Mission

The mission of the Kutztown Area Historical Society is to collect and preserve, in a museum environment, material culture artifacts relevant to the history of the greater Kutztown area, to maintain a non-circulating library of publications and manuscripts relating to local and regional history, and to encourage the local conservation of sites and structures of historical and cultural significance to the region.

Since its organization, the KAHS has been vitally interested in preserving all that we can of the history and records of the Kutztown area and of the local Pennsylvania German dialect and culture that has informed it.  Based on our mission statement, the society remains committed to the following objectives:

1. to collecting and preserving material culture artifacts (tools and implements, textiles, photographs, folk art, advertising, etc.) relevant to, or representative of, the history and culture of Kutztown and its environs, including the greater northeastern Berks County region, and to operate a museum where those artifacts may be publicly displayed;
2. to collecting and maintaining a non-circulating library and archive of books, periodicals, manuscripts, and other materials reflecting the history, culture, and genealogy of the Kutztown area;
3. to restoring and maintaining the historic 1892 Public School Building as a permanent repository for donated and loaned objects of historical interest; 
4. to encouraging preservation of historically significant sites, structures, and material culture artifacts throughout its area of influence;
5. to extending its services and collections to local educational institutions and civic organizations by way of an outreach docent program, so as to promote awareness of local historical issues;
6. to promoting historical inquiry on all levels, from grass-roots curiosity to academic research, thus fostering widespread appreciation of a distinct, vital regional culture.

Although we originated as one of the earliest Berks County historical societies, we are presently one of a number of flourishing organizations in the northeastern Berks and western Lehigh region, suggesting possibilities for collaborative projects based on the idea of the “Berkleigh” tract, a distinct landscape and culture maintaining its own, still largely rural, folkways between the nearby urban centers of Reading and Allentown.  We embrace a policy of mutual cooperation with other, more recently established societies, including those of Albany Township, the Hamburg Area, the Fleetwood Area, the Boyertown Area, Lynn-Heidelberg, Weisenberg/Lowhill, and Macungie, in terms of joint exhibitions, resource sharing, and artifact acquisition, display, and loan.  Please visit our Kutztown History page for more information on our society’s range of influence, and visit our Links page to locate other local historical societies