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Christ Church Philadelphia

Repository ID: 0034 | Metadata type: TEI

Documents from Christ Church Philadelphia

Licensing

Images

Unless otherwise stated, all images and their contents from Christ Church hosted here are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for more information on terms of use:

Metadata

Unless otherwise stated, to the extent possible under law, Christ Church has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to its metadata hosted here. This work is published in the United States. For a summary of CC0 see:

Legal code:

Intended Users

The data presented on OPenn is intended for aggregators, digital humanists, and scholars who have been directed here to procure high-resolution images and their associated metadata. It is presented in a manner most likely to ensure its long-term digital preservation.

About Christ Church

Founded in 1695, Christ Church was the first Anglican church to be established in Pennsylvania. This fulfilled the provision outlined by King Charles II in the charter he granted to William Penn in 1681 stipulating that if twenty individuals requested an Anglican clergyman the Bishop of London would appoint one. Accordingly, thirty-nine Philadelphians came together in 1695 to form Christ Church. Located on Second Street, just north of Market Street the Church transitioned from a small frame structure in its early years to the imposing Georgian structure built from 1727-1754 that still stands on the site today. Members of the Continental Congress and early government officials worshipped here and seven signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried on Church property. When the congregation grew too large to be accommodated here the vestry built St. Peter's at the southern edge of the city in 1760 and later St. James. Those United Churches remained a unit until the 1820s and 1830s. Christ Church is an active Episcopal parish today as well as a major historic site.

The records consist of vestry minutes, parish records, accounting and financial records, deeds, architectural drawings, photographs, and audiovisual materials. In addition, there are materials from parish organizations and affiliated institutions such as Christ Church Hospital, Episcopal School, Christ Church Burial Ground, and Christ Church Preservation Trust. A detailed finding aid is available on-site.

OPenn includes some of the items from Christ Church. For more information on all available collections see:

Image standards and specifications

The materials from Christ Church on OPenn were scanned as part of a CLIR-funded project to digitize the early records of Philadelphia’s oldest congregations. Materials were digitized at the Regional Digital Imaging Center of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia.

Image specifications

Archival masters are at least 300 ppi 24-bit color uncompressed TIFF images. Most images are scanned at 600 ppi. Archival images have been cropped and rotated, but have not been sharpened or color adjusted. The images use the AdobeRGB profile.

Imaging and processing equipment

Book Scanner: BookEye 4 V1A Professional

Overhead Scanner: Cruse CS 220 ST

The documents on OPenn

 Hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Libraries