Consortium

Since 2004, a consortium of Philadelphia historical institutions has provided SHEAR with its first permanent home. These institutions now include the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and Temple University. The Journal of the Early Republic has also moved to Philadelphia and is published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. Related administrative changes have enhanced the society’s routine operations and support an expanded mission for SHEAR.

American Philosophical Society

http://www.amphilsoc.org/

An eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, the American Philosophical Society promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and community outreach. This country’s first learned society, the APS has played an important role in American cultural and intellectual life for over 250 years.

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

http://www.hsp.org

Founded in 1824 in Philadelphia, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is one of the oldest historical societies in the United States and holds many national treasures. HSP’s building, listed on the City of Philadelphia’s Register of Historic Places, houses some 600,000 printed items and over 19 million manuscript and graphic items. HSP is one of the largest family history libraries in the nation, has preeminent printed collections on Pennsylvania and regional history, and offers superb manuscript collections renowned for their strength in 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century history. With the addition of the holdings of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies in 2002, HSP has become a chief center for the documentation and study of the ethnic communities and immigrant experiences shared by people whose American history began more recently—between the late nineteenth century and our own times. Together these holdings, old and new, make the HSP one of the nation’s most important special collections libraries—a center of historical documentation and study, education, and engagement.

The Library Company of Philadelphia

http://www.librarycompany.org

The Library Company of Philadelphia is a non-profit independent research library with collections documenting every aspect of the history and background of American culture from the colonial period to the end of the nineteenth century. A collection of national importance, its holdings number approximately half a million printed volumes in a wide variety of formats; 75,000 graphics, 160,000 manuscripts, and a small but distinguished collection of early American art and artifacts.

McNeil Center for Early American Studies

http://www.mceas.org

Established as the Philadelphia Center for Early American Studies in 1978, and renamed in 1998 in honor of its benefactor, Robert L. McNeil, Jr., the MCEAS facilitates scholarly inquiry into the histories and cultures of North America in the Atlantic world before 1850, with a particular but by no means exclusive emphasis on the mid-Atlantic region.

Temple University

http://www.temple.edu/history/

Temple’s history department includes over 40 faculty members, 400 History majors, and more than 100 M.A. and Ph.D. students. They train executives, lawyers, politicians, educators, preservationists, and tomorrow’s historians. Rich regional resources and acclaimed research centers ensure Temple a prominent voice in global conversations about the past.