Rare Books and Manuscripts

The Ammon Stapleton Collection contains over six hundred volumes printed in Pennsylvania and Europe in the German language in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Stapleton, a pastor and bibliographer from Williamsport, Pennsylvania, died in 1916. Included in his collection are specimens from the noted press of Christopher Sauer in Germantown, books published by Conrad Beissel's Ephrata Community, a good run of early music instruction books, and many examples from the presses of minor printers in small towns and villages across the state. There are also German-language newspapers, broadsides, and one fine example of a Vorschrift, or writing specimen. The collection was a gift in 1982 from Mrs. Georgiana Hartzel, the granddaughter of the Reverend Ammon Stapleton.

 

Special Collections Library
104 Paterno Library
University Park, PA 16802
Telephone: (814) 865-7931, (814) 865-1793
Fax: (814) 863-5318

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