Culture
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English Teacher at Abington Friends School Brings Renowned Poet’s Letters to Life in New Collection
After decades of work, Daniel Benjamin, an English teacher at Abington Friends School, has released a collection of 20th-century poet Jack Spicer’s letters with Wesleyan University Press, bringing the poet back into public discourse. Known for his fierce integrity, experimental style, and commitment to creative community, Spicer helped shape the landscape of 20th-century American poetry.…
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St. Hedwig Church in Chester Will No Longer Be a Catholic Church
The Philadelphia Archdiocese has declared that St. Hedwig Church in Chester will no longer be used as a Catholic church, writes Cory Sharber for WHYY. Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson J. Perez approved the relegation on Sunday of the 100+-year-old church to “profane but not sordid use,” effective Jan. 1, 2026. That means it will no longer…
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Dinosaur Tracks Discovered in Valley Forge Park
Valley Forge National Historical Park has a new and exciting feature, as dozens of fossilized dinosaur footprints have been discovered on rocks used for a hiking trail, writes Mark Scolforo for The Associated Press. The trace fossils are approximately 210 million years old and scattered along the winding trail. The slabs were purchased eight years…
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Before the Revolution Was Fought with Guns, Philadelphia’s Thomas Paine Sparked It with His Pen
Before the Revolution was fought with guns and bayonets, Thomas Paine fought it with words. Words that were sharper, louder, and more dangerous than any weapon on the field. Long before the Continental Army clashed with British troops enforcing British rule, Paine’s pen and Robert Bell’s printing press jolted the American colonies toward a destiny…
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Downingtown Auction House Sells Rare British Plate from 1738
Downingtown’s Pook & Pook auction house has sold a rare Liverpool delft plate from 1738 for nearly $30,000, writes Norman Watson for The Courier, a newspaper in Dundee, Scotland. The auction house, which is located in a historic stone inn built in 1761, recently held an international sale that offered 500 lots from several states,…
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King of Prussia Trail Project Moves Forward with Major William Penn Foundation Grant
Plans to strengthen Montgomery County’s extensive trail network are moving forward, writes Justin Heinze for Patch. This comes thanks to a $326,900 environmental and public space grant from the William Penn Foundation. The funding will support planning and outreach for the Gulph Road Connector, a new 2.8-mile trail designed to link the Schuylkill River Trail…
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500 Miles of Circuit Trails Redefine How Communities Connect Across Greater Philadelphia, South Jersey
On any given weekend, the Schuylkill River Trail hums with life — runners weaving past families on bikes, friends meeting at the water’s edge, and walkers and riders using the trail to get where they need to go. Across the Delaware River in Camden, walkers and cyclists follow the revitalized waterfront to the Ben Franklin…
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Penn State Abington Professor Writes Book on American Revolutionary War from Perspective of German Soldiers
Friederike Baer, associate professor of history at Penn State Abington, examines the experiences of German soldiers during the American Revolutionary War in her new book, Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War, according to a staff interview from Penn State News. The book focuses on 30,000 German auxiliaries hired by Britain to squash the…
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Ambler’s Karla Troutman Discovers Familial Connection to a Prominent Abolitionist, Businessman
Karla Trotman, Ambler resident and president and CEO of Electro Soft Inc., an electronics manufacturing and engineering firm in Montgomeryville that her parents started, never learned about James Forten in school growing up. Little did she know that she would have such a strong familial connection to the prominent Black Philadelphia businessman and abolitionist. Forten…
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Ardmore Document Dealer to Sell Letter from Cash-Strapped George Washington
Nathan Raab, an Ardmore document historian, is selling a 1787 letter. Cris Barrish, WHYY, reported the correspondence’s importance, gained from author George Washington. Washington wrote the two-page letter after Valley Forge (1777–1778) and the end of the Revolutionary War (1872) but before becoming president (1798). Its recipient was Israel Shreve, a New Jersey colonel at…
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Ardmore’s Raab Collection Selling George Washington’s 1777 Letter
The Raab Collection in Ardmore is offering a 1777 letter written by George Washington in Morristown, New Jersey, for $150,000, writes Rob Jennings for Military.com. Despite a recent defeat, the commander of the Continental Army penned an optimistic letter on the possibility of winning the Revolutionary War. Washington wrote that the strong resistance during the…
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The Tent General Washington Slept in at Valley Forge a Symbol of His Wartime Leadership
George Washington’s war tent, created in Reading during the Valley Forge encampment in 1778, is an iconic part of the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, writes Richard Grant for the Smithsonian Magazine. The tent was part of a replacement set for the general’s initial campaign tents, all of which had worn out. By…
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The Revolutionary War’s Tide Turned in Bucks County. Washington’s Crossing Changed Everything
By the last week of December 1776, a full year before the winter encampment in Valley Forge, the fields and riverbanks of Bucks County felt as cold and uncertain as the fate of the Revolution itself. After defeats in New York City and a desperate retreat across New Jersey, George Washington and the Continental Army…
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Lancaster Art Vault: A Vibrant Creative Hub Breathing More Life Into Downtown
Just steps from Lancaster’s Gallery Row and the convention center, a once-quiet corner at Orange and Queen Streets now pulses with creativity. The Lancaster Art Vault, a 15,000-square-foot gallery and artist studio collective located at 100 North Queen Street in the heart of downtown Lancaster, has rapidly become one of the city’s standout arts destinations…
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Raab Collection Offers Rare Hamilton-Signed U.S. Proclamation
In a move that might be of interest to both history buffs and Broadway fans, The Raab Collection in Ardmore is offering up a rare copy of George Washington’s neutrality proclamation signed by Alexander Hamilton, writes Tori Latham for the Robb Report. Hamilton helped draft the 1793 Rules of Neutrality, which was owned by one…
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Was The Revolutionary War America’s First Civil War? You Decide
When Ken Burns sat down with Joe Rogan last month and called the American Revolution “our first civil war,” it caught a lot of people off-guard. The phrase stopped Rogan cold, and it’s been bouncing around ever since. Was Burns exaggerating for dramatic effect, or was he pointing out something we’ve missed all along about…
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Chestnut Hill Was Home to One of Nation’s Largest Hospitals During Civil War
During the Civil War, Chestnut Hill was home to one of the nation’s largest hospitals, according to a staff report from the Chestnut Hill Local. When the war started, the Chestnut Hill East suburban railway line had only been open for seven years. However, it soon provided an essential access route for many patients. When…
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Valley Forge Explained So a Fifth-Grader Could Understand: Cold, Courage, and a Comeback
Most of us have heard of Valley Forge, but not many people really understand what happened there, or why it mattered so much. It wasn’t a battle, and no famous victory was won in the snow. But the winter encampment at Valley Forge was one of the most important turning points of the American Revolution.…
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