Welcome to our new online Collections Gallery. This will be an evolving collection of archives and information that will provide an outline of what is at your access at the Heritage Museum.

Highlights of the archives and library collections, with their
respective call numbers in parentheses, include the following:

Archives and Manuscripts (MSS and MSS/PF):
Personal, family, and business papers and records, including
ledgers, correspondence, diaries, drawings, scrapbooks, social
invitations and programs, passports and immigration materials,
financial and business records, and legal papers. These materials
are all cataloged and open to the public, although some restrictions
may apply due to the fragile nature of such items.

Photographs (PHOB and PHOTO):

Allentown, Lehigh County, Lehigh Valley; industry, portraits, landscapes, buildings, streets, farms, events (circa 1860-present). William R. Zwikl Collection: landscapes, events, buildings; Hess's Department Store events and celebrities; political, theater, television, and sports figures; artists and their works; historic sites. Dick Mantz, Morning Call newspaper photographer: press photos, including sporting, news, and holiday events. Bernard and Ralph Metzger portrait photography, 1923-1986. Hess's Department Store Collection, 1898-1994.

Architectural and Technical Drawings:
Drawings by the architectural firm of Ruhe and Lange,
circa 1900-1920; drawings by miscellaneous firms; blueprints
of public buildings and residences; railroad drawings;
engineering drawings of roads, bridges, and railroads.

Church and Cemetery Records (284.1):
Over 800 volumes of baptismal, burial, pastoral and cemetery
records for Lehigh and neighboring counties; approximately
300 volumes for Lehigh County. Over 250 baptismal certificates
(including fraktur), late 1700s through the early 1900s, indexed.
For a list of our Lehigh County holdings, see the Church Records
section of our website.

County Records:
The library serves as repository for many of the county's early
records. Of particular interest are the Orphans Court, tax, and
prison records. Orphans Court records, with index, 1815-1915.
Lehigh County tax records, 1813-1817, 1835, late 1840s-1970s.
Prison records: 1869-1912, 1916-1917, 1926-1930, 1938-1939,
partial index. Through the support of the Pennsylvania Historical
and Museum Commission, the LCHS has been able to catalog
our early county records holdings and microfilm the early tax records.

European Church and Legal Records for
Germanic Families (929.4):
Gerhard Hein: Church and legal records of Alsace (Hirschland,
Diedendorf, Drulingen, Rauweiler, Sieweiler, Gorlingen, Hangweiler,
Kirberg, Burbach, Lixheim, & Pisdorf). Rudi Jung: Familienbuch
der Evangelische Pfarrei Wolfersweiler und ihrer Filialen. Ella
Gieg: Auswanderungen aus dem Odenwaldkreis.

Compiled Family Histories (929.2):
Over 800 volumes.

Newspapers (microfilm):
Local German- and English-language newspapers,
1812-1919. Welt Bote, 1854-1916.

Vital Records (microfilm; card index):

Marriage records, 1885-1961, indexed (microfilm). Marriage and obituary announcements of five newspapers (Allentown Democrat, Unabhaengiger Republikaner, Der Friedens Bote, Macungie Progress, Lecha Bote) have been indexed in English for the years 1812 through 1873.

City Directories (917.482): Allentown, 1860-current.

Wills (microfilm; 929.3):
Wills and estate records, 1812-1916, indexed (microfilm).
543 wills, 1812-1890, translated from the German Sitterlin
script by Lewis W. Donat (929.3).

Land Records:
Approximately 1,550 deeds, surveys, and warrants, dating from
the mid-1700s through the mid-1800s, partially indexed.

Military records (929.3):
Lehigh County Veterans Grave Registrations.

Immigration and Ship Lists:

(323.6 LEH) Lehigh County Naturalization Index, 1812-1881. (929.4 F P) Passenger and immigration lists, ed. by P. William Filby, volumes 1-3 and supplements 1982-1987.

Census Records
(REF 929.2; microfilm; compact disc):
Federal records for Lehigh and Northampton Counties,
1790-1920; indexed for the years 1790-1870. Records
for other neighboring counties, depending on the year.

Maps (912 and MPD):

Draft of the original surveys in Lehigh County, 1816 (drawn by Isaac Chapman from the draft and notes of James Scull, formerly deputy surveyor), indexed by name of property holder. Map of Lehigh County from original surveys by G.A. Aschbach, 1862. Atlas of Lehigh County, 1876. Sanborn fire insurance maps for areas of Lehigh (Allentown, Catasauqua, Slatington, Egypt, and Cementon) and Northampton Counties (1885-1927).

Published Histories (974.827):

History of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania and a genealogical and biographical record of its families by Charles Rhoads Roberts et al. (Allentown, 1914); surname index. History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by Alfred Mathews and Austin Hungerford (1884). History of the Lehigh Valley by M.S. Henry (1860). More recent histories published for the Lehigh County townships of Lynn, Weisenberg, Lower Macungie, Upper Milford, Lower Milford, North Whitehall, South Whitehall, Upper Saucon, and Salisbury; as well as for Allentown, Coplay, Catasauqua, Alburtis, Emmaus, Coopersburg, and Slatington. Edward W. Schlecter Collection of biographies (archival boxes in the shelf above the REF books). Proceedings of the Lehigh County Historical Society, 1906-1996, author/title and partial subject index (906 REF) .

Pennsylvania German Studies:

(974.8 PA) Pennsylvania Archives (974.8 PGFS) Pennsylvania Folklife Society publications (974.8 PG) Pennsylvania German Society publications (929.4 PS T) Pennsylvania German pioneers by Raph Beaver Strassburger and William John Hinke (1934)