Digital Collections at WTPL

Whitehall Township Public Library is actively creating an online digital library and expanding the local history section! We seek the community's help for both tasks! If you have historic books, items, pictures of the area from many years ago, or old family photos, the library is interested in hearing from you! If you need those items back, not a problem! If the items can be digitized (scanned), we would like to borrow them, digitize them, then return the originals! If you have items you think the library might be interested in - please contact Patty or Jim.


Samuel & Rosa Kern Letter Collection:

The Samuel and Rosa Kern collection consists of the correspondence between Samuel Kern and Rosa Kern. According to Robert's "History of Lehigh County" 1914, page 644... Samuel Kern was born September 7, 1866 on the Kern homestead. He was the son of Henry Kern & Amanda Koch. Samuel is descended from Peter Kern. Peter established a gristmill in Kernsville, Pa. Samuel graduated from the Normal Schools and was licensed to teach in 1885 by Professor J.O. Knauss. He served 2 terms teaching in the Furnace School in Washington Township, 2 terms teaching in Whitehall, and 15 terms in South Whitehall.

Samuel married September 20, 1888 to Rosa A.A. Henninger. She was born in 1865, the daughter of Tilghman Henniger and Judith (nee) Grim. He then sold the Kern family homestead, and purchased the Henninger farm on Walbert's Pike. The couple had two children: Sadie Mae Kern, born 1896; and Alma A. Kern, born 1907.

Historic Pictures Collection:

This collection houses historic images of Whitehall Township and the surrounding areas. If you have pictures of the area from an earlier period, please contact the library. If you wish to retain the images - we are able to digitize and return them to the current owners.

Civil War Veterans Grave Registrations:

In the early 1930s an effort began to identify the graves of all veterans within the United States. While this task began as a volunteer effort, President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal's Works Progress Administration absorbed the project, created employment for many out of work Americans. This collection houses the Civil War Registrations located in Lehigh County. Deaths may have occured in other locations, or veterans relocated (the collection houses some Confederate veterans as well).

Historic Book Collection:

This collection houses digitized books on the local history of the Lehigh Valley. These books have either fallen out of copyright, in the public domain, or permission has been secured.

Whitehall High School Yearbook:

This collection will house the Whitehall High School Yearbooks from 1922 through 2014.