Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
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Anthracite Country Reaches for the World, 1851
Full text linkA cache of documents records the correspondence between Benjamin Springer and Philadelphia-based engineers, steam-engine manufacturers, and mechanics in early 1851. Springer, himself a coal dealer and former president of the Coal Mining Association of Schuylkill County’s Board of Trade, had just been appointed to a new position in the US Navy. As the department’s f rst “Anthracite Agent,” he would supervise the navy’s purchase of anthracite fuel. The existence of the agent position itself was a result of Springer’s six years of lobbying Washington on behalf of Pennsylvania’s anthracite industry to adopt this coal as the favored fuel for the navy’s increasing number of ocean-going steam vessels
A Tale of a Whiskey Rebellion Judge: William Paterson, Grand Jury Charges, and the Trials of the Whiskey Rebels
No full textABSTRACT: The Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 resulted in trials in the federal Circuit Court in Philadelphia in April–June 1795. US Supreme Court Justice William Paterson, who presided in several of those trials, has been represented as a partisan Federalist judge whose directed charge to the jury resulted in a treason verdict in two of those cases (U.S. v. Mitchell and U.S. v. Vigol). Sparse law reports, among other limited materials, provide little direct evidence of the trials or of the criticism of Justice Paterson’s conduct of the trials. This paper provides evidence from grand jury charges that deal with the Whiskey Rebellion to add to our understanding of the trials and to test whether Justice Paterson has been fairly criticized or not. It argues, in addition, that his conduct in the trials was affected by a transition in American law from popular sovereignty to constitutional review by the courts
Interpreting American Ethnic Experiences: The Development of the Balch Library Collections
No full textABSTRACT: The Balch Institute was a library and museum dedicated to immigration and ethnic history, based in Philadelphia. This article analyzes the development of its print and manuscript collections, from its fi rst accessions in 1971 to its merger with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 2001. It focuses on its dual scholarly and educational mission and on the factors that shaped its collection development policies and practices over time. The article argues that the content of the collections, but also what was not included in them, was determined by the institutional and broader political, social, and scholarly context in which the Balch operated. The Balch’s contribution to the historical record illustrates the importance of historicizing the archives so that historians have deeper knowledge of the role played by the professionals who acquire and manage the sources they use
Fort Shirley’s Copper Charm: Investigating Muslim Ethnicity on Pennsylvania’s Colonial Frontier
No full textIt is diminutive and easily overlooked: a copper charm, one centimeter in diameter, bearing the inscription “No god but Allah” in Arabic. Nonetheless, it is an artifact so exceptional that it has challenged our network of scholars to fi nd an analog for its form and context. The charm is most likely a relic of the mid-eighteenth century, when the fi rst Africans entered central Pennsylvania as slaves, indentured servants, or free men through trading operations and farmsteads, bringing with them their religious beliefs and material culture. While documentation of their Muslim faith exists, the archaeological evidence for their connection to Islam is extremely rare
A Century of Teaching With Pennsylvania\u27s Historic Places
No full textDuring the early twentieth century, amid growing interest in the pedagogical significance of heritage landscapes, Pennsylvanians took a leading role in demonstrating the value of teaching with historic places. A forward-looking Pennsylvania Historical Commission (the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission since 1945) and significant investments by the federally sponsored Works Progress Administration paved the way. This essay reflects on that history toward assessing the role of historic places in education today. It suggests that historic places offer important lessons beyond what they reveal about how Americans lived in the past. Most significantly, we gain new insight into Pennsylvania history by interrogating the reasons why historic sites are preserved and how their management changes over time. Several examples illustrate how challenging students with nuanced considerations of historic places encourages all of us to be mindful of persistent threats to Pennsylvania’s public historical resources
Book Review: Government by Dissent: Protest, Resistance, and Radical Democratic Thought in the Early American Republic by Robert W. T. Martin
Full text linkIf the old cliché that history is written by the winners is true, then it should be no surprise that a legacy of dissent should become buried after two centuries. In this impressive account of dissent in the early American republic, Robert W.T. Martin resurrects the ideas of those in early America who opposed the majority and fought the status quo. Dissent, for these objectors, was not merely disagreement; it was a central component of the democratic process. Martin aims to restore a lost understanding of “dissentient democracy,” a “democracy that values dissent as an essential core element.". This is not an argument for mere toleration of dissent; dissentient democracy embraces dissent itself as essential to the legitimacy of government
Book Review: Here and There: Reading Pennsylvania\u27s Working Landscapes by Bill Conlogue
No full textIn the personal essays that constitute Here and There, Bill Conlogue combines readings of American literature, especially poetry, with legal and environmental history, autobiography, bits of geology, mining engineering, and travelogue to explore the history of land use in and around the Lackawanna Valley of northeastern Pennsylvania. His book will help readers already familiar with the region gain additional insight into that corner of the state and the challenges it presents to its modern-day residents. Conlogue is an eloquent, heartfelt guide to the history of both the mine-scarred anthracite landscape around Scranton, where he currently teaches, and the hardscrabble dairy farms that survive in the neighboring valleys to the north, where he grew up. He pays attention both to the reality of the region and to representations of that reality
Democratic Anti-Federalism: Rights, Democracy, and the Minority in the Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention
Full text linkThe debate over the ratification of the Constitution began in Pennsylvania essentially at the moment the Philadelphia convention adjourned in September 1787. Within a few weeks, the newspapers in the state were filled with often acrimonious arguments for and against ratification, replete with biting satire, dire predictions, and creative name-calling. Among those who opposed the Constitution, none spoke with a louder voice than that of Centinel, a Philadelphia writer who published more essays against the Constitution than any other. Samuel Bryan, the author behind the pseudonym Centinel, was a radical democrat even by the standards of majoritarian Pennsylvania
The "Mad" Engineer: L\u27Enfant in Early National Philadelphia
No full textThroughout its history, Philadelphia has boasted the work of notable architects and builders. Yet hardly any were so controversial or left such a mixed legacy as the self-styled “engineer of the United States” during the nation’s founding, Peter (Pierre) Charles L’Enfant. From 1793 to 1800, while the city served as the federal seat of government, L’Enfant lived in Philadelphia and applied his hand to a range of ambitious projects. This period followed his sudden, acrimonious departure from laying out the grand new city on the Potomac. And as in this earlier appointment, nearly all L’Enfant’s subsequent projects were marked with difficulty. Indeed, the climax of L’Enfant’s efforts in Philadelphia saw his masterwork pulled down and demolished by the citizens themselves to make way for more practical construction of a different character. Nor was L’Enfant’s personal life in the city any easier, as he found himself beset and bullied by his housemate, Richard Soderstrom, the Swedish consul. As a result, despite his singular creativity and talents, L’Enfant’s energies in the city would largely be forgotten
Boom and Bust in Pittsburgh Natural Gas History: Development, Policy, and Environmental Effects, 1878–1920
Full text linkPittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania have a rich energy history focused on the development and utilization of the resources of coal, oil, and natural gas. Within the last ten years the region has experienced a boom in natural gas production from the Marcellus Shale deposit that extends throughout the state. The drivers of this boom have been a rise in gas prices and the application of the technology of hydraulic fracking (nonconventional horizontal drilling). Thousands of wells have been drilled throughout Pennsylvania, and thousands more are projected. Extensive discussions are taking place in the state about controversial issues such as regulatory policy, extent of drilling, duration of supply, and environmental impacts