The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 33, August 15, 2004, Article 13

SCRIP FOUND AMONG OLD MUNICIPAL RECORDS

  Allegheny City, annexed to the City of Pittsburgh in 1907,
  was once a separate thriving city across the Allegheny River
  from Pittsburgh.  The area is now known simply as "The
  North Side" and is the home of PNC Park and Heinz Field,
  where the Pittsburgh Pirates and Steelers play.   A recent
  newspaper article discusses "Allegheny city's records [which]
  were transferred to Carnegie Library on the North Side for
  storage and largely forgotten. In 1969, the records were
  moved to the University of Pittsburgh, where they sat
  untouched for decades, most recently on 43 pallets on a
  loading dock at Hillman Library.

  "It had a roof over it, but it wasn't environmentally controlled.
  The records were filthy. It looked as if some attempts were
  made over the years to restore them, but I guess it was
  overwhelming for the resources they had at the time," said
  Jerry Ellis, one of two state archivists who have been working
  for months to restore the collection so it can be viewed by
  historians, social scientists and doctoral students. "Here's a
  19th-century collection. A complete package."

  "Under current record management laws, municipalities are
  required to keep records such as fiscal receipts for three to
  seven years. But 150 years ago, especially in Allegheny city,
  the process seemed to be to keep everything. For historians,
  it's a boon. "They had no records management," said archivist
  David W. Shoff, who is working on the project with Ellis.
  "This stuff was just kept."

   "Using a special vacuum cleaner, dry paper towels and a
  dust-gathering sponges, they've spent any free minute they've
  had cleaning the documents and indexing what is there.
  Everything is now stored on one floor in the state's archives,
  a 21-story records tower that is light-, temperature- and
  humidity-controlled. The documents are in acid-free folders
  and containers to slow deterioration. Some of the most
  critical documents, such as books of minutes, have been
  or will be microfilmed, ensuring that they'll be around for
  400 years.

  "The paper is probably good for another couple of hundred
  years," Ellis said. "Now that it's not being attacked any more,
  it'll last. You can't stop the deterioration, but you can slow it
  down."

  "Ellis said the most difficult part of processing the records
  was trying to work without getting sidetracked and fascinated
  by what they contained."

  "The centerpiece of the collection is contained in more than
  300 volumes of financial records, including two volumes of
  bond books for city streets such as California Avenue; 11
  cartons of contracts; two folders of circulation reports from
  newspapers including the Pittsburgh Gazette, a predecessor
  of the Post-Gazette; all manner of tax records, housing
  surveys, sewer assessments and auditors' records. There are
  receipts for fees paid by butchers, push cart peddlers and
  wagon vendors, and correspondence from various city
  departments including the controller. Ellis has even found scrip
  issued by banks in the 1840s."

  "For more information about the Allegheny city records, call
  the Pennsylvania State Archives at 1-717-783-3281 or go to
  www.phmc.state.pa.us."

  To read the full article, see:
  Full Article

  [I've contacted the archivists about the scrip that was found
  in the collection.  Perhaps someday research in the archives
  will reveal more information about the issuance and use of
  municipal scrip in the early 19th century.  Thank heaven for
  pack rats. -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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