Pennsylvania’s Bicentennial Time Capsule

Posted by on Apr 17, 2026 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania’s Bicentennial Time Capsule In 1976, Reynolds Metals Co. created 56 aluminum time capsules as a gift to the United States. These identical capsules were given to the governors of the 50 states, as well as four territories, the National Archives, and the Bicentennial Wagon Train Pilgrimage. At that time, Reynolds was the world’s third largest aluminum and packaging company and the second largest in the United States. The...
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A Quaker Epistle: Pacifism and the American Revolution

Posted by on Jan 14, 2026 in | Comments Off on A Quaker Epistle: Pacifism and the American Revolution A 1775 document preserved in the Pennsylvania State Archives, “An Epistle from the Meeting for Sufferings,” offers insight into the beliefs, practices and morals of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, during the great social upheaval of the Revolutionary War period. The Meeting for Sufferings was a standing committee that addressed matters concerning the wider Quaker community during times of...
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Benedict Arnold’s Daybook

Posted by on Dec 1, 2025 in | Comments Off on Benedict Arnold’s Daybook Gen. Benedict Arnold’s 1778–79 daybook is one of the most intriguing documents of the Revolutionary era held in the collection of the Pennsylvania State Archives (Record Group 4.15). In its pages, Arnold kept a record of receipts and expenditures during his military campaigns in the American Revolutionary War and his tenure as military governor of Philadelphia. Arnold was one of the most...
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Douglas L. Allison, Civil War Veteran and Professional Baseball’s First Modern Catcher

Posted by on Aug 25, 2025 in | Comments Off on Douglas L. Allison, Civil War Veteran and Professional Baseball’s First Modern Catcher The Pennsylvania State Archives holds the American Civil War muster rolls for Pennsylvania-raised troops in its collection. Entries in these rolls include essential information about the soldiers who served in the conflict, and they are used by historians, genealogists, students and other patrons to trace the lives of individuals who fought in the war and went on to other pursuits. One of the...
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The Arrest of Philip Skene

Posted by on Jun 11, 2025 in | Comments Off on The Arrest of Philip Skene The British ship Sally entered the port of Philadelphia on June 7, 1775, after leaving London weeks before. Aboard the ship was a British officer who was also a land speculator in the colony of New York and a soon to be suspected spy — Maj. Philip Wharton Skene (1725–1810). The Revolutionary War had just begun and already intrigue, speculation and suspicion were spreading wildly throughout...
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The Burning of Pennsylvania Hall

Posted by on Feb 21, 2025 in | Comments Off on The Burning of Pennsylvania Hall The Pennsylvania State Archives holds a small cache of letters related to an episode in the early 19th-century struggle for Black civil rights in the commonwealth, the burning of Pennsylvania Hall. The letters were written by victims of the crime, the mayor and high sheriff of Philadelphia, and the attorney general of Pennsylvania. Although Pennsylvania had passed the Gradual Abolition Act in...
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The Arrival of Thomas Paine and the Publication of Common Sense

Posted by on Nov 18, 2024 in | Comments Off on The Arrival of Thomas Paine and the Publication of Common Sense Two hundred fifty years ago, on November 30, 1774, Thomas Paine (1737–1809) arrived in America from England. By early 1776 his inflammatory pamphlet, Common Sense — urging the American Colonies to declare independence from imperial Britain — had been published and widely read, accelerating the momentum of the American Revolution. Born in Norfolk, England, Paine displayed a talent for debating in...
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Defining Boundaries: Pennsylvania vs. Virginia

Posted by on Aug 9, 2024 in | Comments Off on Defining Boundaries: Pennsylvania vs. Virginia In 1774 most of Pennsylvania was focused inward, not outward, as the commonwealth disputed claims from Virginia for the southwest corner of the colony and from Connecticut for the Wyoming Valley and part of the northern tier. While Philadelphians were involved in resisting the British taxation laws, most other Pennsylvanians were preoccupied with troubles on the frontier. Colonial competition...
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An Appeal for “Smoke Control”: Lois Bainbridge on the 1948 Donora Smog

Posted by on Sep 18, 2023 in | Comments Off on An Appeal for “Smoke Control”: Lois Bainbridge on the 1948 Donora Smog   “The zinc works has ruined Donora & Webster,” wrote Lois Bainbridge to Gov. James Duff on October 31, 1948. “There is something in the Zinc Works causing these deaths. . . . [The] awful acid & smoke . . . eats the paint off your houses. Even fish can’t live in the Monongahela River, the bank on which the mill is situated.” Lois Bainbridge was a resident of Webster, a town in...
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The First Frame of Government: Penn’s Democratic Experiment

Posted by on Jul 25, 2023 in | Comments Off on The First Frame of Government: Penn’s Democratic Experiment The First Frame of Government was William Penn’s charter to the colonists of Pennsylvania, issued in England on April 25, 1682, and bearing Penn’s personal seal and signature. As a Quaker, Penn intended to establish religious toleration and political freedom in the colony that had been granted to him in 1681 by England’s King Charles II. The document has been considered an original and...
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