Two Hundred Years: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, edited by David R. Brigham
Written by Charles Hardy in the Book Review category and the Fall 2024 issue Topics in this article: artifacts, documents, historic preservation, Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Two Hundred Years
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1824–2024
edited by David R. Brigham
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, distributed by the University of Pennsylvania Press, 256 pp., hardcover $39.95
In 1824 the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) was founded “to collect and preserve the evidences of Pennsylvania’s own history from the earliest date.” Since then HSP has amassed a huge collection of more than 21 million items. To celebrate its 200th anniversary, HSP librarian and CEO David Brigham brought together an editorial committee of eight members with a broad range of expertise and deep knowledge of HSP’s collections to identify topics and objects for inclusion in this lavishly illustrated book of high-quality images.
Divided into sections on Pennsylvania as the Crucible of the Nation; families and communities; women, people of color, immigrants and LGBTQ people; science, technology and enterprise; and visual, performing and literary arts, Two Hundred Years includes 100 short essays written by 49 different authors.
The authors use Indian treaties, theater posters and photographs, manuscripts and maps, architectural drawings and diary entries, and other documents and objects as springboards to providing concise, fascinating glimpses into HSP’s collections and Pennsylvania history from 1682 to 1976. The entries range from the 1682 deed between Lenape Sachems and William Penn, James Wilson’s manuscript draft of the United States Constitution, and other national treasures, to a fold-out of Violet Oakley’s design for a float on Penn’s arrival on the Welcome for the 1908 celebration of the 225th anniversary of the founding of Philadelphia, a page from Temple University professor John Fryer’s 1972 speech before the American Psychiatric Association that contributed to the removal of homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders the following year, and a 1976 poster of Angela Davis when she was running for vice president on the Communist Party ticket, a part of the Justine J. Rector Papers on the fight for African American rights. Impressively inclusive in its subject matter, Two Hundred Years well demonstrates the importance of collecting and preserving the raw materials of Pennsylvania and American history.
Charles Hardy III
West Chester University of Pennsylvania