The majority of the fifth floor of the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center is currently closed for construction. Learn more about this renovation to the Zilberman Family Center for Global Collections, including how to request materials.

Arnold and Deanne Kaplan Collection of Early American Judaica

The Kaplan Collection documents commercial, social, religious, political, and cultural ties that connected Jews and the general public from the colonial era through the nineteenth century.

Engraving of a steamship under sail, used for the Kaplan exhibit of 2014.

Collection Overview

The Kaplan Collection, donated to Penn in November 2012, is considered the most important private collection of its kind. It consists of over 11,000 individual items that document an astonishingly broad range of commercial, social, religious, political, and cultural ties that connected Jews and the general public from the colonial era through the onset of mass migration at the end of the nineteenth century. Visit the Kaplan Collection's website for more information.

Accordion List

  • Business history
  • Community histories
  • Fine art & museum collections
  • Leeser correspondence
  • Printed books
  • Trade & advertising

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