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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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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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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Pennsylvania and the American Revolution: An Interview with Gordon S. Wood

Posted by on Jun 11, 2025 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania and the American Revolution: An Interview with Gordon S. Wood   The American Revolution was the most significant event in our country’s history. Independence from Great Britain not only resulted in the birth of a new nation but also one dedicated to a uniquely democratic form of government unknown to the world in the 18th century. It also forged a national identity, rooted in the principles of liberty, equality and republicanism, that has endured for...
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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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Rush by Stephen Fried

Posted by on Apr 14, 2020 in | Comments Off on Rush by Stephen Fried Rush Revolution, Madness, and the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father by Stephen Fried Crown, 608 pp., hardcover $30 Benjamin Rush is difficult to write about, although at first glance that makes no sense. He was an interesting man who lived during interesting times, someone who knew prominent people and became prominent himself. He had opinions on everything and everyone, with an...
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William Penn’s Constitutional Legacy

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on William Penn’s Constitutional Legacy In his proclamation marking the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of William Penn in 1944, Gov. Edward Martin described him as “one of the truly great men of history … whose tolerance, wisdom, enlightenment and vision as a statesman of the common weal render him an outstanding figure among the builders of states.” The tercentenary celebration of his glorious...
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Aeronauts to Aviators: Pennsylvanians and Flight, 1784-1950

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Aeronauts to Aviators: Pennsylvanians and Flight, 1784-1950 Millions of us have used the airplane to earn a living, to travel from place to place or simply to amuse ourselves. Among twentieth-century innovations, the airplane has most dramatically changed the way we think about time and distance; people now consider transcontinental or transoceanic journeys in terms of hours rather than days or weeks. The airplane is a familiar technology. Yet historians...
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The College of Physicians of Philadelphia: “Not for Oneself, But for All”

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on The College of Physicians of Philadelphia: “Not for Oneself, But for All” The celebration com­menced with the ar­rival of out-of-town guests on Sunday evening, January 2, 1887. For the next two days, the fellows of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, led by their president, S. Weir Mitchell, celebrated the centennial anni­versary of their beloved insti­tution. Although the weather was bitterly cold, the gala receptions, lavish dinners, congratulatory addresses...
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