Moravian Historical Society Archival Resources

Moravian Historical Society is proud to provide this online resource of the Henry Family Collection to the public. The Henry Family Collection contains some 450 unique items, including letters, lectures, and unpublished research. One particularly interesting object—previously unknown—is a substantial manuscript, with nearly fifty chapters, that examines Nazareth from the first settlers’ arrival to the community’s response in 1800 to George Washington’s death and Charles Gotthold Reichel’s retirement in 1802 from Nazareth Hall.

A Historical & Archives Records Care (HARC) grant from the Pennsylvania Museum and Historical Commission made this project possible.

In 2022, the Moravian Historical Society was able to expand this work with funding from the American Historical Association’s Grants to Sustain and Advance the Work of Historical Organizations Program, which provides relief to institutions adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This opportunity was made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. This grant has enabled us to expand our digital resources and new collections will be added on an ongoing basis.

Highlights from the Online Archival Collection:

Henry Family Letters

Correspondence between members of the Henry family, especially between John Woolf Jordan and James Henry and his son Granville Henry. Many of these letters discuss genealogical information relating to the Henry family.

William Henry I

William Henry I (1729-1786), a successful gunsmith, merchant, and important patriot during the Revolutionary War of Lancaster, PA.

Boulton Gun Works

Records relating to the Henry Family's Gun Works at Boulton.

Civil War News

Newspaper clipping about the U.S. Civil War.

Moravian Historical Society Annual Lectures

The Moravian Newspaper

Nazareth Hall

Nazareth in the Eighteenth Century Paper

A collection of essays about the Moravians of Nazareth, PA in the 18th century.