Collection Development Policy

The Catholic Historical Research Center collects printed materials, manuscript collections, and audiovisual materials relating to the history of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. These materials include the records of numerous Archdiocesan offices, the official correspondence of all of the bishops and archbishops of Philadelphia up to the present, as well as records from the 41st International Eucharistic Congress held in Philadelphia in 1976 and Pope John Paul II’s visit in October 1979. Archdiocesan records also include the sacramental registers of those parishes located within the present Archdiocese since their founding.

CHRC also houses the collections of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, as well as some records from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. ACHS records include printed, visual, and ephemeral materials that document institutions, associations, societies, religious orders, and parishes located within the Archdiocese as well as those of other dioceses located in the Mid-Atlantic region. The ACHS collection also includes 19th and 20th- century Catholic newspapers, journals, and pamphlets published throughout the United States, as well as the manuscripts of prominent Catholic clergy and laity. Other published materials in the collection include catechisms, devotional works, liturgical books, and sacred music.

CHRC’s image collection contains photographs and other visual materials documenting Catholic clergy, laity, and institutions of the Archdiocese. Two notable collections include the Packard and Butler lithograph collection as well as the Robert and Theresa Halvey Photograph Collection. The latter collection includes 100,000 photographs (including negatives) that Robert Halvey took for the Catholic Standard & Times, the official Archdiocesan newspaper, from 1935 to 1999 as well as photographs for Catholic institutions that Halvey took as a freelance photographer.

The object collection is largely comprised of Catholic artifacts, and includes the Cardinal Krol Memorabilia Collection.

In order to support study of the collections, CHRC maintains a library with both reference and research materials, including Archdiocesan and National Catholic directories, Philadelphia City directories, and encyclopedias. Secondary sources include scholarship relating to the history of Catholicism in the United States as well as social and cultural histories of the various ethnicities that shaped the American Catholic Church.

CHRC does not actively collect non-institutional records, but welcomes donations of print and non-print materials related to Catholicism in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia as long as access to these records is not significantly restricted.

Access to American Catholic Historical Society collections is practically unlimited and major portions of the Seminary and Archdiocesan materials are open to researchers. Access restrictions to Seminary and Archdiocesan records apply to all unpublished materials after 1920; however, these materials may be opened to researchers with special permission.

DONATIONS

In addition to serving as the archives of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the CHRC also collects the records of area Catholic parishes, schools, institutions, organizations, associations and individuals. The types of records we are interested in include financial, administrative and legal records, parish histories, minute books, letters, journals and diaries, scrapbooks, photographs, artifacts, books, pamphlets and other materials that pertain to the history, development and practice of the Catholic Church in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

If you are interested in donating materials to the CHRC, please contact Patrick Shank, Archivist, first to identify which items are appropriate for preservation and to arrange transfer of the materials.

Catholic Historical Research Center (CHRC)
of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia

6719 Calvert Street
Philadelphia, Pa 19149
Phone: (215)-904-8149
Email: archives@chrc-phila.org