Researching Centre County History

The archives and library of the Centre County Historical Society are not the only resources one should consult for historical primary source materials about Centre County.

Centre County Library & Historical Museum
203 N. Allegheny Street
Bellefonte, PA 16823
(814) 355-1516
Kitty Wunderly, Pennsylvania Room

The collections include a wide variety of primary source materials, although much of the use of the collection is oriented towards genealogical research. Collections of value in family history original marriage, death, and tax records; local newspapers, censuses, county histories, family histories, the Spangler Genealogical Papers, and the J. Marvin Lee Genealogical Collection.

Penn State University Libraries

  • Digital Collections Library

    Many resources related to Centre County are available for viewing online, including Penn State's student newspaper The Daily Collegian, John Blair Linn's History of Centre and Clinton Counties, and more.

  • Arts & Humanities Library
    2nd floor Pattee Library
    (814) 865-6481

    The general stacks of the main library at the University Park campus provides many resources for historical research including reference books, scholarly journals, and monographs. Some historical documents have been reprinted in scholarly editions and are also cataloged in the stacks. The Pennsylvania History website is a useful resource for all researchers.

  • Special Collections Library
    1st floor Paterno Library
    (814) 865-7931

    The Special Collections Library includes a wide variety of Centre County-related publications and primary source materials. There are reference books, printed histories, maps and other published resources, as well as a wide variety of archival materials including correspondence, diaries, business and industrial records, photographs, and institutional records of various types. The University Archives is part of Special Collections and has a very large collection of materials documenting the history of the University. Most of these materials can be found in The Cat, the Libraries' on-line catalog and many have more extensive descriptions available through the Special Collections website.