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Lutheran Archives Center at Philadelphia

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Lutheran Archives Center at Philadelphia

Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Lutheran Archives Center at Philadelphia, Nonprofit Organization, 7301 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA.

The Lutheran Archives Center at Philadelphia, founded in 1792, is the Northeast Regional Archives (Region 7) for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

06/06/2026

Happy National Swedish Day! The Lutheran Archives Center is home to hundreds of documents and objects relating to the history of Swedish Lutherans in America. Many documents came to us from the former Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church, founded by Swedish immigrants in the Midwest in the 1800s. Among the scores of Swedish-language sermons, theological texts, and newspapers are multiple copies of “Det Rätta Hemlandet och Augustana” stretching back to 1870. This periodical began in 1856, when Swedish Lutheran minister, immigrant, and newspaper publisher Tuve Hasselquist began publishing “Det Rätta Hemlandet” ("The True Homeland”) in Galesburg, Illinois. The publication featured hymns, sermons, religious articles, and reports on missionary work. In 1869, “Det Rätta Hemlandet” merged with “Augustana,” another of Hasselquist’s religious publications, and became “Rätta Hemlandet och Augustana.” The January 1870 edition, pictured below, opens with a sermon from the editor reflecting on the advancement of time and different perspectives on the future.

05/29/2026

We are all set up for Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA), ELCA assembly! Our archivists will be at the table all day tomorrow giving out some freebies, sharing exciting updates about our digitization projects and forthcoming membership program, and selling books and other merchandise along with Historic Trappe
Stop by and say hello or if you have a question about archiving your congregation's records, we're happy to help!

05/26/2026

GUEST POST: Virginia “Ginny” Baer Ebersole, historian, archivist, chronicler, and steward and guardian of The Lutheran Orphans’ Home in Berks County, PA, will be recognized with a special exhibit at 2 p.m. on Thursday, May 28, in the Rotunda Dining Room of the Lutheran Home at Topton.

Ginny lived at the Home as a child and then again in her older years when it became the Lutheran Home at Topton, an older adult Life Plan Community. She devoted her life to preserving its history, leaving behind a legacy of historical artifacts, photos, newsletters, magazines, and furniture from the Home. Ginny’s friend, Brenda Hensinger will do a short presentation with refreshments to follow. The event is open to the community.

Ginny left extensive archives that are being reviewed for future exhibits, such as the Home’s large newsletter collection, including the first issue of “The Orphans’ Home Paper” published in January 1897. Kutztown University is partnering with EverTrue Lutheran Home at Topton as a teaching site, with history intern Azim Edens helping organize and catalogue the Home’s archives.

05/24/2026

Lutherans worldwide are observing Pentecost today, May 24, marking the 49th day after Easter. In our latest installment of Memories of Old Zion, we’re highlighting three copies of a 1793 pamphlet gifted to St.Michael’s and Zion Lutheran Church, titled “Ein Geschenk für die Kinder, or “A Gift for the Children.” The pamphlets contain several songs for celebrating Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and Pfingstfest, or Pentecost. The Philadelphia congregation built a German schoolhouse in 1761, and these pamphlets may have been used by children attending either the parochial school or singing school run by the church.

05/23/2026

On May 23, 1779, Lutheran pastor Henry Muhlenberg Jr., then ministering to Philadelphia’s German Lutheran congregation, sent a letter to an unknown recipient. Written in German, the first part of the letter summarizes the latest news of the war, including the burning of several Virginia towns by the British and a recent resolution passed by the Continental Congress to raise money in silver. The second part of the letter requests advice on a conflict that arose in the Philadelphia congregation following the re-election of Christopher Kunze, Muhlenberg’s brother-in-law and fellow pastor, as rector or senior pastor. In the letter, Muhlenberg muses that the problem could be addressed if his father, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, returned to serve as rector. The elder Muhlenberg had formally resigned from the position earlier that same year 1779, after having left Philadelphia in 1776 to escape the rising tensions. Henry Muhlenberg Jr. frequently visited his father’s retirement home in Trappe during the early years of the war and sought refuge there with his family after the British captured Philadelphia in September 1777.

05/22/2026

On May 22, 1777, Henry Muhlenberg was the target of a terrible rumor! Read on to find out what all the fuss was about.

“Learned today that a rumor concerning me arose in Providence and New Hanover which spread like wildfire in every direction, to the four winds, causing unhappiness and heartache to my friends and mirth and rejoicing to those who were ill-disposed and envious. It was said that old Mühlenberg had suddenly been taken to Philadelphia, that his son had been bound hand and foot and was in the criminal prison, that he had been condemned to the gallows by the war council because he had been caught conducting a treasonable correspondence with General Howe, etc…Some of my friends were hotheaded and wanted to trace the originator of this malicious rumor. But this would be a waste of effort…The old proverb states that to avoid lies one must refrain from action.”

This excerpt is from “The Journals of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, Volume 3,” translated by Theodore G. Tappert and John W. Doberstein, 1958. This and additional volumes are available for research at Historic Trappe’s Center for Pennsylvania German Studies in the Dewees Tavern, and the original handwritten journals are preserved by the Lutheran Archives Center at Philadelphia.

05/17/2026

Today in the "Memories of Old Zion" series, we’re spotlighting the Schwarze Buch, or Black Book, compiled by Rev. Johann Friedrick Schmidt. The book contains several key documents from the church’s beginnings, including the Church Constitution of the German Evangelical Lutheran Congregation. Also within the pages of the Black Book are copies of the congregation’s charter signed by Thomas and Richard Penn, an act passed by the General Assembly of Pennsylvania approving the charter, and the rules of the church vestrymen. Signatures from notable Lutherans such as Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, Justus Heinrich Christian Helmuth, and John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg can be found on the book’s pages, as well as signatures from members of the congregation up through 1966.

05/15/2026

244 years ago today, Frederick Muhlenberg sat down in Philadelphia to write to his younger brother, Henry Muhlenberg Jr., in Lancaster. In the letter, written in German, Frederick discussed family news, congratulating his brother on a newborn son and informing him of the marriage of their younger sister, Sally. Frederick, who was then serving as Speaker of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, also informed Henry Jr. of some political news and that their elder brother, General Peter Muhlenberg, was still serving in Virginia. While all three Muhlenberg brothers were ordained Lutheran ministers, the Revolutionary War dramatically changed the lives of the two eldest, with Frederick entering politics and Peter joining the military. Henry Jr. was the only one of the three brothers who remained in the ministry for the rest of his life.

Frederick’s 1782 letter to Henry Jr. is currently on loan to , along with several other objects and manuscripts from the collection of the Lutheran Archives Center. Visit Dewees Tavern now through February 2028 to see it on display as part of the exhibition "Window to Revolution: Pennsylvania Germans and the War for Independence." lutheranhistory

05/12/2026

On May 12, 1777, Henry Muhlenberg heard reports from General Washington’s camp:

“It is reported that His Excellency General Washington has sent an order to Philadelphia requiring that all doctors and chirurgi [surgeons] report to camp without delay. One may conclude that the destroying angel has bloody work in mind at God’s command if the Lord God commands or permits it. Lord, Lord, enter not into judgement with Thy servant, for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified.”

This excerpt is from “The Journals of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, Volume 3,” translated by Theodore G. Tappert and John W. Doberstein, 1958. This and additional volumes are available for research at Historic Trappe’s Center for Pennsylvania German Studies in the Dewees Tavern, and the original handwritten journals are preserved by the Lutheran Archives Center at Philadelphia.

05/10/2026

Happy Mother’s Day! Today the Lutheran Archives Center is highlighting the story of the Philadelphia Mother House, which stretches back to 1884, when John Dietrich Lankenau, president of the German Hospital of the City of Philadelphia in Fairmount, arranged for seven Lutheran deaconesses from Germany to come run the hospital's administration and nursing corps. The deaconesses soon established a Mother House on its grounds and eventually several other institutions in and around the city.

The Mother House's 1887 charter states its reasons for forming, including the “maintenance, religious instruction, and education of Deaconesses” and establishing a home for elderly people of German birth or descent. An amended charter in 1893 added the founding of "a hospital for children [and] a high school for girls.” With financial support from Lankenau, the deaconesses soon founded the Mary J. Drexel Home for Aged and Homeless Patients and The School for Girls of the Mary J. Drexel Home, both named in honor of Lankenau’s late wife, Mary Joanna Drexel (1822–1873).

The Philadelphia Mother House continued training women as deaconesses in the Lutheran Church. Education included preparing for roles as nurses, teachers, aides to pastors, and foreign missionaries. It also published handbooks informing the General Synod of its work, reports on conferences with its sister Mother Houses in Omaha and Baltimore, and a newspaper called The Deaconess Messenger. The Mother House remained in Fairmount until 1963, when it merged with the Baltimore Mother House and moved to Gladwyne, PA, becoming the Deaconess Community of the Lutheran Church in America. The organization sold its house in 2002 and moved to Chicago, but its legacy continues at the former Mary J. Drexel Home for Aged and Homeless Patients, known today as The Hearth at Drexel, an assisted living center.

Address

7301 Germantown Avenue
Philadelphia, PA
19119

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 5pm
Tuesday	10am - 5pm
Wednesday	10am - 5pm
Thursday	10am - 5pm
Friday	10am - 5pm

Telephone

(215) 248-6383

Website

https://www.lutheranarchives.org/

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