Corporate Archives of Society Accessible to Online Researchers
The HCHS Archives team is pleased to announce that the Hunterdon County Historical Society Corporate Archives are now open for online researchers. This is a large body of records created by the Society itself as part of our normal operating and governing procedures. The bulk of the collection covers the years from 1885 to the early 1970’s.
This collection comprises a portion of the corporate record of the Hunterdon County Historical Society. Essentially, it is the archive and the history of the organization itself. It includes the Society’s foundational documents, by-laws, constitutions, minutes, reports, finances, and filings. It also includes historical papers, speeches, presentations, acquisition records, special projects, and photographs. The collection records the foundation, growth, activities, and debates of the Society.
It is unlikely that all of the records in the collection would be of interest to scholars or genealogists, but there are certain segments of it that have historical import beyond the organization itself. Historical researchers will find the Papers Read before the Society to be of great interest. These are historical research reports and essays on various topics that were presented during the early years of the Society’s biannual meetings. There are also records of the Society’s historic sites inventory of the 1960’s, and some interesting scrapbooks.
Genealogists may find interesting nuggets in the Society’s earlier years of correspondence, as much of it tended to be genealogical in nature. Also, there is a small collection of photographs of the interior and exterior of the Doric House from 1947 to 1982.
It is important to note that this is what archivists term an “open-ended” collection; meaning that more material will be added to the collection as time for processing it allows. There are still a large number of boxes of Society records that need to be processed!
Download the Container List | Download the Collection Detail