Historical Society of Pennsylvania Website

Founded in 1824, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania preserves one of the nation’s largest collections of American history, with over 23 million manuscripts, books, and images spanning over 500 years. They partnered with I-SITE to create a vibrant, modern website that increases their engagement with diverse audiences.

The I-SITE team brought their experience in providing custom technical solutions to complex issues along with storytelling narratives and clear UX. Partnering with I-SITE, Design partner, J2 brought their experience in creating engaging, cohesive design that speaks to multiple audiences. HSP brought an incredible depth of information, services, educational resources and public events with an international reach.

I-SITE was tasked with providing a flexible, easy-to-update site on a platform that could accommodate HSP’s complex commerce needs, access to members’-only databases, and integration of external web assets. Additionally, the extensive amount of information contained on the site required thoughtful and clear UX planning, providing a logical organization of resources while still allowing users to create their own journeys of discovery.

The HSP team wanted to provide entry points and access to their collections for everyone from the serious researcher to students and teachers to the general public.

Highlights of the website include:

• Migration of existing Drupal 7 content into new design
• Fresh, modern design that references and respects the historic collections
• Streamlined event listings that include integrated ticket sales as well as the ability to provide live-streamed events on the site.
• Commerce solution that allows for product sales as well as transactions that require negotiations, contracts, and individual invoicing with online payments. Additionally, online membership sales allow for instant access to members’-only sections of the website, and subscriptions with recurring payments.
• Highly flexible paragraph structure allowing for diversity in presenting their extensive content.

To provide the necessary flexibility, efficient management of content across departments, and security, the project was built using Drupal 11 with Mercury Editor and hosted on Upsun.
Post-launch, I-SITE continues to support HSP and work with them to envision additional integrations and system automations, making the website an increasingly useful tool for both editors and users.