Steven Schultz and Brigid Payne of Delaware County’s Department of Emergency Services (DES) discovered that FHL is an excellent place for researching the history of climate and the environment. Their work, to understand past natural events, to examine trends and impacts of natural hazard occurrences and to consider possible mitigation to reduce danger to Delco residents, involved close research into FHL’s records. And they became FHL regulars for the next eight months!

To reach their goal of providing a “foundational resource document to be utilized for the steering of future projects,” Schulz and Payne consulted Quaker meeting minutes, family papers, journals, and diaries, keeping track of mentions of locations affected by storms and weather events within the county. One resource that Steven and Brigid relied on was Quaker Frank Ball’s weather and meteorological notebooks from the mid 19th century. A member of Richland Preparative Meeting of Bucks County, Ball tracked temperature and weather, providing a key resource for researchers interested in the environment. The result of Schulz and Payne’s research was a database of locations, incidents, and meteorological specific information.

In addition to the database, DES produced project reports and held a workshop in Media. They discussed their work and examined how they may continue using the resources of other special collections.

See our LibGuide for information on how FHL collections can support similar research.