From Fort Sumter to Appomattox and Back: The Civil War Career of Samuel W. Crawford

Posted by on Jun 11, 2025 in | Comments Off on From Fort Sumter to Appomattox and Back: The Civil War Career of Samuel W. Crawford It started with a boom at 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, as a single mortar shell arched appropriately from south to north high over the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina. The shell burst above Fort Sumter and was a signal to the artillery batteries positioned around the harbor to open fire. The next shot, fired from a battery farther east, was meant to be the ceremonial beginning of a second...
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Dr. Anna E. Broomall: Advancing Care and Careers for Women

Posted by on Mar 27, 2024 in | Comments Off on Dr. Anna E. Broomall: Advancing Care and Careers for Women In 1869 a group of students from the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP) in Philadelphia attended a clinical lecture at the Pennsylvania Hospital. This marked the first time at the hospital that women were permitted to attend such a lecture alongside male medical students. Unfortunately, the women were unable to finish the first lecture as they were chased out of the amphitheater with...
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Women Healers by Susan H. Brandt

Posted by on Jul 25, 2023 in | Comments Off on Women Healers by Susan H. Brandt Women Healers Gender, Authority, and Medicine in Early Philadelphia by Susan H. Brandt University of Pennsylvania Press, 312 pp., hardcover $39.95 In this deeply researched and well-written book, Susan H. Brandt reveals women’s central place in the intricate healing networks that flourished in the first decades of Philadelphia’s existence. Casting her net widely, she examines the...
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Searching for Mountain Mary: The Life and Legend of an Early Pennsylvania Saint

Posted by on Nov 30, 2021 in | Comments Off on Searching for Mountain Mary: The Life and Legend of an Early Pennsylvania Saint “There, underneath this mountain stone, Lies Mary Young, who lived alone, High on the lofty mountainside, Beloved and honored till she died.” —Ralph Bigony, 1846   Enshrined in works of art and immortalized in poetry, the life and deeds of Mountain Mary, or Anna Maria Jung (1744–1819), has become one of the preeminent legends of early southeastern Pennsylvania, embodying the spirit of the...
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The Health of the Commonwealth by James E. Higgins

Posted by on Jun 7, 2021 in | Comments Off on The Health of the Commonwealth by James E. Higgins The Health of the Commonwealth A Brief History of Medicine, Public Health, and Disease in Pennsylvania by James E. Higgins Temple University Press/The Pennsylvania Historical Association, 138 pp., paperback $19.95 The history of public health and medicine is more important now than ever. As Pennsylvania weathers global pandemics and health crises, it is essential to understand how our current...
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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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Pennsylvania’s Nostrum Kings

Posted by on Dec 31, 2019 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania’s Nostrum Kings During the early 19th century in Pennsylvania,  a new wave of  entrepreneurship was breaking with the past. In small hamlets and villages, those who had been feeling under the weather typically relied on home remedies they purchased from neighbors or friends, but now a new breed was coming to center stage. These men held larger dreams than the local peddlers, with plans to market their healing...
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“I Must Be an Abolitionist”: Pennsylvania Liberty Man Francis Julius LeMoyne

Posted by on Oct 24, 2019 in | Comments Off on “I Must Be an Abolitionist”: Pennsylvania Liberty Man Francis Julius LeMoyne In 1839, when William Lloyd Garrison (1805–79) and his allies lost control of the abolitionist movement in Warsaw, New York, African Americans could only vote in seven states. In the North, free blacks could neither sue nor own weapons, and their wages were disproportionate with those of their white counterparts for the same type of work. The Slave Power seemingly strengthened its influence in...
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Ann Preston: Pioneer of Medical Education and Women’s Rights

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Ann Preston: Pioneer of Medical Education and Women’s Rights One of the earliest supporters of a woman’s tight to a medical education was Ann Preston. In the late 1840s, she was refused admission to the famous medical schools of Philadelphia because of her sex, yet she persevered in her efforts to obtain medical training, earned her M.D. degree and spent the rest of her life working for the improvement of women’s medical education and for the...
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A Country Seat on the Susquehanna: Wright’s Ferry Mansion

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on A Country Seat on the Susquehanna: Wright’s Ferry Mansion On the eastern bank of the Susquehanna River in southeastern Pennsylvania, ten miles west of Lancaster, Wright’s Ferry Man­sion was built in 1738 for a remarkable English Quaker, Susanna Wright. In 1726, when Susanna was twenty-nine, she purchased one hundred acres in this region on the fringes of Pennsylvania wilderness, then inhabited by a small tribe of Indians and known as...
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