History Commons^™

Abolitionist Aunty: Jane Chester, Christopher Mundis, Katie Heiser

Women of the Eighth Ward

Presented on Friday, February 21 as part of Messiah College’s 2020 Humanities Symposium. This exhibit, “Vulnerabilities & Securities in Historic Harrisburg: From Abolition to Suffrage,” was produced by the Center for Public Humanities Student Fellows and Dr. Sarah Myers’s Public History Class.

Jane Morris Chester was born enslaved in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 5, 1801. Around 1828, she escaped enslavement and made a treacherous journey north to Harrisburg, where she married George Chester. After George’s death in 1859, Jane, fondly called “Aunty” by Harrisburg citizens, continued to operate the restaurant and opened a premier catering business for Harrisburg elites, including …

Conductor Of The Old Eighth: Harriet M. Marshall, Ian Mcilrath, David Ford, Josh Acevedo

Women of the Eighth Ward

Presented on Friday, February 21 as part of Messiah College’s 2020 Humanities Symposium. This exhibit, “Vulnerabilities & Securities in Historic Harrisburg: From Abolition to Suffrage,” was produced by the Center for Public Humanities Student Fellows and Dr. Sarah Myers’s Public History Class.

Harriet McClintock Marshall was born in 1840. Her mother, Catherine, was one of the founding members of Wesley Union African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and Harriet worked with her mother to continue establishing the church's reputation. Wesley Union, located on Tanner's Alley, was a haven for those seeking freedom through the Underground Railroad. Harriet's and her mother's work …

Renaissance Woman: Gwendolyn Bennett, Eva Cunningham-Firkey, Kennesha Kelly-Davis, Janelle Soash, Faith Swarner

Women of the Eighth Ward

Presented on Friday, February 21 as part of Messiah College’s 2020 Humanities Symposium. This exhibit, “Vulnerabilities & Securities in Historic Harrisburg: From Abolition to Suffrage,” was produced by the Center for Public Humanities Student Fellows and Dr. Sarah Myers’s Public History Class.

While she was still an undergraduate, Bennett established her reputation as a poet when her poem “Nocturne” was published in The Crisis (the journal of the NAACP), and her poem “Heritage” was published in Opportunity (a magazine published by National Urban League). Just a year later, Bennett read “To Usward, ” her tribute to novelist Jesse Fauset, at …

The Political Pen: Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Kate Kuc, Melissa Boyer, Chloe Dickson

Women of the Eighth Ward

Presented on Friday, February 21 as part of Messiah College’s 2020 Humanities Symposium. This exhibit, “Vulnerabilities & Securities in Historic Harrisburg: From Abolition to Suffrage,” was produced by the Center for Public Humanities Student Fellows and Dr. Sarah Myers’s Public History Class.

In 1895, Alice Dunbar-Nelson published her first collection of short stories and poems, Violets and Other Tales. She also published a few plays, such as Mine Eyes Have Seen (1918) in The Crisis, the official magazine of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People. Dunbar-Nelson often used her creative works to address racism and …

Ardent Activist: Anne E. Amos, Anna Strange, Michaela Magners

Women of the Eighth Ward

Presented on Friday, February 21 as part of Messiah College’s 2020 Humanities Symposium. This exhibit, “Vulnerabilities & Securities in Historic Harrisburg: From Abolition to Suffrage,” was produced by the Center for Public Humanities Student Fellows and Dr. Sarah Myers’s Public History Class.

Amos was involved in the temperance movement in Harrisburg. As a founding member of the Independent Order of Daughters of Temperance, she served as the Grand Recording Scribe and District Grand Deputy of the Good Samaritan Council, no. 1. The Council listed under her address on South Avenue functioned as a political hub in the Eighth Ward. Serving …

Musician And Church Leader: Hannah Braxton Jones, Isis Ortiz-Scarlett, Max Weaver, Jarod Fry

Women of the Eighth Ward

Presented on Friday, February 21 as part of Messiah College’s 2020 Humanities Symposium. This exhibit, “Vulnerabilities & Securities in Historic Harrisburg: From Abolition to Suffrage,” was produced by the Center for Public Humanities Student Fellows and Dr. Sarah Myers’s Public History Class.

Hannah's leadership and administrative skills extended beyond the church to civic organizations such as the House of Ruth, Good Samaritans, and Daughters of Samaritans. In addition, she was a dedicated music teacher. She did all of this while providing for her family by working as a domestic, one of the few jobs available to African-American women at that …

Rhythms Of Resilience In The Eighth: From Abolition To Suffrage, Jean Corey, Katie Wingert

Women of the Eighth Ward

Presented on Friday, February 21 as part of Messiah College’s 2020 Humanities Symposium. This exhibit, “Vulnerabilities & Securities in Historic Harrisburg: From Abolition to Suffrage,” was produced by the Center for Public Humanities Student Fellows and Dr. Sarah Myers’s Public History Class.

This exhibit seeks to honor the spirit of perseverance and resilience demonstrated by many individuals who fought for their rights and contributed positively to the community of the Old Eighth, Dauphin County, and beyond. In this year, we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the 15th Amendment and the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. 2020 is also the …

Civil War & Emancipation - With Biography Of T. Morris Chester, Digital Harrisburg, Drew Hermeling

Look Up, Look Out

Harrisburg was an integral city for the Union during the Civil War. Harrisburg’s canal, roads, and railroads provided an extensive transportation network that connected the state capital of Pennsylvania with the rest of the northern states. Camp Curtin, named after Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin, was founded at the fairgrounds just outside of the city’s northern boundaries at the beginning of the war. As a staging ground for the Union Army, thousands of soldiers passed through the camp between 1861 and 1865 and in turn shaped the small urban center. The influx of soldiers sometimes exceeded the accommodations at Camp Curtin …

Business And Social Life In The Old Eighth Ward - With Biography Of Colonel W. Strothers, Drew Hermeling, Digital Harrisburg

Look Up, Look Out

Despite its reputation as a lower-income and vice-ridden region, the Old Eighth Ward was a thriving place for businesses, both large and small. In fact, much of the neighborhood’s reputation for unhealthiness was a result of the prominent industries that called the ward home. One such factory was W. O. Hickok Manufacturing Company, also referred to as the “Eagle Works,” the oldest and most prominent industrial plant in the Old Eighth Ward and one of the first manufacturing plants to use electricity for light and power. Additionally, Eagle Works’ founder, Orvil Hickok, served as a councilman for the borough …

Educational Reform In The Old Eighth Ward - With Biography Of William Howard Day, Drew Hermeling, Digital Harrisburg

Look Up, Look Out

In the early days of the Old Eighth Ward, education was segregated and the responsibility of church communities. Thomas Dorsey founded a school for “colored children, both free and bound,” in 1817 in the Wesley Union AME Zion church building. Eventually, a three story building, located between the Jennings Foundry and the Wesley Union church, known as “Franklin Hall” became the primary educational home of the Ward’s pupils. However, Franklin Hall was poorly suited for educating children. J. Howard Wert, writing in the Patriot, described the conditions there, stating that they

“were of the poorest; the rooms were destitute of …

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Great Speakers Of The Old Eighth Ward - With Biography Of Frances Harper, Digital Harrisburg, Drew Hermeling

Look Up, Look Out

The Old Eighth Ward was one of Harrisburg’s most diverse neighborhoods in the later 19th and early 20th centuries. The district’s varied ethnic and racial composition was unparalleled elsewhere in the city, and its residents were engaged in a range of occupations. Many were run-of-the-mill laborers who found employment in the nearby railroads and manufacturing facilities. Others represented a variety of professional classes: small business owners, lawyers, preachers, nurses, and teachers, among others. From the period before the Civil War to the opening years of the 20th century, the Old Eighth hosted numerous social events including public speeches from influential …

A Tangled Web: Quakers And The Atlantic Slave System 1625 – 1770., Kate Freedman

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation re-contextualizes the Quakers’ history as anti-slavery pioneers by exploring the crucial economic role that the slave-based economies of the British West Indies played in establishing the Quakers as a powerful sect in the seventeenth and eighteenth century Atlantic world. Quakers were driven by their faith to foster a spirit of equality inside and outside of their meetings. They were among the first European religious sects to allow women to preach, to oppose violence and war, and, beginning in the middle of the eighteenth-century, to ban the practice of enslaving other human beings within their membership. Yet the Quakers …

Gettysburg Historical Journal 2016

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

No abstract provided.

"Where We May Oftener Converse Together": Translation Of Written And Spoken Communication In Colonial Pennsylvania, Jenna E. Fleming

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

In this paper I examine the differences between colonists’ and Indians’ perceptions and use of language in early Pennsylvania. Through consideration of translation challenges in both spoken and written contexts, I conclude that while residents of the region created systems for coping with linguistic issues, basic disparities between native and colonial forms of communication persisted in complicating diplomatic relations. The title of the paper is taken from the August 26, 1758 entry in The Journal of Christian Frederick Post and is part of the Pennsylvanian government’s proposal for closer relations with Indians.

Carlisle Indian School Students Database, Amelia Trevelyan

Carlisle Indian School Students

This data collection helps to identify students who attended the Carlisle Indian School from 1879 to 1918. Data were collected from periodical publications in the Carlisle Indian Industrial School (CIIS) archive, such as The School News, The Red Man, The Indian Craftsman, and The Morning Star. Many of these publications are now available online in the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center.

In Defense Of Colonel Richard P. Roberts, Commanding Officer Of The Pennsylvania 140th Regiment, Gregory Jason Bell

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Richard P. Roberts was the colonel of the Pennsylvania 140th regiment from its organization in September 1862 until his death at Gettysburg in July 1863. During this time period, Captain David Acheson of Company C fostered a “growing dislike” for the colonel that led him to portray the colonel negatively in his writings. Unfortunately for the colonel’s reputation, Acheson’s letters have been widely published, leading at least one historian to accept Acheson’s poor opinion of the colonel as fact. However, other primary sources exist which collectively demonstrate a positive regimental opinion of the colonel and further suggest that Acheson’s criticisms …

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 46, No. 3, Don Yoder, Alfred L. Shoemaker, Paul R. Wieand, Earl F. Robacker, Ada Robacker, Herbert H. Beck, Edna Eby Heller, Vincent R. Tortora, Frances Lichten

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• Two Worlds in the Dutch Country
• Belsnickel Lore
• Carpet-Rag Parties
• Quilting Traditions in the Dutch Country
• Lititz
• Lititz Specialties
• Amish Funerals
• Pennsylvania Redware
• Scratch-Carved Easter Eggs
• Fractur From the Hostetter Collection

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 46, No. 2, Nancy Kettering Frye, Jean-Paul Benowitz, Amos Long Jr., John A. Milbauer

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• "An Uncommon Woman" in the Age of the Common Man: The Life and Times of Sarah Righter Major
• Maintaining Mennonite Identity: The Old Order Church in Pennsylvania and Virginia
• The End of an Era: The Last One-Room Public Schools in Lebanon County
• Pennsylvania Extended in the Cherokee Country: A Study of Log Architecture

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 46, No. 1, Jean-Paul Benowitz, John Lowry Ruth, Paula T. Hradkowsky, Monica Mutzbauer

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• The Mennonites of Pennsylvania: A House Divided
• "Not Only Tradition, but Truth": Legend and Myth Fragments Among Pennsylvania Mennonites
• Mennonite Women and Centuries of Change in America
• "It is Painful to Say Goodbye": A Mennonite Family in Europe and America

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 45, No. 3, Susan L. F. Isaacs, Donald Roan, Debora Kodish, Lois Fernandez, Karen Buchholz, Susan Fellman Jacob, Ron Schlegel, Mindy Brandt

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• Folklife at the Margins: Cultural Conservation for the Schuylkill Heritage Corridor
• The Goschenhoppen Historians: Preserving and Celebrating Pennsylvania German Folk Culture
• The African American Festival of Odunde: Twenty Years on South Street
• Joanna Furnace: Then and Now
• Port Clinton: A Peek Into the Past

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 45, No. 2, Thomas E. Gallagher Jr., Robert Troy Boyer, Amos Long Jr., Christine M. Mueseler, Catherine Anne Jacobs, Hugo A. Freund

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• Occupational Folklife
• A Fine-Tooth Comb: Atlee Crouse Carries on a Family Tradition
• "Lime and Manure": Agricultural Practices Among the Pennsylvania Germans
• Alcoa, New Kensington: "It was More Than a Job - It was a Way of Life"
• Women's Work: Textile Manufacturing in the Lackawanna Valley
• Working the Seams: African American Professional Performers Moving Between White Public Culture and African American Private Culture

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 45, No. 1, Joan Saverino, Joseph Bentivegna, Nicholas V. De Leo, Catherine Cerrone, Janet Theophano

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• "Domani Ci Zappa": Italian Immigration and Ethnicity in Pennsylvania
• A Study of the San Cataldesi Who Emigrated to Dunmore, Pennsylvania
• A Look at the Early Years of Philadelphia's "Little Italy"
• "An Aura of Toughness, Too": Italian Immigration to Pittsburgh and Vicinity
• Expressions of Love, Acts of Labor: Women's Work in an Italian American Community

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 44, No. 3, Diane Sidener Young, Anne W. Goda, Susan Kalcik, Woodward S. Bousquet, Monica Mutzbauer

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• Conservation and Mediation in the Folk and Traditional Arts of Pennsylvania
• Isaac and Thomas Stahl, the Revival Potters of Powder Valley
• The Folk Art of Decorated Eggs
• Jim Popso and His Coal Country Folk Art
• Leaving the Old World for the New: Rules Governing Emigration from Landau in the Palatinate

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 44, No. 2, Susan Kalcik, June Granatir Alexander, M. Mark Stolarik, Corinne Earnest, Klaus Stopp, Jobie E. Riley

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• Fortune's Stepchildren: Slovaks in Pennsylvania
• Slovak Churches: Religious Diversity and Ethnic Communities
• Slovak Fraternal-Benefit Societies in Pennsylvania
• Early Fraktur Referring to Birth and Baptism in Pennsylvania: A Taufpatenbrief from Berks County for a Child Born in 1751
• The Solitary Sisters of Saron

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 44, No. 1, Charles L. Blockson, Roland C. Barksdale-Hall, Jerrilyn Mcgregory, Terry G. Jordan

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• "A Missing Link": The History of African Americans in Pennsylvania
• The Twin City Elks Lodge: A Unifying Force in Farrell's African American Community
• The Greening of Philadelphia
• The "Saddlebag" House Type and Pennsylvania Extended

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 43, No. 3, Thomas E. Gallagher Jr., Elaine Mercer, Kenneth E. Kopecky, Eric O. Hoiberg, Gertrude E. Huntington, Marilyn E. Lehman, Samuel S. Stoltzfus, William B. Fetterman, Bernadette L. Hutchison, John W. Friesen

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• The Old Order Amish
• Amish Quilts: Creativity Supported by Rules and Traditions
• Conflict: A Mainspring of Amish Society
• Occupational Opportunities for Old Order Amish Women
• The Amish Taboo on Photography: Its Historical and Social Significance
• Our Changing Amish Church District
• Images of the Amish on Stage and Film
• Amish Gardens: A Symbol of Identity
• The Myth of the Ideal Folk Society Versus the Reality of Amish Life

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 43, No. 2, Susan Kalcik, Hilda Adam Kring, Regina Bendix, Mindy Brandt, Thomas E. Gallagher Jr., Patricia Irvin Cooper, John I. Schwarz Jr., Willard Wetzel

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• The America's Industrial Heritage Project: A Model for Cultural Tourism
• The Harmonists are Waiting for You
• The Quest for Authenticity in Tourism and Folklife Studies
• Tourism and the Old Order Amish
• The Log Cabin: Notes on its Structure and Dissemination
• On the Making of Die Union Choral Harmonie (1833): Evidence from Henry C. Eyer's Working Papers
• In Memoriam: Paul R. Wieand, a True Artist

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 43, No. 1, Thomas E. Gallagher Jr., James D. Mcmahon Jr., Gary M. Johnston, Monica Mutzbauer, Robert P. Stevenson

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• Causes of Diversity Between Old Order Amish Settlements
• Daniel Danner, Woodturner: An Early 19th-Century Rural Craftsman in Central Pennsylvania
• "Truth Somewhere in the Telling": The Legend of the Wigton Massacre
• The Connections Between Pennsylvania and the Palatinate in Popular 20th-Century German Literature
• The Story of One Old-Time Country Store

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 42, No. 3, Margaret Clark Reynolds, Mary Lou Robson Fleming, Lee C. Hopple

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• Assimilation and Acculturation in a Pennsylvania-German Landscape: The Nisley Family and its Architecture in the Lower Swatara Creek Basin
• Charles-Alexandre Lesueur of Paris, Philadelphia, and New Harmony, Indiana
• Religious-Geographical History of the Hutterian Brethren in Europe and Russia, 1523-1879

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 42, No. 2, Wendell R. Zercher, Charles Greg Kelley, Robert P. Stevenson, Henry J. Kauffman, John W. Parsons, Roy Christman, Elwood Christman, Greg Huber

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• Charles E. Starry, Adams County Chair Maker
• Lewis Miller's Chronicle of York: A Picture of Life in Early America
• Family Anecdotes from a Georges Creek Home
• The Pennsylvania-German Schrank
• The Barns of Towamensing Township
• A Review of Robert F. Ensminger's The Pennsylvania Barn