The
Horner Library and Reading Room
The Joseph P. Horner Memorial
Library is both a
lending library and a research facility, housed in an original 1888
reading room built for that purpose and recently restored by the
Society. The library houses more than 70,000 volumes,
three-quarters are in German. It is considered the
largest
private collection of German books in the United States
(outside
of universities).
Hours of Operation
Mondays, 10:00am-4:00pm
Tuesdays, 10:00am-4:00pm
Occasionally,
our Librarian is engaged with school groups or meetings, so we strongly
encourage you to email or call
ahead before stopping
by.
If
you would
like to visit the Library or have an inquiry about our collections,
please email librarian at germansociety dot org.
Lending Library
Society members can borrow books, audio
cassette tapes, and videos from a portion of the Library's holdings.
While many of the Library's older books, particularly those published
before 1917, no longer circulate, visitors may access them on-site with
the assistance of Society personnel.
The Library also houses an extensive collection of German-American
newspapers, particularly those published in Philadelphia, going back to
the 18th and 19th centuries.
Research Library and German-American Archive
Many of the Library's older books,
originally collected
for the Lending Library, have become of particular value to scholars.
Some books are no longer found elsewhere, while a larger
number
are now found in only a handful of libraries around the world.
The German-American Archive, begun in 1867, holds a wealth of
documents relating to German life in America, reaching back to the
earliest German settlement in 1683 in Germantown, PA, now a part of the
city of Philadelphia.
The following guide provides a detailed overview of the library's
collections, and can be downloaded here in pdf format: The German Society of Pennsylvania: A Guide
to its Book and Manuscript Collections, by Kevin Ostoyich
(Washington, DC: German Historical Institute, 2006; Reference Guide
20). The guide is especially valuable as an introduction to our
manuscript holdings, which are not yet represented in our online
catalog.
Researchers wishing to use the Archives may also do so by
emailing the Librarian at librarian at germansociety dot org..
Genealogy
Unfortunately, the Library and Archives do
not maintain genealogical or family history records. We
encourage you, instead, to contact the Genealogical Society of
Pennsylvania or other Philadelphia archives for your research.
Or, you can view a pdf of our genealogy
resources.
German
Society of Pennsylvania
611 Spring Garden Street
Philadelphia, PA 19123
(P) 215-627-2332
(F) 215-627-5297
