A Pennsylvania Yankee in King George’s Court

They were an odd pair. One was a commoner, a native Pennsylva­nian and son of an innkeeper on a busy road between Chester and Philadel­phia; the other, a king who could trace his royal ancestry through several centuries. In spite of their disparate back­grounds and the tumultuous period during which their countries were pitted against each other, the American colon­ist and the monarch of Great...
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Bookshelf

Guide to Photo­graphs at the Pennsylvania State Archives by Linda A. Ries Pennsylvania Histori­cal and Museum Commission, 1993 (229 pages, paper, $6.95) Although the Pennsylvania State Archives safeguards mostly documentary materi­als – such as the private and personal papers of individuals, governmental records, maps, military records, industrial reports, and similar archival items...
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Currents

Exciting Erie Before the arrival of white settlers, the southern shores of Lake Erie were inhabited by the Eriez Indians of Iroquois stock until they were virtually eliminated, by 1655, through war with the Seneca nation. A century later, the French, recognizing the military and trade advantages that Lake Erie and its waterways offered, found a harbor ideally suited for a fort, which they named...
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Heritage Highlights

Daniel Boone Homestead, Birdsboro First Pennsylvania Regiment Flintlock Shoot, July 14, 1996 Family Craft Day, July 21, 1996 Brandywine Battlefield Park, Chadds Ford Revolutionary Times at Brandywine, September 15, 1996 Bushy Run Battlefield, Jeanette Battle of Bushy Run Reenactment, August 3-4, 1996 Living History Weekend, September 14-15, 1996 Eckley Miners’ Village, Weatherly Family...
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Shorts

“Working Under Wires,” examining the work – often unseen or unnoticed by the public – that ensured safe, reliable, and economical public transportation, will remain on exhibit at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington through December 1997. The exhibition focuses on the men and women employed by trolley companies as operators, mechanics, track crews, overhead wire and signal...
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Finding a Light in the Forest: Conrad Weiser Homestead

More than any other, Conrad Weiser (1696-1760) captured the imagination of the Pennsylvania German community during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a time when its leaders asserted its right to be considered a major participant in the building of America. The veneration he was accorded led to the creation in 1923 of the historic park bearing his name and interpreting his...
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Forts at the Forks: Frontier History Comes to Life at the Fort Pitt Museum

As the French moved south from Canada in the mid-eighteenth century, seeking new settlements in the vast Ohio Valley, Great Britain began to resist encroachment into regions its leaders long claimed. Taking action in 1753, Virginia Governor Robert Dinwiddie placed a letter into the hands of his young surveyor, George Washington, telling him to deliver it to the commander of Fort LeBoeuf (in...
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Bookshelf

Coal and Coke in Pennsylvania by Carmen DiCiccio Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1996 (223 pages, paper, 16.95) Coal and Coke in Pennsylvania began in 1991 as a written guide for the nomination of soft coal operations and coke extractive facilities in western Pennsylvania to the National Register of Historic Places. During the project, diverse sources were consulted, including...
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Shorts

“Elegant Etiquette: Nineteenth-Century Figural Napkin Rings,” on view through Sunday, August 10 [1997], at the Brandywine River Museum, showcases a selection of whimsical table articles manufac­tured by American silverplate companies during the second half of the last century. From the 1860s through the end of the century, napkin rings took many forms and were adorned with fig­ures...
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Broken Promises, Broken Dreams: North America’s Forgotten Conflict at Bushy Run Battlefield

It was small enough – a piece of land in the Allegheny Mountain range, enfolded by dense woods of large oaks and chestnuts, rolling hills, swamps, and small creek beds. There, on Chestnut Ridge near an outpost called Bushy Run, Colonel Henry Bouquet, leading a relief expedition to the British stronghold at Fort Pitt, was attacked by Delaware, Mingoe, Shawnee, and Wyandot Indians on August...
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