Historic Houses of Fairmount Park

A 1931 museum publication including exterior and interior photography and short essays on aspects of Mount Pleasant's history and decor.

Pamphlet including concise histories of historic houses: Lemon Hill, Mount Pleasant, Laurel Hill, Woodford, Strawberry Mansion, Cedar Grove, and Sweetbriar.

This small collection contains news clippings and ephemera about the park houses and other historic sites in Fairmount Park. The collection gives a concise overview of the histories of sites listed and is a good starting point for research.

Martha Crary Halpern was Assistant Curator of the Park Houses from the early 1990s to 2004. The bulk of this research collection is comprised of subject files related to Fairmount Park and its historic houses, Philadelphia history, and 19th and 18th century society and domestic life.

The "Park Houses and Other Historic Structures" series documents in varying degrees each of the seven colonial homes situated in Fairmount Park. There is correspondence and an inventory for each of the homes, except Laurel Hill, as well as folders documenting the special events and tours.

Fiske Kimball (1885–1955) was director of the museum from 1925 to 1955, during which the museum took an active role in the restoration of many of the historic houses in Fairmount Park.

This collection is primarily photographic in nature.These images document the building and its furnishings, establishing the way it would have looked in the late nineteenth-century.

Documents in this collection pertain to Sweetbriar Mansion in Fairmount Park. The collection includes material from 1841 to 1928.

The departmental files document the work of the American Art department, as well as related activities from the 1960s that predate its formal establishment.

This artificial collection is made up material that was formerly in curatorial departments. This material is important in that it casts light on American works of art in the collection.