Delaware County: Where Pennsylvania Began

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Delaware County: Where Pennsylvania Began Delaware County is part of the densely populated belt around Philadelphia, stretching from the city’s western boundary to the circular Delaware state line. Covering approx­imately 185 square miles, it is the third smallest Pennsylvania county yet the fourth largest in population. Its southern boundary is formed by the Delaware River, from which the county takes its name. The site of early...
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Bedlam in Penn’s Woods

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bedlam in Penn’s Woods Pennsylvanians have been concerned with the welfare of the insane since the earli­est provincial days. Indeed, as befits the Commonwealth’s humanitarian Quaker heritage, Pennsylvania has made pio­neering efforts in the field. For most of the pre­Revolutionary period, care of the mad was restricted to physical support and occa­sional confinement for public safety. Victims’ families...
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Iron Weathervane (1699)

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Iron Weathervane (1699) Wrought in 1699 by an unknown blacksmith work­ing in either Pennsylvania or England, an iron weath­ervane that once adorned a mill in present-day Delaware County is a prized acquisition of Philadelphia’s venerable Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The seventeenth century weathervane suggests the trades of craftsmen of vital importance to frontier settlements: millwrights, who built...
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