Understanding Pennsylvania’s Gradual Abolition Act of 1780

Posted by on Aug 13, 2026 in | Comments Off on Understanding Pennsylvania’s Gradual Abolition Act of 1780 In March 1802, an enslaved man named Frank slipped away from his enslaver in Lancaster County. Prior to his escape, Frank had served as both a chauffeur and a laborer, moving between roads and fields that he would now use as a route to freedom. He fled on a Sunday night wearing a beaver hat and a pair of light-colored pants. Most importantly, he carried a freedom certificate that once belonged...
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Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson: A Woman of the American Enlightenment

Posted by on Aug 13, 2026 in | Comments Off on Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson: A Woman of the American Enlightenment By the late 1760s, Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson’s name was known throughout the city of Philadelphia for her evening literary gatherings attended by the city’s intellectual elite. Dubbed “the most learned woman in America” by Anne Hollingsworth Wharton, first historian of the National Society of the Colonial Dames in America, Fergusson’s poetry and journals captured the experience of a woman whose...
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A Radical Shift: Pennsylvania’s Constitution of 1776

Posted by on Aug 13, 2026 in | Comments Off on A Radical Shift: Pennsylvania’s Constitution of 1776 “Our form of government still continues, but I think it cannot last long,” John Penn (1729–95) wrote to his family in England in October of 1775. The grandson of William Penn, John Penn was serving as governor of Pennsylvania. For some time, he had been observing changes in the attitudes of Pennsylvania residents regarding their relationship with the mother country. In June of 1774, he had...
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The Roots of Bird Conservation in Penn’s Woods

Posted by on Apr 17, 2026 in | Comments Off on The Roots of Bird Conservation in Penn’s Woods   Native naturalists and immigrant ornithologists who began their celebrated careers in Penn’s Woods played a pivotal role in establishing America’s enduring romance with the continent’s fabled feathered tribes. Their fieldwork and studies also helped assemble and strengthen the natural science from which bird conservation emerged in the United States. Birdsong, species diversity and the...
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Susanna Wright: Poet and Polymath on the Susquehanna

Posted by on Apr 17, 2026 in | Comments Off on Susanna Wright: Poet and Polymath on the Susquehanna   No right has man his equal to control, Since, all agree, there is no sex in soul; Weak woman, thus in agreement grown strong, Shakes off the yoke her parents wore too long. Those lines of poetry, written in a rigidly paternalistic 18th-century America, establish Susanna Wright (1697–1784) as one of America’s early supporters of women’s equality. More subtly, the poem, entitled “To Eliza...
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German Founders: The Muhlenberg Family and the War for Independence

Posted by on Apr 17, 2026 in | Comments Off on German Founders: The Muhlenberg Family and the War for Independence On July 2, 1776, Philadelphians were living on a razor’s edge. At the State House, the Continental Congress gathered to decide the colonists’ collective fate. Lutheran pastor Henry Muhlenberg (1711–87) recorded in his diary, “It is said that the Continental Congress resolved to declare the thirteen united colonies free and independent.” Two days later, on July 4, he wrote, “Today the Continental...
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Forgotten Founder: Thomas Paine and American Independence

Posted by on Apr 17, 2026 in | Comments Off on Forgotten Founder: Thomas Paine and American Independence Philadelphia was the largest, wealthiest and most cosmopolitan city in all the colonies on the eve of the American Revolution. As the major commercial hub for British North America, the city’s economy was based on trade and commerce and bolstered by shipbuilding, textiles and other industries. Philadelphia was also a hub for political activism, with town meetings and pamphlets disseminating...
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Welcome Aboard the Party Train: The Pennsylvania–Texas Power Nexus

Posted by on Jan 14, 2026 in | Comments Off on Welcome Aboard the Party Train: The Pennsylvania–Texas Power Nexus As U.S. House Speaker and Vice President John Nance “Cactus Jack” Garner (1868–1967) of Texas could attest, no congressional outing in the 1930s was complete without Pittsburgh’s Joe Guffey (1870–1959). In 1901, Guffey’s uncle, James, with money borrowed from the Mellon family, brought in Spindletop on the Gulf Coast. James Guffey midwifed the Texas petroleum industry — and provided the Mellons...
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“Only the Lord Saves More Than Bernie!” An Interview with Philadelphia Flyers Hall of Fame Goaltender Bernie Parent

Posted by on Jan 14, 2026 in | Comments Off on “Only the Lord Saves More Than Bernie!” An Interview with Philadelphia Flyers Hall of Fame Goaltender Bernie Parent On Tuesday evening, May 27, 1975, the Philadelphia Flyers, defending National Hockey League (NHL) Champions, faced the Buffalo Sabres in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals at Buffalo’s Memorial Stadium. Philadelphia enjoyed a three-games-to-two lead in the best-of-seven series and they were determined to clinch their second straight championship that night. The Flyers, better known as the “Broad...
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Revolutionary Things: Objects from the Collection

Posted by on Jan 14, 2026 in | Comments Off on Revolutionary Things: Objects from the Collection Massachusetts has the Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill and the Shot Heard Round the World; Virginia can lay claim to Mount Vernon, Monticello and Yorktown; and New Jersey and New York bore the brunt of the fighting in the conflict. But few if any of the original 13 colonies can compete with Pennsylvania in terms of the sheer concentration of people, places and things associated with the nation’s...
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