Independence Historical Trust

Have you heard about the new #NPSApp? Connect with all your favorite parks in one place! #FindYourPark #EncuentraTuParque

#OTD in 1741, painter Charles Willson Peale was born! During the American Revolution and the years following, Peale painted over 300 portraits of figures from the Revolution. Many of them were displayed in his museum, The Philadelphia Museum (also called Peale's Museum), which found its home on the second floor of Independence Hall. In addition to being a painter, Peale was an early pioneer in the field of taxidermy. He developed his own preservation methods and even mounted ...some of the specimens from the Lewis and Clark Expedition. This self-portrait of Charles Willson Peale was one of the earliest acquisitions by the Friends of Independence (now the Trust!) and was gifted to the Park in 1979. You can see this portrait and many others, along with Peale's taxidermied bald eagle in the Second Bank Portrait Gallery.

Happy Birthday to Thomas Jefferson, born #otd in 1743! Join NPS Rangers Sarah Bachan and Ed Welch as they explore Jefferson's time in Philadelphia. #findyourpark #encuentratuparque

Join NPS Ranger Stewart Low as he reads "Woodman, Spare that Tree" by George Pope Morris. #NationalPoetryMonth #FindYourPark #EncuentraTuParque

Happy Birthday to the Second Bank! #OTD in 1816, President James Madison signed the bill that established the Second Bank of the United States. #findyourpark #encuentratuparque #recreateresponsibly

The Adams Family *snap snap* Happy Anniversary to John and Abigail Adams, who married #OTD, October 25, 1764! #SpookySeason

In honor of Archaeology Month, Curator Debbie Miller took the Puzzle Jug challenge with a reproduction piece we have here at the museum. Northeast Museum Services Center

All women of the United States are now entitled to vote in the coming elections on the same basis as men. But our work cannot end. Alice Paul What important i...ssues will you consider when casting your ballot? In 1920, the #RaceToRatification was over and over 8 million women headed to the polls for the first time. But men still voted at nearly twice the rate of women. It would take generations more until eligible women voted at similar rates to men. And since 1984, a greater percentage of women have reported exercising their right to vote than their male counterparts. But as Alice Paul noted 100 years ago, the vote was only the first step in the work towards equality. #BeyondThe19th Learn more in the essay "Beyond 1920: The Legacies of Woman Suffrage" https://www.nps.gov//beyond-1920-the-legacies-of-woman-suf Need more information to make your plan for voting? Visit: https://www.usa.gov/voter-registration Violinist Maud Powell casting her vote in the November 1919 elections in New York City. The Library of Congress

This letter from Edgar Allan Poe to a Philadelphia magazine editor was sold for $125,000 at a recent auction. Ranger Paul Campbell was interviewed as part of the Philadelphia Inquirer article. Many of Poe's famous works such "The Tell-Tale Heart," "Murders in the Rue Morgue," and "The Masque of the Red Death" were written while he lived in Philadelphia. Independence NHP, Edgar Allan Poe NHS & Thaddeus Kosciuszko NM #PoeTober #SpookySeason

Yesterday was William Penn's 376th birthday! Check out what the Trust and Independence NHP, Edgar Allan Poe NHS & Thaddeus Kosciuszko NM did last year to celebrate! Thanks to a generous grant, the Trust was able to hire conservators to clean and repair some damage on the William Penn portrait in the Second Bank Portrait Gallery. Special thanks to our friends at Urban Engineers for capturing the day!

#ArchaeologyMonth One of our largest archaeology sites that most people don’t know about is Area F. Sounds secretive, right? Sadly, there are no alien craft sto...red there it is now a parking garage located on 2nd Street by Welcome Park. It was a large and complex site that historically consisted of three small alleys that were laid out by George Anthony in 1692. He then subdivided various properties along the main streets and alleys for building lots. Over the next three hundred years, dozens of buildings were erected and raised there, as one would expect in a busy neighborhood on the Philadelphia waterfront. The archaeology was done in the basements of the late 19th century factory buildings that occupied the site in the 1970s. There they found tens of thousands of artifacts from several different privy pits dating from the late 17th through the 20th centuries. The artifact deposits were particularly rich, and tell the story of Life of Philadelphia’s Waterfront, which unfortunately disappeared when Interstate I-95 was cut through Old City. See more

Happy 376th Birthday to William Penn!

What does it mean to be a citizen? When the #19thAmendment became part of the U.S. Constitution in 1920, it forbade voting discrimination based on sex. But only... for citizens. Many Native Americans were denied U.S. citizenship and considered "wards" of the government. Suffragist Zitkala-Ša believed that the path to true equality for women must include Indian citizenship rights. #IndigenousPeoplesDay Zitkala-Ša asked the National Woman's Party to join the cause. The NWP printed her article "The Indian Woman" in their publication The Suffragist in 1918 and included her as a speaker at their 1920 conference. But ultimately, the NWP decided to not to help. Other women's groups like the General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC) supported Zitkala-Ša’s efforts. The GFWC paid Zitkala-Ša to give speeches and investigate corruption in Indian policy. In her speeches to women’s clubs, she continued to call for women to use their vote to enfranchise Native people. The work of Zitkala-Ša and other Native people led to passage of the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924.However, states continued to deny Native American voting rights for decades. Zitkala-Ša founded the National Council of American Indians in 1926 to coordinate across tribes the fight for the legal recognition of Native Americans. She led voter registration drives and continued to advocate for Indigenous People's rights. #BeyondThe19th Learn more about Zitkala-Ša, one of our 20 Suffragists to Know for 2020: https://www.nps.gov/people/zitkala-sa.htm And read about the complex issue of citizenship and Native sovereignty in the article "Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (Zitkala-Ša): Advocate for the Indian Vote" by Cathleen Cahill: https://www.womensvote100.org//gertrude-simmons-bonnin-zit

Have you been to Franklin Court? This little passage between Market and Chestnut is were Ben Franklin lived! Today, it's home to the Benjamin Franklin Museum, the B. Free Franklin Post Office, the Print Shop, and the Franklin ghost houses.

#OTD 17 years ago, the Liberty Bell was moved to its new home at the Liberty Bell Center!

#ArchaeologyMonth A lot of people ask us what privies look like when you dig them. We typically divide privies in sections in order to read the stratigraphy. No...t unlike a geologic formation, archaeological stratigraphy is the layering of the soils in a feature, where you can see how soil and artifacts were deposited over time. This privy from the National Constitution Center site is a bit different because it was accidently cut by a backhoe. It left a great cross section view of all the stuff that was dumped in it over time ash, bricks and then the domestic layer from when it was a working toilet and trash bin - below. See more

A wonderful addition to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the #19thAmendment!

Burnita Matthews of the National Woman's Party consults with Miss Zonia Baber, representative in United States of the women of Puerto Rico, on the drafting of a... Puerto Rican woman suffrage bill for introduction in Congress in 1926. #HispanicHeritageMonth After the #19thAmendment becomes part of the U.S Constitution in 1920, women across the country quickly register to vote in the upcoming election. But what about women who are citizens but don't live in a state? Although the Jones-Shafroth Act of 1917 guarantees U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans born after 1898, a series of Supreme Court decisions known as the Insular Cases determine that the Constitution does not apply in territories like Puerto Rico. Why? The justices say the territories are "unincorporated" and "inhabited by alien races" and so cannot be governed "according to Anglo-Saxon principles." This racist perspective means that women in Puerto Rico still have to battle for the vote. One newspaper editorial on the island refers to the Puerto Rican suffragists as "a storm dressed in skirts".#BeyondThe19th Learn more about Puerto Rico and the 19th Amendment: https://www.nps.gov/articles/puerto-rico-women-s-history.htm

Before municipal trash collection became common, residents of cities like Philadelphia had to be creative when it came to disposing household trash. One of the ...most convenient, and favored, trash disposal sites were the privy pits (outhouses) that were in nearly every backyard. Trash thrown into a privy hundreds of years ago provides evidence of what daily life was like in the past. Most of the artifacts we’ve recovered in archaeological digs at Independence come from privy pits. #archaeologymonth #archaeology National Constitution Center