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The State Museum of Pennsylvania will honor the centennial of the end of World War I on Sunday, November 11 with a ceremonial bell ringing and the opening of a new display. The museum will host a Bells of Peace ceremony at 11:00 A.M. on the ground-floor outdoor promenade, adjacent to North Street, with the …
This week, Democratic delegates and party loyalists from around the country are converging on Philadelphia to formally select their candidate. It promises to be a history-making convention, but as this grouping of ephemera reveals, it’s not the first time that Democrats have chosen the City of Brotherly Love for its stage. That distinction was earned …
Continue reading ‘DNC memorabilia highlights Philadelphia’s presidential past’ »
Selected by CAP curator Jennifer Gleim and appearing this fall in the upcoming Pennsylvania Icons exhibit, this receipt recalls a tumultuous time in the early history of the United States. The Whiskey Rebellion and President George Washington’s subsequent response was the first test of the newly-formed government’s authority to both levy taxes and pass and …
Continue reading ‘Settlers rebel against hard-to-swallow whiskey tax’ »
Known as “The First Lady of Pennsylvania Politics,” Genevieve Blatt (1913-1996) started her career in government less than 20 years after women earned the right to vote. This week’s Pennsylvania Treasure, selected by CAP curator Carol Buck, is a collection of Blatt-related items that will be featured in the upcoming Pennsylvania Icons exhibit at The …
Continue reading ‘Genevieve Blatt: The challenges of working in a man’s world’ »
Fashioned in the shape of an insect, this gold-toned, pressed-metal pin is a campaign token from the presidential election of 1896. Complete with moveable wings, this political souvenir features black-and-white images of Republican presidential candidate William McKinley on the left and vice presidential candidate, Garret Hobart, on the right. During the 1896 election, heated debates …
Continue reading ‘Would you pin your fortune to a “Gold Bug” candidate?’ »
Many are familiar with the story of Abraham Lincoln and his April 14, 1865 assassination at the hands of John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C. After the shooting on that (not so) Good Friday, Booth fled and Lincoln was taken across the street to the home of William Petersen where he would …
Continue reading ‘Lincoln’s funeral tokens: Mourning an American icon’ »