Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Learn how to use archival materials to find your ancestors and how archives help preserve these histories.Shamele Jordon, genealogist and researcher, will lead participants through a demonstration of how to search for information in underutilized archival materials such as burial and land records. Ms. Jordan will connect the ways archival documents and publications like the Motorist Green Book offer a wider range of available places to find relatives and trace family histories, ultimately preserving Black communities.This virtual program is offered as a preview for HSP’s upcoming exhibit Voices of the Community: Local Black Preservation, on view June 12- September 26.Historical

Join Jonathan Square to explore how Black visual culture and archives reveal Philadelphia’s antebellum Black communities.Join Jonathan Michael Square, Assistant Professor of Black Visual Culture at Parsons School of Design, for an illustrated talk exploring the lives of free and enslaved Black communities in antebellum America. Drawing from visual culture—portraits, fashion, ephemera—and archival documents, Square will share how these materials help us better understand, reconstruct, and imagine the complex realities of Black life in Philadelphia and beyond during the 18th and 19th centuries. Through this lens, participants will consider both the known histories and the silences that remain—and how art

What happened at McGillin’s stayed at McGillin’s...until now! Explore the iconic bar's 165-year history.On National Beer Day, join us for a talk about the new book, Cheers to McGillin’s: Philly’s Oldest Tavern. Christopher Mullins, Jr., co-owner, & Irene Levy Baker, author, will share colorful tales about the bar’s 165-year history, including its survival through the Civil War, two World Wars, two pandemics, a fire, and even Prohibition. The book includes photos from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, a foreword by former Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell, and food & drink recipes. Each attendee will receive a discount coupon for lunch at

Mary Beth Norton reveals how Philadelphia shaped the long road to revolution in 1774, rethinking the months before Lexington and Concord.In her talk, groundbreaking historian Mary Beth Norton will reveal the “back story” to her George Washington Book Prize-winning book, 1774: The Long Year of Revolution. She will explains the book's intellectual origins and why it differs so dramatically from any other book discussing the crucial eighteen-month period that preceded the battles at Lexington and Concord, paying particular attention to events in Philadelphia, in contrast to the usual emphasis on Boston.This talk will mark the opening of the new exhibit

The Pennsylvania Provincial Conference was held June 18–25, 1776, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia. The Conference had a profound impact on American public opinion and facilitated the passing of the Declaration of Independence only a few days later. The 1776 Pennsylvania Constitution was radically innovative for its time, including a Declaration of Rights that predated the Bill of Rights and a provision that voters did not need to own property. Christopher Pearl, scholar and author of Conceived in Crisis: The Revolutionary Creation of an American State, will lead a discussion on the radical birth of the Keystone State. A number

Step out of the heat and into history! Drop into the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to explore our exhibition, Paths to Independence, featuring a rare selection of historical documents that shaped the American Revolution. Then dive into hands-on activities inspired by these materials. After exploring our broadside wall, create your broadside reflecting on what independence means to YOU. Add your voice to our Semiquincentennial time capsule and become a part of our nation’s history—and the 23 million items in our collection. This free event is part of Red, White, and Blue To Do. Registration is not required.

Join curators Bill Ewald and David Brigham for a gallery talk conversation that revisits the American Revolution through the exhibition Paths to Independence. Moving beyond a simple Patriot versus Loyalist framework, they explore how revolutionary ideals intersected with the practical realities of war—provisioning, militias, governance, and daily decision‑making. This discussion opens the story wider, asking how curators can reintroduce historical complexity and include many voices in telling the nation’s founding moment. Discover how ideas, operations, and lived experience shaped the Revolution we continue to interpret today.