Remembering Germantown

Remembering Germantown
Author: Irvin Miller
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 151
Release: 2008-10-14
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 162584879X

With grit and gumption, the residents of Germantown propelled their community from a sleepy backwater to a thriving urban neighborhood. Through charming first-person accounts and fascinating narratives culled from sixty years of the Germantown Crier, readers may catch a glimpse of the feisty Germantowners who proudly honor their past without ceasing to move forward. Meet cantankerous Ann Shermer, a nineteenth-century Bethlehem Pike tollkeeper who enforced the fare with the help of her trusty flintlock pistol, and the towns enforcer of morality, civilizer Samuel Harvey. Whether a tale from the storied King of Prussia Inn, which housed greats like George Washington and Gilbert Stuart, or a memory of a childhood encounter with Louisa May Alcott, each vignette in this collection crafts a poignant portrait.

Germantown, Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill

Germantown, Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill
Author: Judith Callard
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2000
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780738504162

Called the most historic street in America, Germantown Avenue follows the path of an ancient Lenni Lenape trail. This historic route links Germantown, Mount Airy, and Chestnut Hill, the three neighborhoods of the city of Philadelphia that make up the old German Township. From the first protest against slavery in North America, to the battle of Germantown in 1777, to the service of its two military hospitals during the Civil War, Germantown has been the site of some of history's most significant events. Many rarely seen images from the archives of the Germantown Historical Society are in Germantown, Mount Airy, and Chestnut Hill. Covering the period from Colonial times to the twentieth century, these images tell in sharp detail the story of the region founded by German-speaking settlers in 1683. From these beginnings, Germantown evolved into a prosperous industrial center by the mid nineteenth century. It also became home to wealthy businessmen who built elaborate Victorian villas and gardens. Germantown was home to one of the nation's first commuter railroads and to many factories and textile mills. Immigrants from all parts of Europe were attracted to Germantown. These faces, events, and places are what make Germantown, Mount Airy, and Chestnut Hill an indispensable keepsake.

Tangled Journeys

Tangled Journeys
Author: Lori D. Ginzberg
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2024-09-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1469679973

In 1830 Richard Walpole Cogdell, a husband, father, and bank clerk in Charleston, South Carolina, purchased a fifteen-year-old enslaved girl, Sarah Martha Sanders. Before her death in 1850, she bore nine of his children, five of whom reached adulthood. In 1857, Cogdell and his enslaved children moved to Philadelphia, where he bought them a house and where they became, virtually overnight, part of the African American middle class. An ambitious historical narrative about the Sanders family, Tangled Journeys tells a multigenerational, multiracial story that is both traumatic and prosaic while forcing us to confront what was unseen, unheard, and undocumented in the archives, and thereby inviting us into the process of American history making itself.

The Evolution of Abolitionism

The Evolution of Abolitionism
Author: Ena Lindner Swain
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 438
Release: 2018-11-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0359207081

This groundbreaking volume is a compelling and superbly well-annotated depiction of the birth of the Abolition Movement in North America in one extraordinary community: Germantown and its environs in Southeastern Pennsylvania, from the Colonial Period through the Civil War. The author presents a rich tapestry of vignettes, exhaustively researched, to illustrate the contributions of abolitionists whose agency fueled Abolitionism.

Education As My Agenda

Education As My Agenda
Author: J. Robinson
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2017-03-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 140398140X

When Gertrude Williams retired in 1998, after forty-nine years in the Baltimore public schools,The Baltimore Sun called her "the most powerful of principals" who "tangled with two superintendents and beat them both." In this oral memoir, Williams identifies the essential elements of sound education and describes the battles she waged to secure those elements, first as teacher, then a counselor, and, for twenty-five years, as principal. She also described her own education - growing up black in largely white Germantown, Pennsylvania; studying black history and culture for the first time at Cheyney State Teachers College; and meeting the rigorous demands of the program which she graduated from in 1949. In retracing her career, Williams examines the highs and lows of urban public education since World War II. She is at once an outspoken critic and spirited advocate of the system to which she devoted her life.

Marmee & Louisa

Marmee & Louisa
Author: Eve LaPlante
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2013-11-19
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1451620675

Originally published: New York: Free Press, 2012.

Cresheim Farm

Cresheim Farm
Author: Antje Ulrike Mattheus
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2023-06-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000891933

This book is a work of political archaeology. It focuses on the people and events at a particular colonial farm in Germantown, Pennsylvania; their stories provide a micro and macro view of economic, social, demographic, and agro-ecological change. Cresheim Farm shows how one mostly unknown but strategically placed piece of land—home to an extraordinary array of people, including early anti-slavery and anti-Nazi activists, the first woman editor of the Saturday Evening Post and a robber baron—can tell, affect and reflect the history of a nation. The writing is historically grounded and academic, future-oriented, deeply researched, and immediate. Cresheim Farm serves as a lens through which to observe and understand social forces, such as the launching point of freedom and democracy movements, white privilege, slavery, and genocidal westward expansion. The past lives on in all of us.

Printed Textiles

Printed Textiles
Author: Linda Eaton
Publisher: The Monacelli Press, LLC
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2014-09-23
Genre: Design
ISBN: 1580933939

The Winterthur Museum’s richly illustrated history of British and American fabrics made or used from 1700–1850 is a visual reference for designers and a definitive contribution to textile studies. From slipcovers that belonged to George Washington, to bedhangings described by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Delaware’s Winterthur Museum holds some of the finest cotton and linen textiles made or used in America and Britain between 1700 and 1850. One of the fastest growing and potentially most lucrative trades in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, on the forefront of developments in science and engineering, chemistry and technology, the textile industry is a fascinating lens into international trade relations and cultural exchange over nearly two centuries. Printed Textiles is a major update to the classic text published by Winterthur in 1970—a sourcebook compiled by celebrated curator Florence Montgomery that detailed all aspects of the fabrics’ lifespan, from their design and method of manufacture to their use and exchange value. Linda Eaton, Director of Collections and Senior Curator of Textiles, updates the classic with a particular focus on furnishing fabrics—referred to as “furnitures.” Building on research that has come to light since 1970 and benefiting from the technical and scientific expertise of the conservators and scientists at Winterthur, Eaton presents a thorough and sweeping study enriched by the diverse approaches to material culture today. With hundreds of beautifully photographed samples—engagingly contextualized with iconic figures in American history including Betsy Ross and Benjamin Franklin—this significant addition to textile scholarship allows for a full appreciation of these fascinating fabrics. Printed Textiles is destined to become an essential reference for interior designers, fashion and textile design students, conservators, collectors, and anyone with an interest in the textile industry.