HISTORY OF THE SCHWENKFELDER LIBRARY AND HERITAGE CENTER
The Years Abroad:
Selina Gerhard Schultz, Wolfenbüttel
Dr. Chester Hartranft, Wolfenbüttel
Chester Hartranft died in 1914 so the work was entirely placed in the youthful but capable hands of Elmer Johnson and Selina Gerhard Schultz. Yet, World War One proved to be another major obstacle. Dr. Johnson, his family and Selina stayed the entire course of the war in Wolfenbüttel and continued their work throughout. By war’s end in 1919 they returned home for good so that the entire collection gathered in Germany, 146 boxes weighing twelve tons, found its permanent home in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania. Therefore, by 1919 the material originally gathered by Howard Kriebel for the Schwenkfelder Historical Library and the material gathered by Dr. Chester Hartranft, Elmer E.S. Johnson and Selina Gerhard Schultz for the Corpus Schwenckfeldianorum was brought together in Pennsburg at the Carnegie Library, and became the foundation for the Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center’s library and museum collections of today. However, this did not mean the collection had a permanent address: further accumulation of books, manuscripts and artifacts in the 1920s and 1930s and the lack of an adequate fireproof building and vault spurred action for a new library building.
A New Building