Centre County
Special Collection materials on Centre County, Pennsylvania, include a wide variety of types of documentation that offer many perspectives on the history and culture of the region.
Topographical map of Centre County, Pennsylvania, 1861. Special Collections Library, University Libraries, The Pennsylvania State University.
Personal and Family Papers
Collections of personal and family papers within Special Collections which relate to the history of Centre County, Pennsylvania, include:
Personal papers
- Paul Dubbs Papers (00240)The papers of this Centre County journalist include his articles and publications as well as reference materials and correspondence related to the history of Centre County.
- Henry W. Popp papers (01747)This collection of the papers of Henry W. Popp (1892-1989), a Penn State alumnus and botany professor who collected historical documents as an avocation, contains a variety of maps, daybooks, order books, sheet music, ledger books, photographs, stamp and postal account books, sales ledgers, handwritten dictionaries, and newspapers reflecting life in Centre County, Pennsylvania, during the nineteenth century.
Family papers
- Hale and Mull Families Papers [microfilm] (01582)This collection of 17 reels of microfilm documents the personal and business affairs of the interrelated Hale and Mull families of Philipsburg (Centre County), Pennsylvania. Materials include correspondence; financial, legal and military papers; diaries; journals; and photographs including Dauguerreotypes.
Government and Legal Records
Notable collections of Centre County government and court documents include:
- Centre County, Pa., court documents, 1792-1869 (bulk 1860-1869)This collection consists of a variety of legal papers, possibly part of a lawyer's files, in Centre County, Pennsylvania, court cases.
- Centre County, Pennsylvania execution dockets, 1894-1897This collection contains three cloth-bound handwritten volumes detailing the execution of judgments levied against real estate and personal property in civil cases in Centre County, Pennsylvania, during the term of county sheriff John P. Condo.
- Centre County records and collected reference publications from Pennsylvania State University, Institute of Local Government (00159)This collection consists primarily of serial publications, planning documents, and photocopies of property tax rolls.
Centre County land patents, indentures, and property deeds are cataloged individually and can be found with a simple keyword search for "Centre County land" in
- LionSearch This link opens in a new windowan integrated search of books, e-books, research articles, newspaper articles, and other publications.
Other Collections of Interest
Other collections of interest include ephemera on businesses and industries, maps, drawings of historic buildings, and digitized coies of the Penn State student-run newspaper The Collegian and the obituaries index from the local newspaper The Centre Daily Times.
- Centre County businesses and industries collection (00160)This collection documents businesses and industries in the Centre County, Pennsylvania, region through brochures, catalogs, clippings, directories, guides, programs, and other ephemera.
- Howard Lawrence collection of Centre County maps and drawings of historic buildings (00562)This collection contains drawings by Professor Lawrence's first year architecture students of historic buildings in Centre County, Pennsylvania, accompanied by historical maps of townships in the County.
Digital Collections:
- Atlas of Centre County, 1874The atlas features maps based on surveys of Centre County communities.
- Centre Daily Times Obituaries Index, 1937-2014The index lists obituaries published in the local newspaper, The Centre Daily Times.
- Daily CollegianThe Penn State student-run newspaper that became a weekly in 1911 and a daily in 1940 has been digitized to 2010. It is a rich resource for information on student life and on town and gown.