The Patricia Lennon Archives Center will be closed, on Saturday, May 18, and Saturday, May 25, 2024.
However, the Archives Center will be open for its regular hours on Thursday, May 16, and Thursday, May 23. Full regular operating hours (including Saturdays) will resume on Thursday, May 30.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact the archivist with any questions you might have.
Over the past few months, two important HSH projects have been in development.
The first of these is a guide to items in the Patricia Lennon Archives Center that pertain to African American and Black history. Dana Dorman, our previous archivist, had identified numerous relevant documents in the PLAC collections; we are now arranging these documents by material type, including some explanatory and framing material, and adding links to external resources. We’re working hard to put the finishing touches on this and plan to launch it in the last week of this February. Once launched, the page will not be a static resource but updated as we find or acquire new archival documents.
If you’re a society member or on our mailing list, you will already have read a little about the second project in our newsletter’s recent issues. For our second project, and thanks to the generous support of the Haddonfield Foundation and the Rotary Club of Haddonfield Foundation, we have been able to send four important archival documents to conservators at the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) in Philadelphia.
These four documents have special significance for us at the Historical Society of Haddonfield and in Haddonfield more generally. All four relate to the ownership of property on the lot that we now call Library Point, which belonged in the early nineteenth century to Attee Leeman—the first known African American property owner in the Borough and a charter member of the Fire Company when it was reincorporated in 1811. The four documents are the legal agreements for Mr. Leeman taking ownership of the property, his mortgage, and the transfer of property after his death. You can read more about Mr. Leeman in Muneerah Higgs and Shamele Jordon’s African American Haddonfield History Cards, published in 2022 (and if you don’t have your own copy, you can find one in our Pamphlet Collection under Pam 974.9 H No. 292)—and you can read more about the house in which Mr. Leeman lived and its eventual location in Helen Stevens Mountney’s Haddonfield on the Move (there are copies at the Patricia Lennon Archives Center and in our online store). Now the location of Haddonfield Public Library (and once also of the Historical Society), Library Point has remained an important site of cultural heritage for the Borough.
Both projects are part of our commitment to African American and Black history as an important part of Haddonfield’s history. Not only have these projects been in development for many months (even years) but we believe that these projects will be important for anyone researching African American and Black history in Haddonfield and the wider Camden County area—both in Black History Month and beyond.
The Patricia Lennon Archives Center will be closed, next Saturday (November 18, 2023). Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this closure may cause.
The Archives Center will resume normal opening hours, on Saturday, November 25. As always, please do not hesitate to contact the archivist with any questions you might have or with requests to schedule a research visit outside of our regular opening hours.
Starting in the first week of October, there will be two significant changes to the way we do things at the Patricia Lennon Archives Center.
First, for a trial period, we are changing the Archives Center’s opening hours. As of Monday, October 2, the new opening times will be:
We hope that the new Saturday opening hours will make it easier for people to come in and access the collections. Please note that, as before, researchers may (and we encourage them to) email the archivist, if they would like to schedule a visit outside the posted times.
Second, in line with many other historical societies, we will be introducing a fee structure for our research services for people who are unable to visit the Archives Center in person. We will post a detailed schedule on the Archives Center’s web pages soon but, in short, non-members who need people to research topics on their behalf can hire PLAC staff at the rate of $15 for every half hour.
The good news is that, as a benefit of their annual membership, HSH members are eligible for two hours of research time every year and a members’ special rate of $5 for research time for every half hour thereafter.
And, of course, whether you are a member or not, there is still no charge for “in person” visits to the Archives Center and its collections.
