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DO NOT USE THE REQUEST BUTTON AT THE TOP OF ASSET PAGES;
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ANY OF OUR MATERIALS, PLEASE CONTACT THE ARCHIVE DIRECTLY TO SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT (contact information below).

"The Fairmount Park Historic Resource Archives documents the historic resources of Fairmount Park, a division of the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation (PPR) Department. The Parks and Recreation Department was established in 2010 through the merger of two city agencies: the Fairmount Park Commission, which was created in 1867 to oversee the city's parks, and the Department of Recreation. They document Fairmount Park land, parks, recreational sites, buildings, historic sites, and artifacts, as well as programs and projects related to those resources. The collection includes materials in a variety of formats largely dating from the mid 19th century to the present. Most of the collections consist of maps, blueprints, drawings, and plans that document the Fairmount Park System's architectural and landscape history, in particular, its five watershed parks: Fairmount Park, Wissahickon Valley Park, Cobbs Creek Park, Tacony Creek Park, and Pennypack Park. Notably, the collection also contains hundreds of original architectural and landscape drawings from the 1876 Centennial Exposition that was held in Fairmount Park, as well as a significant amount of photographs, prints, and negatives that document the history of the park system. Reference files, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, and annual reports offer supporting documentation." (As Described by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.)

The Archive grew out of the working documents of former Fairmount Park Commission staff and engineers. Its estimated number of archival documents is over 10,000. The collection was slowly built over a twenty-year period by the long-time park historian John McIlhenny, as well as by former Recreation Department staff members. The Archive is especially important in understanding the architectural and landscape resources of the park system. Most notably, the collection contains hundreds of original architectural and landscape drawings from the 1876 Centennial Exposition held in Fairmount Park.

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YOU CAN FIND THE FOLLOWING TYPES OF DOCUMENTS IN THE ARCHIVE:

Books: Primary and secondary source information that ranges from general park department information to specific site information.

Current Reports: Working management documents such as historic structure reports, cultural landscape studies, archaeological studies, and planning documents.

Fairmount Park Commission Annual Reports: Documentation of the yearly actions of the Fairmount Park Commission from 1869-1998 (collection excludes the years 1900-1912 and 1998-present when no reports were written).

Department of Recreation Annual Reports: Copies of selected excerpts from 1952-1967 Department of Recreation Annual Reports along with various books, guides, and manuals from the early 20th-century detailing recreational development within the city.

Fairmount Park Art Association Annual Reports: Documentation of the yearly actions of this important sister organization and a significant portion of the sculpture history of the park.

Fairmount Park Engineering Records: 230 field survey books, 20 engineering journals, 25 daily log journals kept by senior engineers, and hundreds of pieces of correspondence relating to land acquisition providing unprecedented information about the initial formation of one of the country’s oldest and largest urban parks.

History Files: Book excerpts, brochures, correspondence, genealogies, newspaper clippings, reports, specifications, and studies that document the history of sites and activities within the Philadelphia park system.

Sculpture Files: Documentation and photographs of public art within the park system.

Photographs and Prints: Engravings, lithographs, paintings, photographs, postcards, stereo-views, slides, and other types of print that aid in the understanding or documentation of property within the park system.

Maps and Drawings: 3,000+ original drawings, blue prints, blue lines, Mylars, photo-lithographs, reproductions and tracings of elevations, maps, plans, renderings, sketches, topographical plans, etc. that document the acquisition and development of property within the park system and surrounding areas.

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ArchivesSpace's search engine utilizes Boolean operators to refine results. The main search box uses OR as a search operator.

OTHER AVAILABLE OPERATORS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

OR or | ................................................. Must contain any word

AND or + or & ...................................... Must contain all words

NOT or ! ............................................... Must not contain specific word

AND NOT or ^ ..................................... Must not contain specific multiple words

"" .......................................................... Must contain the exact phrase

~ .......................................................... Terms must be within specified number of words

? .......................................................... Single character wildcard

* ........................................................... Multiple character wildcard

USING PARENTHESES

You can group search strings with parentheses. For example, the search string cats and (dogs or fish) finds topics with the words cats and dogs, cats and fish, or all three words.
Parentheses can be nested too, as in cats and (not dogs (fish or kittens)). When parentheses are nested, the inner-most set of parentheses is evaluated first, followed by the next set, and so on. In the previous example, the search results includes topics with the words cats and fish or cats and kittens. Topics with the words fish or kittens do not include the word dogs; however, dogs might appear in topics where only the word cats was used.

The Fairmount Park Historic Resources Archive is open 10am-4pm, Mon-Fri. (Times subject to change) Research by appointment only.