Historical Society of Pennsylvania Presents The Changing Faces of Independence: Pennsylvania in the 1800s

Join us for the opening of our exhibit Changing Faces of Independence: Pennsylvania in the 1800s. How has the makeup of who is an American changed since the American Revolution? How have the people in that changing face of America continuously reinvigorated and reasserted the founding ideals of the country? By examining the documents left by our ancestors in the time leading up to America’s 100th birthday, this display poses those questions to their descendants.

By the time of the nation’s Centennial Celebration in Philadelphia in 1876, enormous waves of German and Irish immigrants arrived in Pennsylvania, and significant migrations of free and enslaved people of African descent moved from the South, using the Underground Railroad and following Emancipation during and after the Civil War. Curated in partnership with the German Society of Pennsylvania and Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, this exhibit aims to connect Americans to their ancestors through the records of their lives, highlighting how they perceived their roles as Americans and as newly arrived Pennsylvanians.

Light refreshments will be served.

This exhibit and related programming are made possible through the Lily Foundation and the Philadelphia Funder Collaborative for the Semiquincentennial.