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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From the Executive Director

Posted by on Apr 17, 2026 in | Comments Off on From the Executive Director Over the past 40 years, technology has transformed how people connect — with one another and with information. At the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission (PHMC), we’ve seen remarkable progress in using digital tools to enhance engagement with the history we steward: the documents, maps and photographs preserved in the Pennsylvania State Archives; information about historical...
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“The Power of Many Giants” at the 1876 Centennial Exposition

Posted by on Jan 14, 2026 in | Comments Off on “The Power of Many Giants” at the 1876 Centennial Exposition Amid the pageantry and grandeur of the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition’s opening ceremony, one event towered above all others. On May 10, 1876, thousands of visitors crowded into Machinery Hall to watch President Ulysses S. Grant and Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil climb atop a gigantic Corliss steam engine. On a platform on top of the 45-foot-tall machine, the two heads of state pulled two...
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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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Getting Pennsylvania on Speaking Terms

Posted by on Sep 8, 2025 in | Comments Off on Getting Pennsylvania on Speaking Terms Following Alexander Graham Bell’s famous exhibition of the telephone at the Centennial Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia, a sprawling telephone network would soon connect people in every corner of the United States. The telephone quickly became a popular communication tool among merchants and business owners who valued its instantaneous nature, such as John Wanamaker, who first installed...
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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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Autocar: Master of Load and Road

Posted by on Feb 24, 2025 in | Comments Off on Autocar: Master of Load and Road THE PENNZOIL AUTOCAR LORRY MADE HISTORY ON ITS FIRST TRIP <STOP> CARRIED 5964 GALLONS GROSS LOAD 65000 LBS OVER SIXTY MILES OF HILLS AND MOUNTAINS FROM ROUSEVILLE TO ERIE IN TWO HOURS FIFTY NINE MINUTES <STOP> ONE HOUR AND SIX MINUTES BETTER THAN PREVIOUS BEST RECORD TIME BY ANY BULK HAUL UNIT <STOP> RETURN TRIP IN ONE HOUR AND FIFTY THREE MINUTES In 1932 the Autocar Company of...
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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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