(Philadelphia, PA) April 6, 2026
The New Jersey-based museum adds critical knowledge of Black history to the greater Philadelphia special collections community.
The PACSCL Board of Directors accepted the membership application of the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum (SSAAM), welcoming the organization as its thirty-ninth member.
“SSAAM was an early partner in PACSCL’s NHPRC-funded planning grant, Black Joy & Resilience (BJ&R). Through that partnership, PACSCL members – and soon, with the release of BJ&R, everyone – can learn more about the Black communities in central New Jersey whose lives and work were unknown within the larger history of the state,” said Beth Hessel, Chair of PACSCL and Executive Director of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. “The work of SSAAM since its founding in 2016 has been focused on unearthing that history, work that parallels PACSCL’s recent emphases on the inclusion of information about marginalized people as found in archival resources.”
Anita Williams Galiano, SSAAM Executive Director, stated that, through its membership in PACSCL, SSAAM looks forward to both contributing to and learning from a distinguished network of libraries, archives, and cultural institutions committed to advancing access to historically significant collections. As a small, rural museum stewarding community-driven research, SSAAM brings to the consortium the perspectives and experiences of communities whose histories have often been preserved outside of traditional institutional frameworks. At the same time, SSAAM seeks to deepen its archival infrastructure, strengthen collections stewardship, and engage in collaborative initiatives that connect local histories to broader regional and national narratives. By participating in PACSCL, SSAAM hopes to help broaden the collective understanding of where knowledge lives, how it is preserved, and who is recognized as a steward of history.
SSAAM manages a mixed materials collection that documents the lives, labor, faith, resistance, and community of African Americans in the Sourland Region of New Jersey. The collection includes paper records, audiovisual materials, photographic materials, and other material culture artifacts of historical and cultural significance.
The museum also holds a growing body of genealogical materials and descendant research that connects present-day community members to ancestors buried in the historical Stoutsburg Cemetery nearby.
Currently, SSAAM’s full collection is not available to the public. SSAAM’s website (https://www.ssaamuseum.org/resources) offers a portion of its oral histories. SSAAM also offers institutional access to other archives and repositories on a case by case basis.
SSAAM is developing a campus extension that will allow for public access to its collections.
The thirty-nine member libraries of the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries collect, care for, and share with a world-wide audience collections that, in their depth and variety, comprise an internationally important body of unique materials for students, scholars and lifelong learners at any level. For additional information on PACSCL, its members, and its programs, see https://pacscl.org/