William Penn Charter School archives

The William Penn Charter School archives contain the financial, corporate, historical and social records of the school, dating from 1611-1992. The collection illuminates the history and traditions of the William Penn Charter School. The collection is broken into ten series: corporation records books, legal papers, corporation papers, Overseers’ correspondence, faculty correspondence, school history, pictures, published books, school publications, and objects.

The corporation records books series contains twelve volumes of minutes from Overseers’ meetings dating from 1712-1969. The minutes contain information on the day to day governance of the school and document the school’s vision and mission for over two and a half centuries.

The legal papers series contains deeds and leases for plots of land that the William Penn Charter School acquired or sold from the late 1600s until the 1900s, a highlight being deeds from William Penn. The series also contains legal documents related to benefactors’ legacies.

The corporation papers series contains lists of Overseers, treasurers’ reports, school inspector reports, and a sub-series of nearly one hundred teachers’ accounts- a good source of genealogical material marked with the teacher’s name, dates of employment, pay rate and notes.

The Overseers’ correspondence series dates from 1725-1912 and documents the moving of the school from 12th and Market streets in center city Philadelphia to Germantown amongst other school governance matters. Overseers supervised what is now Penn Charter and also oversaw all of the select schools in the City.

The faculty correspondence series includes the correspondence of headmasters Richard M. Jones and Richard M. Gummere to faculty and staff.

The school history series holds a variety of documents, including instructions to teachers, surveys of school scholars, lists of school library books, autographs of David Webster and John Quincy Adams, and school histories published by William Penn Charter School, amongst many other ephemeral documents.

The pictures series contains photographs and illustrations of a variety of school matters including class photos, overseer photos, athletic events, and school life.

The published book series contains early books from the William Penn Charter School’s library, most published in the 1700s and 1800s. The books are a mix of religious and secular children’s books, along with instruction books for grammar, geography, natural history, mathematics, and latin.

The school publications series includes copies of several school newspapers and magazines. The yearly school catalogs from 1900-1946 document the evolution of the academics offered at Penn Charter through the first half of the 20th century.

The objects series contains a sundial and commemorative medals and coins from William Penn’s arrival in America.