death in 1796. The Rittenhouse papers span 1774 to 1932, and consist of 61 items, over 0.25 linear feet. The collection is comprised mainly of correspondence, but also includes receipts, genealogies and broadsides.

Intended as a model of Jacksonian penal reform, the Eastern State Penitentiary operated in the Cherry Hill section of Philadelphia between 1829 and 1970. Designed to promote the moral reform of prisoners by imposing a regimen of silent, solitary self-reflection, the penitentiary became the purest example of the "Pennsylvania plan" of "cellular isolation." The Records of the Eastern State Penitentiary consist of seven bound volumes and a series of miscellaneous records and correspondence that document aspects of life in Jacksonian America's model prison. The collection has been organized into four series: Series I, Bound Volumes; Series II, Miscellaneous Records; Series III, Correspondence of Elizabeth Velora Elwell; and Series IV, Prisoners' Correspondence. The bound volumes contain records of admission for prisoners between 1830 and 1892 (with some gaps), three of which were kept and annotated by the Moral Instructor at the prison, Thomas Larcombe. Larcombe provided interesting comments on the "moral state" of each prisoner, in addition to data on name, age, gender and race, religious affiliation, the charges, sentence, and final disposition. The unbound materials in the collection are diverse, but include an important 70 page manuscript comprising the records of the joint commission charged with investigating management of the prison in 1835, with a partial transcript of testimony, and a series of 29 letters written to or from prisoners at Eastern State, 1845-1871, most unusually the inmate Elizabeth Velora Elwell, writing to her paramour and fellow inmate Albert Green Jackson.

Lieutenant William Keugh (b. 1732) was an Irish-born officer in the British army during the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. Serving as Adjutant for the 44th Regiment of Foot, Keugh wrote Report of British Officer to His Majesty from Camp at German Town 28th of Setptemr. 1777, which chronicles the Philadelphia campaign of 1777, including descriptions of the Battles of Brandywine, Paoli and Germantown.

Sarah Franklin Bache (1743-1808), a Revolutionary War patriot and daughter of Benjamin Franklin, led an active public life according to the standards of womanhood in the late eighteenth century. As the daughter of Benjamin Franklin she had an unusual access, for a woman, to the political life in revolutionary Philadelphia. Although her primary role was of caretaker of her family and home, Bache played an active role in the Revolution through her relief work and as her father's political hostess. The Sarah Franklin Bache papers consist of incoming and outgoing correspondence ranging from 1768 to 1807 mostly of a personal nature to and from friends and relatives. The correspondence of her relatives includes her nephew William Temple Franklin, her brother William Franklin and her children.

An extensive family collection, the Vaux Family Papers center around the lives of George Vaux V (1721-1803), George Vaux VII (1779-1836), and George Vaux VIII (1832-1915), their business partners, siblings, wives, and children, and encompasses the extended Vaux family of Warders, Sansoms, Heads, Graffs, Morrises, Cressons, and Mayberrys. The collection includes correspondence, financial accounts, receipts, business records, journals, diaries, photographs, and legal documents.

Founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin, the American Philosophical Society was the first learned society in the United States. For over 250 years, the Society has played an important role in American cultural and intellectual life. Until the mid-nineteenth century, the Society fulfilled the role of a national academy of science, national library and museum, and even patent office. Early members of the Society included Thomas Jefferson, David Rittenhouse, Benjamin Rush, Stephen Peter Du Ponceau, George Washington, and many other figures prominent in American history. The Archives of the American Philosophical Society consists of 192.25 linear feet of material, organized into thirteen record groups dating back to 1743. The Society's archives extensively documents not only the organization's historical development but also its role in American history and the history of science and technology.

One of the oldest houses in Philadelphia, Wyck is now a non-profit museum listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Nine generations of the Jansen-Wistar-Haines family owned the Wyck property from 1690 until 1973. The last family owner deeded 2.5 acres of land, the house and its contents, several outbuildings, a landscaped garden, and a small endowment to the Wyck Charitable Trust. The Wyck Charitable Trust and the Wyck Association now administer the preservation of the property and its educational services to the public. This collection contains diaries, letters, accounts, bills and receipts, deeds, and photographs. The collection as a whole is deepest for the period 1770-1970. Items of particular note include accounts of household expenses at Wyck from ca. 1790-1970; papers pertaining to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Quaker schools, and social reform groups; agricultural and horticultural practices; and correspondence to and from cultural leaders of 18th and 19th century Philadelphia. The papers of the John S. Haines family (Ms. Coll. 52A) form part of the Wyck Papers. The papers cover the years 1845 to 1949 and are arranged into eight series.