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Martha Graham is a renowned teacher, dancer, and choreographer who was referred to as the "Dancer of the Century" by TIME magazine. She spent more than fifty years of her life choreographing, producing over 180 pieces of work. She was most known for her exquisite technique and danced in most of her own productions. She decided to found her own dance school in 1927. She trained her staff and made sure her students were receiving as much coaching as possible. Her School of Contemporary Dance has lived on and continues to teach young dancers.In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, you can visit her school of Contemporary Dance where she created some of her most innovative works. These include "Frontier" and "Appalachian Spring." Going to see a performance there is an unforgettable experience. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission marked this as a historical landmark in 2008.Her dance school offers an array of classes for its members. The more advanced students are offered programs to lead them towards professional careers. They will study Martha Graham's technique and repertory in the hopes of becoming the best dancer they can be, On the other end of things, this dance school offers classes for younger dancers who are looking to improve their vocational skills and academic performance. They will study Martha Graham's technique, repertory, and composition.

Dedicated in 2008, this historical marker honors Martha Graham, a renowned dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Grahm opened her School of Contemporary Dance in 1927, and the organization continues to utilize her techniques and repertory in their teaching. Grahn is widely credited as a leading influence in the creation of modern dance through her classes and performances, and the school she established is the oldest professional dance school located in the United States.

Historical Marker: Martha Graham's School of Contemporary Dance

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This heritage trail explores notable women and moment in women's history in Pennsylvania. Most of these entries were developed by students in history classes at Saint Vincent College.

While stories of "Molly Pitcher" might be well-known, many women supported the war effort directly by traveling with military units and performing essential support tasks. And some occasions, these women occasionally took up arms themselves, while a handful of other women masquerading as men served directly. Most of these stories have been lost, but not that of Sarah Mary Benjamin owing to her talent for sharing stories of her experience in the war before she passed away in 1853 at 101 years old. One of the highlights of her experience occurred during the Siege of Yorktown in 1781. This occurred when she was married to her second husband, Aaron Osborn, who she met when she working as a domestic servant in New York. During the war, she and other women provided food and water to the soldiers, and that often places the women in harm's way. Sarah Mary Benjamin documented these experiences in her pension application. Of these, the most memorable occurred at Yorktown which led to a chance encounter by General George Washington. According to her narrative, George Washington asked if she was scared of the cannonballs as she was delivering supplies to the soldiers. She replied to him, "No, the bullets would not cheat the gallows, it would not do for the men to fight and starve too."Sarah Mary Benjamin's efforts in the war led to this historic landmark two centuries later. Along with delivering essential supplies to the soldiers in the trenches, she sewed and made bread. She even served on guard duty once while Washington discussed his plans to make an assault on British headquarters. After the war, Sarah and Aaron lived in abandoned soldier huts. They returned there after the battle of Yorktown. This did not last long, however, because Aaron Osborn left her for another woman. Sarah Mary Benjamin soon got married to her third husband, John Benjamin, in 1787 and later moved to this area that is now home to a marker that preserves the stories she shared.

Dedicated in 1992, this historical marker honors the life of Sarah Mary Benjamin who was considered to be a "Revolutionary War heroine" for her support of the war effort. Similar to numerous other women during the American Revolution, Sarah endured the conditions faced by soldiers as she traveled with her soldier husband throughout the war, supporting the unit by preparing food, repairing uniforms, taking in laundry, and tending to wounds, but she also performed garrison duty on at least one occasion. Sarah Mary's work in this regard became well-known thanks to her remarkable capacity for sharing stories of the war in the decades that followed. The marker was placed alongside the highway near the location of the home where she lived in 1822.

Sarah Mary Benjamin Historical Marker

Loretta Perfectus Walsh was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 22, 1896. She became the first woman to enlist in the Unites States Navy and she was the first woman to become active-duty as well as being the first woman to be allowed into any of the United States military forces. With her many accomplishments she is going to be an influence for young women around the world, not only in the United States. Her story really embodies what it means to empower yourself and your peers to dream big and do what you want. She made a career for herself in the military in a time when women weren’t even being considered for positions in the armed forces. She is an important figure in military history for being a first just as Jackie Robinson is so important in sports history for being the first African American to play baseball professionally. By knowing her history we can all be inspired to make history in our own ways just as she did on a larger scale. Although there is almost no information about her childhood we can get an idea of how she lived as a female judging by the time period she lived in. During this time females were very deprived of their rights as the right to vote for women was not given to them until 1920, 24 years after she was born. As a young adult she was not given the basic rights that women today are given. Women of that time were assumed to be a housewife and take care of the children while the man of the house went to work. She was not going to have this and wanted to define what it meant to be a woman as they are today. She was extremely brave and was an icon of that time to all women, young and old. Ultimately her decision was also guided by the decisions that were made leading up to the war. She was angered by these decisions and felt the need to make a difference in the war by joining the forces just as the men were. World War 1 started in 1914 after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and lasted until 1918, under the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. This war was a battle fought between the Central Powers, which included Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, and the Allied Powers, including Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States. This war was one of the most destructive wars to date because of the new forms of warfare which included trench warfare and technological warfare. Soldiers who fought in the trenches saw the most action and every second they were there became harder and harder to endure. Soldiers would always lose limbs and have to be on the lookout for grenades and other explosives. It took major guts from her and the other women who enlisted to go out there without being forced to fight for our country and make a difference in the world. By the end of the war over 16 million people were dead, including civilians. Loretta made it out alive but would fall to a deadly influenza and tuberculosis. Loretta Perfectus Walsh died on August 6, 1925 in Olyphant Pennsylvania from influenza and tuberculosis. She is buried there and her historical marker is also located there on West Lackawanna Avenue (State Highway 347) at Willow Avenue. Her marker reads, “Recognized as the first woman to enlist in the U.S. Navy--on March 21, 1917, sixteen days before the nation entered WWI. As a Chief Yeoman (F), she served in Philadelphia; was discharged 1919. Born (1896) and raised in Olyphant; died in 1925.” Although this is a short gesture to her service and life it really gives us a major detail that makes her who she was. She was historical, she made a decision to fight for our country and become the first woman to enlist in the armed forces. The decisions she made will forever be engraved not only in this sign, but also in time. She is an inspiration to everyone, not only women, because of her bravery and determination.

Loretta Perfectus Walsh was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 22, 1896. Her rise to fame was being the first woman to enlist in the Navy and become active-duty as well as being the first woman to be allowed into any of the Unites States Military forces. She was given the title of Chief Yeoman and was the first woman to do so in the Navy. She became an image for women to enlist in the armed forces. Her historical Marker is located in Olyphant, Pennsylvania, in Lackawanna County near where she grew up. The marker is at the intersection of West Lackawanna Avenue (State Highway 347) and Willow Avenue.

Loretta Perfectus Walsh Historical Marker

The Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, located in Eastern Pennsylvania, is a part of the Blue Mountain Ridge. Hawk Mountain Sanctuary strives to “conserve birds of prey worldwide through the use of education and research.” The establishment of the sanctuary occurred from a dramatic start. In 1929, the Pennsylvania Game Commission placed a $5 bounty on the head of a goshawk. Richard Pough, a recent college graduate and amateur ornithologist, became one of many conservationists who opposed the rapidly growing eradication of wildlife predators and predatory birds. Pough had decided to visit Hawk Mountain two years later and observed hunters gunning down birds of prey for sport. Pough went to the forest floor to gather the carcasses and take photographs of the destruction. These photographs were later seen by Rosalie Edge, a New York conservation activist. In 1934, Edge came to Hawk Mountain and leased 1,400 acres. After installing a warden, hunting of the birds ceased about a year later. In 1938, Edge purchased the land and deeded the 1,400 acres to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association. The sanctuary was incorporated as a non-profit organization, allowing the public to observe the birds of prey. The Early American Conservation movement began in the 19th century. The trend of conservation grew rapidly in America due to poor environmental conditions that had begun to harm wildlife as well as some American children. In this first era of the conservation movement, activists were primarily with how large corporations were utilizing the land. The second era in the conservation movement was concerned with the recreation of ecology, while the third was focused on the introduction and strengthening of environmental laws and policy. Prior to her involvement in conservation, Edge was active in the Women’s Suffrage Movement. However, she remained an avid birder. After hearing of the many acts of destruction towards birds committed by hunters and large corporations, Edge became an active conservationist. By this point, Edge had devoted much of the end of her life establishing a sanctuary for hawks in Eastern Pennsylvania. Rosalie edge was born November 3rd of 1887 in New York City. She was born to a wealthy family, led by her father John Wylie Barrow and her mother Harriet. Her family’s wealth brought her into a private education at Miss Doremus' School. Edge married her husband Noel Edge in Japan on May 28th of 1909. On a trip to Europe with her husband, Edge met Lady Rhondda, a prominent women’s suffrage activist. After deep conversation with Lady Rhondda, Edge was touched and quickly became active in the American women’s suffrage movement. Following the historic passing of the 19th amendment, Edge turned her attention to wildlife activism. After Edge and many others had seen pictures published by Richard Pough of hawks dying in the Kittatinny mountains, she started a campaign to raise the $3,500 necessary to purchase the land. In 1932, she successfully founded the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. Even in her 50’s, Rosalie Edge became one of the most prominent conservation activists of the 20th century. At the age of 52 in 1930, Edge established the Emergency Conservation Committee (ECC), an information clearinghouse for the public. Her “ECC” distributed thousands of pamphlets that reported outrageous acts of wildlife and habitat destruction, named the guilty, and rallied readers to action. The ECC quickly became one of the most successful conservation groups to ever operate in the United States. Edge and ECC had made many other advancements, including the establishment of national parks and canyons. However, Edge considered her crowning achievement to be the establishment of Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. Here she individually stopped the shooting of migrant raptors, raised enough money to buy the land in the middle of a depression, and founded the first refuge for birds of prey.

Hawk Mountain Sanctuary is a sanctuary for wild birds of prey. The organization strives to conserve birds of prey worldwide through the use of education and research. The founder, Rosalie Edge, started her mission here in 1934. She later incorporated Hawk Mountain as a non-profit organization in 1938. Back in 1929, the Pennsylvania Game Commission had placed a large bounty on the goshawk’s head. Following the placement of the bounty, Richard Pough had photographed the dead birds of prey on the mountain floor which were later published in activist journals. Edge, an avid birder at this point in her life, had noticed the pictures and immediately sought funding to lease the land and prevent hunters from destroying the bird of prey populations. She later purchased the land and incorporated Hawk Mountain Sanctuary so other fellow birders could enjoy and study the birds of prey.

Hawk Mountain Sanctuary

Florence B. Seibert was born on October 6, 1897 in Easton, Pennsylvania where she faced many hardships at a young age. Seibert contracted polio, having to wear braces on her legs as a child, and suffered from a limp for the rest of her life, but a disability did not stop her from excelling. As a child, Seibert loved to read about other scientists who would later influence her work in the very same field. There is a historical site landmark in honor of her located in Easton at her place of birth although, she did the majority of her most accredited work at University of Pennsylvania in the 1930s. Seibert completed her undergraduate at Goucher College in Baltimore in 1918 and earned her PhD in biochemistry from Yale university in 1923, which is where she was first able to separate proteins from bacteria as well as determine the relationship between intravenous injections and fevers in patients. Easton was a crucial aspect to Seibert’s life as this is what motivated her and cultivated the inspiration to go into the medical field.In Seibert’s later life she spent the majority of it traveling out of state and even out of the country. She had been in different labs all over the world working with other scientists on research to aid in the cure for other health concerns, such as cancer. Seibert’s career took her to a lot of places such as Chicago to work on her post doctorate. She ended up living in Florida in her later life but had traveled all over the world, such as, Sweden. Seibert received many awards ranging from the first Achievement Award from the America Association of University Woman, to being inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She even created a safe trap for distillation processes which was recognized by the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institute of Health, and other pharmaceutical companies.  At one point in Seibert’s career, she wrote an autobiography titled “Pebbles on the Hill of a Scientist” which gave great insight into who Seibert really was. The title of the book originates from a childhood memory of Seibert, where her and other children of the Easton area would play, but after she and others fell ill, she began to wonder why. She cherished her travels and her friends, who she worked closely with. She also talks about her sister as being an important person in her life. Her book also touches on the reality of her field, which was primarily male-dominated and she speaks to the experience of that. An interesting part about her autobiography is how she wrote it in the later years of her life so she compares to how different the science field is now. She talks about how modernized labs are because of technology and how she hopes younger generations of people who read her book are inspired while older generations can reminisce. Going back to Easton when Seibert was a child, reading about other scientists, she is able to cultivate that same legacy for herself within younger generations.  Seibert lived until she was 93 years old and died on August 23, 1991 from what appeared to be complications from the polio virus that she contracted as a child. Her landmark was placed at the location of her birth on November 15, 1993 and is still standing. Much of her work is still practiced today and still continues to be beneficial to the medical field.

Florence Seibert (October 6, 1897 - August 23, 1991) was a world-famous biochemist who was most known for her work involving the ability to test for Tuberculosis, a very deadly disease in the 1900s. The ability to test for Tuberculosis significantly decreased the death rate as health care professionals were then able to treat it which is still the case for today. Florence grew up in Easton, Pennsylvania with her family in 1897 where she contracted polio. She had difficulty walking as a child and suffered from a limp for the rest of her life due to this. However, Florence did not let this disability stop her from pursuing science, in fact, it encouraged her more to find answers. The life that Florence lived was filled with many accomplishments, travels, awards and even an autobiography that inspires young readers. 

Florence B. Seibert Historical Marker 

Pearl was born on June 26, 1892 in Hillsboro, West Virginia. Due to both parents being Presbyterian missionaries, a young baby Pearl and her parents moved to a small Chinese village of Chinkiang. When Pearl was six years old, her mother and a tutor began homeschooling her. In 1907, Pearl enrolled in a boarding school in Shanghai. After completing her schooling in 1909, she returned to the United States to continue her education at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, she was offered a teacher’s position at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. Early in her professional career as a professor, her mother became ill. Pearl then decided it was best to move back to China to take care of her mother. Years later, in 1917, Pearl fell in love and married a man by the name of John Lossing Buck. In 1920, she gave birth to her only child, Carol. Pearl then returned to the United States in pursuit of her master’s degree in English from Cornell University. Pearl believed that Carol had a mental illness and was later diagnosed with phenylketonuria. When Carol was nine years old, Carol was enrolled in the Vineland Training School. Carol’s mental illness inspired many of Pearl S. Buck’s literature works. In addition, Pearl was frustrated with her own lifestyle and began writing novels in the pursuit of a better living. Pearl went on to write many literary works and some became extremely well known as an author (Pearl S. Buck Biography).	As stated before, Pearl S. Buck was a brilliant, inspiring writer who was born in West Virginia and moved to China as a young child. It was not long before she had her first work published and went on in her life to do amazing works in literature. For example, the second book she penned in 1931, “The Good Earth”, appeared on the American list of best sellers and went on to win many awards. A few of the awards the book earned was the Pulitzer Prize, William Dean Howells Medal, and the most memorable was the Nobel Prize. Not only did it win many awards, but “The Good Earth” was so brilliant that many schools decided to teach the book based on its importance. In addition, she wrote Sons, A House Divided, The First Wife and Other Stories, All Men are Brothers, The Mother, and many more (Pearl Buck). In 1938, Pearl became the first American woman to earn a Nobel Prize in Literature (Pearl S. Buck Biography). 	Based on all Pearl S. Buck’s amazing work, it is easily apparent to see how her house has become such a historic landmark. The great estate of this National Historic Landmark, located in Bucks county Pa, was built in 1825. The Pearl S. Buck house was the home of Pearl S. Buck and her family. This Historical Landmark is significant because it is the home of a very inspiring woman from the early 1900’s. At the time, woman writers were not very common. Not only was she one of the few women writers, but she was the first woman to earn the Nobel Prize in Literature. This home is a physical representation of the work of a woman in the early 1900’s. In addition, the home contains a span of the collection of books that she wrote. Not only does the estate contain her personal collection of books, it also contains her gravesite where visitors are welcome to mourn the death of Pearl S. Buck. Due to the COVID pandemic, the Pearl S. Buck house is currently closed. However, Pearl S. Buck International offers zoom meetings, where one can virtually view and tour the home (Pearl S. Buck Biography). 	Lastly, she quickly became impactful in her community. Pearl began falling in love with how impactful adopting children can be to someone. Pearl adopted a total of 7 children. Pearl became motivated to make the world a better place. Not only did she impact the world with her books, but also with her actions. “Through her writings and her actions Pearl S. Buck promoted peace, social justice and cultural understanding.” This quote clearly proves that she was more than a writer, but she impacted the people around her. In 1949, her actions began to change the world by founding Welcome House. Welcome House was the first American international adoption agency. Welcome House was dedicated to finding homes for the “unadoptable” children who were Asian and Amerasian. Within just a couple years, Welcome House was able to place 7000 children in homes. In 1644, she founded another foundation called Pearl Buck Foundation. The mission of the Pearl Buck Foundation was to assist impoverished children in any way that was needed. Every year at the house, Welcome House holds a picnic to celebrate and advertise their great work of adopting children (Pearl S. Buck Collection).

Pearl S. Buck was an inspiring American writer who grew up in China, immersed in and learning the Chinese culture. While she was fascinated with reading and writing, she began her writing career at age six and her first published work was displayed by English-language Shanghai Mercury. Later in life, she returned to the United States and gave birth to her only child, Carol, on March 4, 1920. Carol was diagnosed with phenylketonuria. Pearl saw the issues in society, having her handicapped daughter, and many of her literature works were inspired by Carol. The Pearl S. Buck house is a National Historic Landmark of a very inspiring woman. The Pearl S. Buck House’s mission is to carry on the legacy of Pearl S. Buck and her amazing work, as well as, continuing to impact the world, as Pearl did.  

Pearl S. Buck House 

During WWI and WWII, women wanted to do something to help out and contribute with the war. So, a woman named Jane Bowne Haines founded the Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women located in Ambler Pennsylvania where they learned how to grow and preserve food for the war. It was established in 1910 by Jane Bowne Haines and a group of women. Jane created the school to give women a practical education in horticulture and landscape architecture. This was the first horticulture school for women in the United states.  Jane was born on July 18, 1869 in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania to a Quaker family in the business of horticulture. Jane’s father made a fruit and shade-tree nursery. She can credit everything she knows to the Wyck House, her family’s home in Germantown. Her ancestor, Caspar Wistar Haines, had created the first formal garden that Jane had studied. Jane went to Bryn Mawr college and earned a B.A. and an M.A... She was also a History Fellow there from 1892 to 1893. Then from 1895 to 1898 she was an associate librarian.[1] Then she went to the New York State Library School and studied from 1898 to 1899. Jane had worked at the Library of Congress for two years and then went back home to help her family with the nursery.  Jane was determined to create a school of horticulture for women, primarily in the Philadelphia area. She decided to go to Europe to visit and study multiple gardening schools. When Jane got back to the States, with support from her friends and family, she bought a 71-acre farm in Ambler, PA. She designed it after the two colleges she visited in England. Haines actually had to teach in the doorway of the so-called classroom the size of a closet. The students had to wear uniforms which consisted of long khaki skirt that was 6 inches from the ground and a matching jacket but were not functional since they were working in a garden. The first class was on February 11, 1911 with five students enrolled, and out of those five, three had completed the two-year program. In 1914, they built a new building across from the old building. It had a classroom and a dormitory.  Elizabeth Leighton Lee became the director of the school in 1915. She led the school during WWI, and she is considered to be the first women practitioner of landscape architecture in the Philadelphia area. Elizabeth is said to have started the landscape design program at the school. Elizabeth left her position in 1924 to Louise Carter Bush-Brown.   Louise Carter Bush-Brown was in the second graduating class in 1915.  She would teach courses from 1924-1952 at the school.[2] It is said that when Louise Carter Bush-Brown the school had “truly thrived”. She had boosted enrollment, established more programs, and even broadened the cultural diversity at the school by getting students from Australia, Japan, and West Germany.  Landscape architecture and business management courses had been added to the school’s curriculum after World War I. The agricultural field was dominated by males which made it a potential barrier for women to get in. The bias was that women weren’t qualified to reach their potential.  Jane helped paved the way for women to enter into the horticulture business. In 1952, the school got approval as a junior college and then in 1957, they changed its name to the Ambler Junior College. Then in 1958, the school had merged with Temple University. Once they merged, for the first-time men had been admitted into the program. Jane passed away in 1937 at the age of 68 so she didn’t live to see the merger of the schools. Though Jane didn’t get to see the merger of the schools, The Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women has been around for 109 years and is still thriving.   The Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women received their historical marker on September 20, 2002. The location of the marker is at 580 Meetinghouse Road, Ambler PA. It is in the Philadelphia region. The marker reads, “This school was among the first in the nation to educate women for careers in horticulture and agriculture. It was founded in 1910 on this site by Jane Bowne Haines and a “congress of women.” Three years later the Women’s National Farm and Garden Association originated here at a meeting sponsored by the school. During WWI &amp; WWII PSHW trained women to grow and preserve food for the war effort. In 1958, PSHW merged with Temple University.”[3] [1] <a href="https://tclf.org/pioneer/jane-bowne-haines" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);">https://tclf.org/pioneer/jane-bowne-haines</a>[2] <a href="https://ambler.temple.edu/arboretum/about-ambler-arboretum/arboretum-history/history-temple-university-ambler" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);">https://ambler.temple.edu/arboretum/about-ambler-arboretum/arboretum-history/history-temple-university-ambler</a>[3] http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-130

Jane Bowne Haines was an educator and founded the first horticultural school for women. She was born on July 18, 1869 in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania into a Quaker family. Jane’s father created a fruit and shade-tree nursery. She can credit everything she knows to the Wyck House, her family’s home in Germantown. Since this was around the time of WWI and WWII, Jane noticed that women wanted to help and contribute to the wars, so she created The Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women. She established the school in 1910 in Ambler, Pennsylvania. Jane’s motivation was to give women a practical education in horticulture and landscape architecture. 

The Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women Historical Marker

Violet Oakley was perhaps the most notable female artist in American history. She exposed women and other disadvantaged individuals of her time to equal rights opportunities and constantly strove to better people’s lives around the world whilst also using her artist’s prowess to promote unity and peace. Her efforts in multiple rights movements distinguished her from many women of her time and remain relevant to people, particularly women, today. Oakley was born on June 10, 1874 in Jersey City, New Jersey but spent most of her life in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[4] [8] At the age of 21, she traveled to France with her family – there, she was exposed to work of the great Impressionists and studied at the Académie Montparnasse, working among notable painters such as <a href="https://www.19thcenturypaintings.com/artists/128-louis-joseph-raphael-collin/biography/" target="_blank">Raphaël Collin</a> and <a href="http://www.all-art.org/symbolism/4-france10-03.htm" target="_blank">Edmond Aman-Jean</a>.[8] Upon her return to the states, Oakley studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) with two of her close friends. They “later took classes in book illustration with [instructor] <a href="https://www.illustrationhistory.org/artists/howard-pyle" target="_blank">Howard Pyle</a> at Drexel Institute.”[9] The three friends, Violet Oakley, Elizabeth Shippen Green, and Jessie Willcox Smith, had taken up residence in a studio on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia during this time. They later moved to the Red Rose Inn in Villanova, leading to their being dubbed the “Red Rose Girls” by Pyle. Another woman, Henrietta Cozzens, soon joined them to manage their household, prompting the new group of four to move to a shared residence in Mount Airy. They called this residence the “Cogslea,” after their group name, the “Cogs” family (after the first letters of their last names). These strong females who had formed a lasting friendship and alliance with one another were supported by Harrison Morris, managing director of PAFA, because of their overflowing talent. Morris “had a vested interest in promoting the careers of the then-struggling artists who were living ‘their daily artistic lives under one roof in the gentle comradery of some Old World 'school.'’"[9] In 1902, the Pennsylvania State Capitol architect, <a href="https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display.cfm/25237" target="_blank">Joseph M. Huston</a> commissioned the artist to decorate the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg, a project on which Oakley worked feverishly (even traveling to Europe to conduct research on William Penn). In the following 25 years, Oakley was asked to paint murals for the Capitol Rotunda and for the Senate and Supreme Court chambers, and she completed 43 murals in all in the Harrisburg area over this span of time.[8] The Harrisburg murals she completed represented the first art project in an American government building commissioned to a woman.[1] Throughout her life, Oakley stood as a symbol of power and opportunity for women all over America. Oakley was a female involved in the predominantly male movement that was the American Renaissance, and her murals and other artwork act as a symbol of the feminist power that has been growing more than ever since the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920.[3] [4] Oakley was also the only prominent female artist serving as the direct product of the American Renaissance’s mural-making movement specifically.[6] [4] Alongside her work for the women’s rights movement, Oakley also supported other movements, both national and worldwide. She particularly favored those vouching for unity in spirit and for overarching peace in and between societies.[6] [4] Oakley’s influence reached past the confines of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and even America, and this was all due to her striving for a more united world. Oakley portrayed the strong image of a successful, progressive woman until her passing in 1961. Despite her lifetime efforts, Oakley’s artwork was largely overlooked after her passing. It was examined more as a symbol of female accomplishment than as a substantial collection. Woodmere Museum displays Oakley’s work as a physical medium of its own, separating the images from the artist in order to fully honor Oakley’s artistic efforts and bring to light her years of hard work. Oakley painted in a style predominantly seeded in the English Pre-Raphaelite Movement, though it mirrored many elements of the realism and art nouveau tropes.[1] [7] [9] [8] Alongside her feminism- and various other rights-driven approaches to creating murals, Oakley also took an artistic, aesthetic, and often religious approach when going through the mural-making process. She did the same when delving into other artistic mediums such as illustration, stained glass designing, and manuscript illumination.[5] [8] Having been raised as an Episcopalian, Oakley put an incredible amount of thought into the spirituality of her works. She held a huge regard for William Penn’s philosophies, which promoted vigilance and diligence. Thus, she constantly strove to spread messages of unity, equality, peace, and freedom through her philanthropic work and artistic work. In recent times, multiple organizations have made efforts to amend this marginalization of a great artist whose art is shrouded by its metaphorical significance, but there is still a lot of work left to be done in this regard. Oakley’s art is masterful enough to stand on its own without the benefit of its historical value. Nevertheless, the artist used her work as a vehicle for promoting human rights and was able to bring much-needed change and hope to many women. The plaque commemorating Oakley is a sign of her achievements as an activist, a woman, and an artist, and can be found at 40° 3.193′ N, 75° 12.232′ W in Philadelphia, PA.[2]

The historical marker dedicated to artist Violet Oakley (located in Philadelphia, PA) commemorates her work as a prominent female muralist and artist in other medias during the American Renaissance. Oakley’s residence (dubbed the “Cogslea”) from 1906 to her passing in 1961 stands beside the marker.

Oakley was well-known as an advocate for universal peace and unity, and she acted as a proponent for the equality of oppressed individuals of her time, including women and racial minorities around the world. She observed the behavior of people with various cultures, different ethnicities, and varying worldviews, hoping to learn more about human nature.

Oakley gained the most fame for her efforts in a series of mural commissions she completed for the Pennsylvania State Capitol in 1902, being the first American female artist to be commissioned for a capitol building. Her works were centered in faith and politics, primarily featuring scenes promoting unity of society and of self (both themes from William Penn’s works).

The historical marker serves to commemorate Oakley, whose efforts not only empowered women of her time but also served as an example of the influence art has on societal worldviews.


Violet Oakley Historical Marker

On November 29, 1832 (on her father's thirty-third birthday),
Louisa May Alcott was born at Pine Place, in the Germantown neighborhood of
Pennsylvania [2; 4]. The family left Germantown to live in Massachusetts when
Louisa was two years old, where her abolitionist father, Amos Bronson Alcott, began
a progressive school and educated his daughters along with the students. Louisa
grew up to become an abolitionist in her own right, as well as a suffragist,
Civil War nurse, and authoress (under the pen name A. M. Bernard) of Gothic
thrillers and children's literature including Little Women [2; 3]. Pine Place is now home to the Cunningham Piano
Company [2].

About Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott's father, Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888), was an educator
in Boston who moved to Philadelphia in 1830. He had been invited to the city by
the Quaker Rueben Haines to help establish a progressive school at Pine Place,
affiliated with Germantown Academy. The school promoted discussion and
self-analysis over the more typical memorization and repetition of the day [3].
Louisa's mother, Abigail May, who kept extensive journals all her life, assisted
at the school. The Alcotts also lived at Pine Place, and on Amos' thirty-third
birthday, Louisa was born there on November 29, 1832 [2; 3]. Her elder sister
Anna had been born a year earlier at a nearby boarding house [2]. After Rueben
Haines' death, the school eventually failed, and Amos opened Alcott's School.
However, only a year later the family moved back to Boston, and Louisa was
raised primarily in Boston and Concord, along with her sisters, Anna,
Elizabeth, and May [2; 3; 4]. The Alcotts were friends with transcendentalists Ralph
Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, and worked with them as part of the
Underground Railroad. Amos helped found William Lloyd Garrison’s Preliminary
Anti-Slavery Society and allowed an African American girl to attend his school
in Massachusetts, despite white parents' objections [3; 4]. Abigail was also an
active abolitionist, and had been a member of Philadelphia's Female Anti-Slavery
Committee [3].

The family struggled with poverty, and at 15 years old, Louisa (already
passionately involved in writing) swore to help her family and achieve wealth
and fame before her death. She worked as a teacher, seamstress, governess, and
household servant—the only acceptable employments for a woman at the time—while
writing and publishing poetry and short stories in magazines under the pen name
A. M. Bernard [4]. She used her mother's initials and a masculine-sounding last
name because women's writing was not considered serious at the time [3]. When
she was 22 years old, her first book, Flower
Fables (1854), was published; she went on to write nearly 300 stories,
novels, poems, and articles, including writing anti-slavery articles for The Atlantic and publishing her most
famous novel, Little Women (1868),
which she wrote when her publisher asked her to write "a book for
girls," [4]. During the Civil War, she served the Union as a nurse in
Washington, D.C., though she would have preferred to fight alongside the men,
according to her journals. On the basis of her experience, she published Hospital Sketches in 1863 [3; 4]. While
working as a nurse, she became ill herself and got mercury poisoning during
treatment. Permanent damage to her nervous system resulted, and may have
contributed to her death. Louisa never married, though she had offers, and
spent her life helping her family, the cause of abolition, and the women's suffrage
movement. After the death of her sister, she also raised her niece [3].

Around 1880, Louisa spent a week in her hometown of Philadelphia, where she
visited Germantown Academy to the delight of the girls attending. Louisa's
father died on March 4, 1888, and, at age 55, Louisa died two days later, on
March 6. She is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, near Emerson and
Thoreau's graves [3; 4]. She had written up to the day of her death. <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.germantownhistory.org/">The
Germantown Historical Society</a> at 5501 Germantown Avenue holds books and other
materials related to her life and works [3].

Historic
Marker Inscription:

Louisa May Alcott

The author of “Little Women” was born here at “Pine Place,”
Nov. 29, 1832, to the educator Bronson Alcott and his wife Abigail. An
abolitionist, Civil War nurse, and suffragist, she wrote children’s books and Gothic thrillers. The Alcotts lived in this county, 1830-34 [1].

On November 29, 1832 (on her father's thirty-third birthday), Louisa May Alcott was born at Pine Place, in the Germantown neighborhood of Pennsylvania [2; 4]. The family left Germantown to live in Massachusetts when Louisa was two years old, where her abolitionist father, Amos Bronson Alcott, began a progressive school and educated his daughters along with the students. Louisa grew up to become an abolitionist in her own right, as well as a suffragist, Civil War nurse, and authoress (under the pen name A. M. Bernard) of Gothic thrillers and children's literature including Little Women [2; 3]. Pine Place is now home to the Cunningham Piano Company [2].

Louisa May Alcott - Pine Place Historic Marker

Katharine Drexel was a woman who was born into a wealthy family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Katharine's mother, Hannah Langstroth, passed away not long after she was born, leading to her father to remarry. Her parents were Francis Anthony Drexel and Emma M. Bouvier Drexel. Her father worked as a banker, which led to the family living a very affluent life. She had two sisters, Elizabeth and Louise. Katharine and her sisters were educated by private tutors. Katharine's family were faithful Catholics, and early on in life Drexel was no stranger to charity, as her family would often donate food to the needy and help others with financial burdens. Katharine's family befriended the pastor Fr. James O'Connor who was the pastor of the Church of St. Dominic. After O'Connor was ordained as a bishop, he was sent to Nebraska to provide assistance and spiritual conversion to Native Americans. Drexel's family provided a lot of financial assistance with his work, which helped influence Drexel's later devotion to charity. Throughout her youth she traveled the United States with her family, and it was during these travels she was struck by the poor living conditions of African Americans and Native Americans. She was also struck by the injustices these groups faced, such as the Native Americans being forced onto reservations. Because of these experiences, at a young age, Katharine wanted to enter the religious life but her parents and her spiritual advisor, James O'Connor, both discouraged her. This was in part due to her upbringing being very pampered, and she was not expected to be able to transition into a more ascetic lifestyle. Later, Katharine would have more freedom in her life with the passing of her mother first, followed by her father which left her and her sisters with a vast inheritance. Katharine herself received around fifteen million dollars in inheritance. Because of this, she was expected to remain in a life of wealth and marry some wealthy man. After the death of their parents, the sisters would still continue to travel together and visited many holy sites in Europe. They also made good use of their inheritance through charitable works, and Katharine and her sister, Elizabeth, founded St. Francis Industrial School in Eddington PA. During one of her last trips to abroad, Katharine had a private meeting with Pope Leo XIII where she initially requested missionaries to be sent to the United States to assist and convert Native Americans and African Americans. Instead of this, the Pope encouraged Katharine to pick up a holy life and become a missionary, specifically one that serves Native Americans and African Americans. She agreed with this proposal and gave up a fortune of seven million dollars to devote her life to charitable work. She began her life of religious devotion by joining to Novitiate of the Sisters of Mercy in Pittsburgh, PA. Two years after entering religious life, Drexel and fifteen other sisters founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament Convent. Before sending sisters out West to carry out missions, Drexel began work by founding a home for orphaned or abandoned African American children. Working at this home would help prepare the sisters for travelling out West. Katharine also arranged for classes to be held for the sisters at Drexel University, which had been founded by her uncle. Education was a major issue Drexel was concerned about, so much of the work that her convent took part in was founding schools. She helped found various African American and Native American schools throughout the United States in places like Virginia all the way to New Mexico. An example of these schools her convent founded was Xavier University in 1915 in New Orleans. Drexel was also involved in public affairs, and was a large supporter of programs and laws that would assist poor Native Americans and African Americans. During her lifetime she faced fierce opposition from segregationists but continued her work despite this. This opposition included bomb threats directed towards the convent's mother house, and a school founded by the convent being burnt down. Katharine Drexel would continue her religious life of charity, educating, and spreading her faith until 1938 when a stroke left her almost entirely immobile. Because of this she had to give up leadership of her convent and stop carrying out works personally. She spent the rest of her life in prayer and contemplation until her passing in 1955. She was later canonized as a saint of the Catholic Church in 2000. Drexel's legacy is important because despite the legal and social barriers of the time she went out of her way to promote social justice by educating and assisting poor Native American and African American people. Katharine is a symbol of charity as seen through her works, promotion of social justice, and abandoning her wealthy lifestyle.

The Katharine Drexel Historical Marker stands today in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, by the Saint Katharine Drexel Mission Center and Shrine. Katharine Drexel was a philanthropist, educator, and religious sister who was born on November 26th, 1858, and passed away on March 3rd, 1955. She is known for founding a religious order, building schools for the socially downtrodden, and being canonized as a Catholic saint. Drexel’s life work included providing education for minorities, carrying out religious missions to Native American and African American Communities, and building schools. Drexel’s life is important for her contributions to social equality and helping others overcome poverty through education.

St. Katharine Drexel Historical Marker

Jessie Redmon Fauset was born in Philadelphia and the&nbsp;7th child of Annie Seamon Fauset and Redmon Fauset. Fauset graduated with honors from the prestigious Philadelphia High School for Girls in 1900. She&nbsp;was the only Black student in the school and received a scholarship to Cornell University. She&nbsp;graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Cornell with a major in classical languages from the University of Pennsylvania with an M.A. in French. She taught Latin and French for one year at Douglass High School in Baltimore and then taught in Washington, DC at Dunbar High School from 1916-1919.From 1919 to 1926 she served as the literary editor of "The Crisis" under "W.E.B Du Bois." 58 of her 77 published works first appeared in the Crisis.&nbsp;Fauset was slightly older than other writers who were part of the Harlem Renaissance and this may have inspired her stance as somewhat more cautious in her style of writing. At the same time, she chose difficult&nbsp;topics for her fiction and challenged the preconceptions of the publishing industry.&nbsp;Fauset's first novel "There is Confusion" was celebrated and she also&nbsp;nurtured fledgling writers. Noted for her work, she also worked to&nbsp;teach Black children pride in their heritage and to encourage their creativity, she helped and edited a monthly children's magazine called the Brownies’ Book which was published from 1920–1921.&nbsp;In 1929, Fauset married an insurance broker and World War I veteran named Herbert Harris, and they lived with her sister in Harlem until 1936. the couple&nbsp;moved to New Jersey in the 1940s. In 1949, Fauset briefly served as a visiting professor at Hampton Institute and taught for a short time at Tuskegee Institute. After her husband&nbsp;died in 1958, she moved to her half-brother's home in Philadelphia.&nbsp;On April 30, 1961, Fauset died in North Philadelphia. A marker was not dedicated there because the home is gone and little remains in the area. Instead, a marker honoring her was dedicated in 1993 across from George Washington Carver High School for Engineering and Sciences. The marker&nbsp;disappeared before 2014, probably as part of the demolition and subsequent construction of Temple Villas apartments behind where the marker stood. Neither the city nor the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, which authorizes and maintains the historical markers, know the current whereabouts of the&nbsp;Jessie Fauset historical marker.

This historical marker honors Jessie Redmon Fauset, a novelist, poet, short story writer, biographer, essayist, and literary critic. Fauset played a crucial role in the Harlem Renaissance, creating her own body of work while mentoring young writers. Fauset died on April 30, 1961. A historical marker was dedicated at this location, which was her home at the time of her death. The marker was noted as missing starting on July 19, 2018.

The Missing Historical Marker of Jessie Redmon Fauset

Born Rosetta Nubin in the small town of Cotton Plant, Arkansas, on March 20, 1915, Sister Rosetta Tharpe shaped the rock and roll genre. By the time she was six, young Rosetta was performing for an audience at the Church of God in Christ at the encouragement of her spiritual mother, who was a member of the congregation. Tharpe and her mother moved to Chicago in 1921, and young Rosetta performed for diverse audiences as part of a mother-daughter duo that toured the South. At the age of 19 in 1934, Rosetta Nubin married Thomas Thorpe, a preacher whose radio programs included Rosetta's music. After four years, Rosetta obtained a divorce and moved to New York City, where she adopted her former husband's surname to "Tharpe" to create what would become her stage name, Sister Rosetta Tharpe. The musician would use this as her public name for the rest of her life. In 1938, she joined New York's Cotton Club Revue and later produced her first single, "Rock Me," which blended gospel and the new genre of sped rhythm and blues with occasional distorted notes from her electric guitar. Tharpe and other musicians were shaping that new genre, known today as rock and roll."Although she was only 23 when she began recording music with Decca Records in 1938, she boldly challenged convention in music and life. Her records mixed secular musical styles with gospel, making her performances controversial to some church members in an era when popular music was viewed with suspicion among many church-goers. Tharpe traveled widely and collaborated with some of the best-known musicians of the era, including Duke Ellington. She even recorded music with white bands like the Jordanaires while traveling and performing with gospel singers and swing bands like the Dixie Hmmingbirds. The exposure led to a growing audience who appreciated the new style, and her music soon became popular with the young and general public. While not a household name like some early rock and roll musicians, she was well-known and influential on many of the mid-20th century's most famous artists. Because of segregation, Tharpe sometimes slept in the bus of her tour group or in private homes and small hotels in cities with a larger Black population.Audiences were frequently taken aback by Tharpe’s virtuosic skill with the electric guitar as well as her distinctive distorted style of playing, which would heavily affect the rock and roll genre in the years to come. Her marriage to her second husband, music promoter Foch Allen, was also brief. Her 1944 hit record “Strange Things Happening Every Day” is widely regarded to be one of the first rock ‘n roll songs ever recorded and was later credited by Elvis Presley as a profound influence on his music. The song demonstrates Tharpe's unique blend of the secular and sacred, with the final verse relating a changing world to her Christian faith. In those years, her music was treasured by many Black musicians and could be heard in the camps of Black military units in Europe and Asia during the Second World War.In 1947, while playing a show at the Macon City Auditorium, Sister Rosetta Tharpe heard a 15-year-old Richard Wayne Penniman sing before she came on stage. Impressed by his talent, she invited the teen to sing with her during the concert and even paid him for it afterward. It was Penniman’s first time performing for an audience outside of church. This experience inspired him to keep pursuing his passion for music. Penniman later became a world-renowned rock and roll musician performing as "Little Richard." In the 1950s, Tharpe recorded numerous songs with gospel choirs supporting her singing and guitar playing. Together with distorted notes from her electric guitars and the hard-driving notes of a sanctified piano, Tharpe's gospel music shaped early rock and roll. Tharpe's 1951 marriage to her manager, Russell Morrison, occurred in a ceremony following a Washington Nationals Game at Griffith Stadium. Newspapers promoted the wedding more than the baseball game, and at least 20,000 stayed to witness the wedding, where Tharpe performed and entertained the guests from a stage in centerfield. By most accounts, the wedding was a promotional stunt even though it was legally recognized and lasted until Tharpe's death in 1973. In later years, Morrison and Rosetta's Christmas cards were signed "Mr. and Mrs Rosetta Tharpe," a tacit recognition of her fame and the nature of the relationship between performer and manager. For many, Tharpe's performance at her own wedding can be seen as the first stadium rock concert. According to biographer Gayle Wald and Tharpe's close friend, Marie Knight, the marriage was an arrangement that benefitted Russell Morton who lived off Tharpe's fame. Wald's book suggests a strong likelihood that Tharpe maintained intimate relationships with several women during her life, although close friends like Marie Knight, who traveled and performed with Tharpe, have suggested that this was not true.While touring internationally in 1957, Tharpe's Richmond home and all of her belongings were seized on account of unpaid taxes and auctioned off by the city. After this incident, Tharpe moved with her husband to Philadelphia. When the city created the Yorktown Neighborhood in 1960, Sister Rosetta Tharpe became one of the first homeowners in the now-historic Black neighborhood. While living there, Tharpe joined Bright Hope Baptist Church, where she regularly sang for Sunday services. The 1960s saw Tharpe's career stagnate as younger audiences shifted toward emerging rock bands while more traditional religious performers became the standard for churchgoers. In response, Tharpe performed numerous concerts in Europe, including an iconic 1964 Blues and Gospel Caravan with Muddy Waters and numerous other performers. In the 1960s, Tharpe released five albums and received a Grammy nomination for her album Precious Memories in 1968. While she had been a superstar in the 1950s, Tharpe's fame declined and would be largely forgotten for the next few decades. 1968 was a difficult year for Tharpe. Her mother, who had been a significant influence on her life, died, and Tharpe was diagnosed with diabetes. She spent the next two years struggling with depression and then suffered a stroke in 1970 that resulted in the amputation of her leg. On October 9, 1973- right before a scheduled recording session- Tharpe had a second stroke. She was transported to Temple University Hospital, where she died at the age of 57. Her body was buried in an unmarked grave at Northwood Cemetery.Thanks to music historians and the tributes of stars who credited Tharpe as an influence when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the early 2000s saw a resurgence of interest in her life and work. Thanks to the work of her lifelong friends and fans, in January of 2008, Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell declared January 11th "Sister Rosetta Tharpe Day" in Pennsylvania. That month, a benefit concert was also held to raise money for a headstone placed at Tharpe's gravesite later that year. On October 24, 2011, a Pennsylvania historical marker plaque was unveiled outside of Sister Rosetta Tharpe's former Philadelphia home at 1102 Master Street. Reverend Joe Williams, who sang with Tharpe at her last concert, performed at the ceremony. In 2018, Tharpe was inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and her music was performed by Felicia Collins with Questlove from the Roots on guitar and Paul Sharrer on Piano.

Dedicated in 2011, this historical marker honors singer-songwriter Sister Rosetta Tharpe, known by many as the "Godmother of Rock and Roll" for her influence in shaping the trajectory of the genre from its roots in rhythm-and-blues versions of spirituals. Tharpe's unique contribution was pairing those spirituals with her electric guitar, and she was credited as a pivotal influence by musicians ranging from Elvis Presley and Little Richard to Johnny Cash. Born on a cotton plantation in 1915, Tharpe traveled with her mother, Katie Bell Nubin, a traveling Holiness Church evangelist. From a young age, Tharpe played guitar and sang spirituals with such authenticity that she won over audiences who had previously been suspicious of electric guitars. Tharpe started recording music in the late 1930s. In the three decades that followed, Tharpe performed at small venues in the South to Madison Square Garden and Griffith Stadium. Forgotten by many until recent years, Tharpe influenced nearly all of the mid-20th century's most iconic musicians and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. This marker is at the site of her home from 1957 until her death in 1973. On October 24, 2011, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission dedicated this marker. According to biographer Gayle Wald, Tharpe responded to claims about the "new" style of rock and roll with the following remark: "Oh, these kids and rock and roll," Tharpe exclaimed, according to the author's accounts, "this is just sped up rhythm and blues."

Sister Rosetta Tharpe Home Historical Marker

Joan of Arc was a peasant girl living in medieval France. She believed she could save her country, France, from the English conquerors during the Hundred Years' War. With no military training and acting under divine guidance, Joan secured the confidence of Dauphin (later King Charles VII) and led the French army in a momentous victory at Orleans in 1429. After seeing the prince crowned (King Charles VII), she was captured by the English and their French collaborators, tried for witchcraft and heresy, and burned at the stake in 1431, at the age of 19. The Maid of Orléans (as she was known) had long been considered national heroine and an enduring symbol of French unity and nationalism. On May 16th, 1920 she was canonized by Pope Benedict XV.The original statue of Joan of Arc for Paris was commissioned in 1874 by Napoleon III, intended to help in re-establishing French confidence after the humiliating military defeat of 1870 by the Prussian army. Emmanuel Frémiet, French sculptor, had earned a reputation for his work incorporating human and animal motifs in the neo-realistic manner. To develop the memorial to the French heroine, Frémiet studied the design of fifteenth-century French armor and dress in order to convey the figure within her historical context. The statue was installed at the place where Joan was wounded, Place des Pyramides in Paris.In 1889, when the members of the French community in Philadelphia wanted to commemorate their centennial, they arranged to purchase a cast of the original, Place des Pyramides Joan of Arc statue from the artist. They made a contract with the artist that there would be only three cast of this sculpture: the one in Place des Pyramides, the one in Philadelphia, and another one in France in the town of Nancy. The Philadelphia sculpture was purchased with the help of the Fairmount Park Art Association and was first installed on the eastern approach to the Girard Avenue Bridge Bridge on the Schuykill River. The original dedication took place on November 15, 1890. In 1959 the sculpture was gilded and moved to its present location near the Philadelphia Museum of Art by the Fairmount Park Art Association. In 2009, it was removed to repair a crack and re-gilded and returned to its current spot in 2010.

Joan of Arc Statue is a gilded bronze equestrian sculpture of Joan of Arc by Emmanuel Frémiet. Bought by the Fairmount Park Art Association in 1890, the monument was at first placed at the east end of the Girard Avenue Bridge. Unappreciated at that location, it was moved to its present one in 1959, after being given its gilt coat in the basement of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The sculpture represents Joan of Arc, a heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint, astride a horse. Her proper right hand is raised and she holds up a flag in her proper right hand. In her proper left hand she holds the reins. She is crowned with a laurel wreath and clothed in armor. A sword hangs by her proper left side. The horse is walking with its front, proper left and rear, proper right hooves raised.

Joan of Arc Statue

On November 26, 1858, Katharine Marie Drexel was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania into a very wealthy family. However, Katharine's life began with immediate tragedy when her mother passed away only five weeks after her birth. Katharine's father, Francis Anthony Drexel, and stepmother, Emma (Bouvier) Drexel, raised her to be generous and kind to all. After suffering the deaths of her stepmother and father as well, Katharine felt the call to embark on a life devoted to serving others by becoming a Sister. Through a life dedicated to the service of others, Katharine earned the love and respect of many as well as the honor of Sainthood following her death. 	Though she was born into wealth, Katharine was never privileged as she always donated her wealth to those less fortunate than herself and her family. She was very interested in the rights, or the rights being oppressed, of Native Americans and African Americans. Eventually, she created the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People which would eventually become Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. Single handedly, Katharine's inheritance funded this order for a long time. With the rest of her wealth, Katharine founded schools for African American and Native American children because of her love of education as well as knowing the importance of a child's education. 	While all of these schools and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament bear her name in some ways, the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul is where Saint Katharine grew up going to Mass. In 2018, the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul became Saint Katharine's final resting place. Great care was taken in creating this shrine to Saint Katharine by creating a statue that was made to have her likeness. Many people visit the shrine and pray to Saint Katharine for anything from hearing to help with the rights of those who are still oppressed. Saint Katharine's mission during her life on earth remains very alive through all of the people that she has touched with her story. 	Overall, Saint Katharine Drexel is the pinnacle of an activist in society as well as a role model to Catholics. While she was very progressive for her era, she would clearly be concerned with the state of the world today where people still have to fight for their rights. Her story serves as a good reminder to people living in the modern era to be generous and kind to everyone. The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Peter and Paul with the shrine of Saint Katharine serves as a physical reminder of these virtues. However, Saint Katharine has touched the hearts of so many with her overwhelming care and kindness for all people on the earth.

Nested in the enormous and beautiful Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul is the shrine of Saint Katharine Drexel. Even though Saint Katharine would have walked through the pews of the Cathedral Basilica when she lived from 1858-1955, the Cathedral Basilica would not become the site of Saint Katharine's shrine and tomb until November 18, 2018. This beautiful shrine and the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul is open to visitors for prayer and daily Mass. While Saint Katharine represents a life of holiness to those of the Catholic faith, she also serves as an activist for the rights of oppressed populations, especially African Americans and Native Americans. Saint Katharine's story demonstrates a true love for helping others through evangelization and education. 

Saint Katharine Drexel Shrine of the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul

In December of 1833, the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS) was founded with the purpose of rallying support for the abolishment of slavery. While many abolitionist groups already existed at this time, most excluded women in favor of an all male membership. Lucretia Mott attended and spoke at the meetings of these organizations, but became frustrated that she could not become a delegate. With the assistance of 21 other prominent women within the community, she founded the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in a Philadelphia schoolroom. The PFASS circulated flyers and petitions to rally support for their cause. As early as 1836, they lobbied congress to enforce emancipation and fundraised a large amount of money for other anti-slavery societies. While other female anti-slavery societies existed, the PFASS became the national focal point for female anti-slavery societies and hosted several national conventions to facilitate their interaction.Lucretia Mott was one of the central figures in the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. She was born as Lucretia Coffin on the island of Nantucket on January 3rd, 1793. The Coffin family was respected on the tiny whaling island. Like most of the population of Nantucket at this time, the Coffins were devout Quakers. At the age of 13, Lucretia was sent to New York to attend a Quaker school. Following her graduation, she became a teacher at the same school and eventually married James Mott, a fellow teacher at the school. The couple moved to Philadelphia and became closely involved in the budding social reform movements within the city. By this time, Lucretia was a respected Quaker preacher and a powerful voice for abolitionist and feminist movements.In the winter of 1833, 22 women gathered in a Philadelphia schoolhouse for the founding meeting of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. Like other abolitionist groups, they campaigned to convince the public as well as lawmakers of the immorality of slavery. The inspiration for its creation came from the exclusion of Mott and other women from a notable anti-slavery convention. They decided that creating their own organization would allow them to fight for their cause. Their constitution stated “We deem it out duty, as professing Christians to manifest our abhorrence of the flagrant injustice and deep sin of slavery by united and vigorous exertions.” For the next three decades, the organization functioned as an integral part of the northern abolitionist movement.The Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society primarily fulfilled their mission by fundraising for the American Anti-Slavery Society, the organization that many of their husbands served as delegates in. However, they also directly communicated with Pennsylvania lawmakers and spread awareness among the public. Their impressive financial contributions alone kept several abolitionist groups functioning. Also, they secretly supported groups dedicated to hiding fugitive slaves despite internal conflict over the legitimacy of this strategy. Members of the PFASS could often be seen going door to door to persuade people to support the abolitionist movement. This grassroots propaganda strategy was notable as it challenged social norms at the time.The Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society dissolved in 1870 following the ratification of the 15th amendment. Of course, its primary accomplishment was the abolishment of the practice of slavery in the United States. However, scholars point to the PFASS as a stepping stone in the women’s suffrage movement. Several members, including Lucretia Mott, went on to be pivotal figures in that movement. Also, the foundation of the group and its work over the years reflected a significant change from prior social norms. While notable female orators had lended their voices to reform movements in the past, none had achieved the official recognition that the members of PFASS fought to earn. By the end of the anti-slavery movement, women like Mott who were initially excluded had cemented their place as key abolitionists. They took the respect their work had earned and channeled it into the women’s suffrage movement.

This historical marker commemorates the founding of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in December of 1833. In a Philadelphia schoolhouse, the 22 founding members gathered for the first meeting of an organization that would go on to play a pivotal role in the abolitionist movement. The PFASS changed public opinions on the morality of slavery and petitioned government officials to support anti-slavery measures. The work of these women is also acknowledged as an early foundation for the Women’s Rights Movement. One of the key founding members, Lucretia Mott, was a Quaker preacher who went on to lead the Women’s Rights Movement


Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society Historical Marker

Elizabeth “Betsy”
Griscom was born on January 1, 1752, the eighth of seventeen children. When she
was a teenager her family apprenticed her to a local upholsterer, where she met
fellow upholsterer apprentice John Ross. The two were married in 1773, and they
later moved to a home on Arch Street, where they set up an upholstery shop on
the first floor. The house was built sometime around 1740, with a rear section
added a decade or two later. Betsy and her husband rented the home from Hannah
Lithgow, who owned it and several others on the street. While the building at
239 Arch Street is considered to be where Betsy Ross lived, it is possible she
actually lived in one of the adjoining buildings. Betsy is believed to have
lived on Arch Street at least from 1776 to 1779.

Around 1776 Betsy’s
husband John died, allegedly from a gunpowder explosion while serving in the
Philadelphia militia. In 1777 she remarried to a sailor named Joseph Ashburn.
In 1781 his ship was captured by British forces, and he died in captivity a
year later. Betsy married again in 1783 to John Claypoole, an acquaintance of
Joseph who had known him in prison. Betsy continued running her upholstery
business for the next several decades, making flags and other products, before
finally retiring at age 76. She died in 1836 at the age of 84. She was
originally buried in a Quaker cemetery, and then later moved to a cemetery at
Mount Moriah. In 1975 the purported remains of Betsy and her third husband John
were exhumed and interred next to the Betsy Ross House, as part of the American
Bicentennial. 

It was not until 1870
that the story of Betsy Ross sewing the first American flag emerged. That year
William Canby, a grandson of Betsy, delivered a speech at the Historical
Society of Pennsylvania presenting the story. According to the account, in 1776
or 1777 Betsy Ross was approached by George Washington, Robert Morris, and George
Ross (uncle of her first husband John) and commissioned to sew the first
American flag. She was shown a proposed sketch of the flag, and made one
adjustment: she used five-pointed stars instead of six-pointed. After Canby’s
revelation, other descendants of Betsy Ross came forward claiming it to be true;
soon the story was circulating widely in pamphlets and books. Although there is
proof that Betsy Ross did make flags both during and after the American
Revolution, most scholars doubt that she sewed the first American flag. They cite a complete lack of evidence to
verify the story, and the fact that it did not come to light until nearly a
century after it allegedly happened. Nonetheless, the story soon became widely
accepted among the public, and Betsy Ross became an American icon. 

After the story of
Betsy Ross and the flag emerged, much attention was focused on her former home
and shop on Arch Street. Over the years it had housed a variety of businesses,
and by the late 1800s it was one of the only surviving colonial-era buildings
in the area. In the 1870s the building housed a tavern owned by the Mund
family, who used the Betsy Ross story to attract customers. In 1898 the
American Flag House and Betsy Ross Memorial Association was formed and
purchased the building to convert it into a museum. By 1937, the house was
severely dilapidated and in need of restoration. Philadelphia radio businessman
A. Atwater Kent contributed $25,000 to save the house. Historical architect Richardson
Brognard Okie was hired to implement the restoration; he utilized as much of
the home’s original components as possible, as well as historically-accurate
parts from demolished homes. The entire house was completed and opened to the
public on Flag Day, June 14, 1937. Two buildings to the west side of the house
were purchased and demolished to make a garden and courtyard. In 1941 the house
was given to the city of Philadelphia. An annex building was added in 1965, and
a fountain added to the courtyard in 1974. Historic Philadelphia Inc., a
nonprofit historical organization, assumed management of the property in 1995. &nbsp;

Today the Betsy Ross
House remains open to the public as a museum. Many rooms are furnished to
resemble their colonial America appearance. Items on display include personal possessions
of Betsy Ross, as well as memorabilia relating to the legend of her flag; the
museum also has an archival collection of documents available for research. Self-guided
and audio tours are available, and a Betsy Ross impersonator is often on site
to give demonstrations and engage with visitors. The museum hosts various
events and temporary exhibits throughout the year focusing mainly on the
American flag, upholstery, and women and life during eighteenth century
America. The courtyard and an indoor gallery are also available to rent for
different events.

The Betsy Ross House is a historic home in Philadelphia alleged to be the site where the first American flag was created. The Arch Street residence was built around 1740, and during the 1770s it was home to local upholsterer Elizabeth “Betsy” Ross. According to popular legend, Ross was asked to sew the first Stars and Stripes flag in 1777. Most scholars are highly doubtful that Betsy Ross actually made the first American flag; the story did not emerge until nearly a century later. Today the house has been restored and preserved as a museum. It is open to the public for tours, and contains a large collection of artifacts, documents, and memorabilia relating to both Betsy Ross and the story of her sewing the first flag. 

The Betsy Ross House

“Without the leadership of Hannah Penn during the Colonial Period, Pennsylvania may have taken a different path” (Office of the Governor). This quote, spoken by Governor Tom Corbett is a testament to the effect Hannah had on the world after her husband’s death. Following a series of strokes Hannah had to step up and act as governor in his place until he eventually passed away and she continued to act as governor for 8 years, from 1718 until her death on December 20th, 1726 at the age of 55. She was one of the first women to hold a position of political authority in Britain, and in what would become the United States. She managed to fix several things about Pennsylvania and allowed it to remain a province, altering the course of history. Hannah was the only one of her nine siblings to survive into their teenage years. As she became only child traditional 17th century customs were disregarded, and she was taught how to manage her parent’s grocery store and take care of its finances. Her skills in these areas would help her manage the province after her husband died. Most historical accounts regard William was a good-natured Quaker who had an affinity for tolerance and building community. However, because of this he often got into tough financial situations by trusting the wrong people. William left behind lots of debt from the properties he owned, leaving Hannah to clean up the mess. Hannah was able to work to continuously pay off her husband’s debts by using the money she earned from her family’s business. On top of taking care of monetary matters, Hannah also dealt with the internal affairs of the province. She was able to prevent Maryland from claiming the eastern part of Pennsylvania with her superior organizational methods (Zorilla). When William died, he had named Hannah as the major Pennsylvania landowner, which upset his son. Hannah won the dispute in court, which was one of the few times a woman won a property dispute in this time. Hannah’s ability to successfully bring Pennsylvania back from potential ruin has earned her the respect of people in the modern day. In 1984 President Ronald Reagan named her and her husband as Honorary Citizens of the United States. She used her knowledge to effectively save the future of an entire State. On top of repaying William’s debts, she also fought strongly for a woman’s right to inherit her husband’s estate. Hannah is a strong symbol of a woman’s ability to govern, and her story of leadership empowers women and girls to this day.

Hannah Callowhill Penn was the second wife of William Penn, who is credited as Pennsylvania’s founder.  The pair traveled from Bristol to Pennsylvania and arrived on December 10th, 1699 (Kelley).  There William acted as proprietor until he was unable to due to a series of strokes leading to his death.  Afterwards, Hannah had the duty of managing all the province’s official business, being the first and only woman to do so.  She can be credited with fixing major problems left behind after her husband's death.  The historical marker is placed at the site where she and William stayed after arriving to Pennsylvania.

Hannah Callowhill Penn - Historical Site

Sarah Josepha Hale was born on October 24th, 1788 in Newport New Hampshire. With her parents being strong advocates for education of both males and females, Hale was taught beyond the average age of females during this time period. She married David Hale, who was a lawyer, but she was widowed nine years later and left with her five children. After the untimely death of her husband in 1822, Hale went into poetry to support herself and her children. The most famous book she wrote was published in 1830 and was titled Poems for Our Children which included the famous nurses rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb." However, this was just the beginning of Hale's historical fame.In the year 1837 she became the editor of the Godey's Lady's Book which allowed her to become a very influential voice for women in the 19th century. Some of the topics that she wrote on included women's education, child rearing, abolishing slavery and even colonization. In addition to being an editor for one of the first magazines focused on women's issues in the United States, Hale also raised money to support various historical sites. Some of the sites she donated to included George Washington's home as well as the construction of the Bunker Hill Monument. Due to Hale's unwavering support of both of these historical sites they are able to be publicly viewed today.Although Hale was known as a women's right advocate she particular about the rights she believed women should possess. Hale believed in the right for women to be educated and to become property holders, but did not advocate for women's suffrage. The reasoning behind this was because Hale believed that women's involvement in politics and voting would subsequently limit their influence in their home life. Hale was forward thinking overall but was still trapped by stereotypical gender roles. She even showcased this through her writing by emphasizing women's role in the domestic realm of things.Hale is also known for is advocating for Thanksgiving to become a national holiday. She began these efforts in 1846, writing to President Abraham Lincoln as well as other leading politicians to make this change. Thanksgiving, at this point in time, was only being celebrated in the Northeast. Her efforts to make Thanksgiving a national holiday were ignored until the year 1863 when, in the midst of the Civil War, President Lincoln declared Thanksgiving to be a national holiday. Hale's letter to the President is often referenced as a main factor in his decision to make Thanksgiving a national holiday.Sarah Josepha Hale lived a life full of achievements and accolades until the very end. In fact, Hale remained an editor for Godey's Lady's Book until 1877 when she decided to finally retire. Two years after later she passed away at the accomplished age of 92. However, even though Hale has been gone for over a century she is still remembered today. In 2013 a memorial park was built in dedication to her in her childhood hometown of Newport, New Hampshire. Additionally, a literature award named after her has been presented by the Richards Free Library in Newport since 1956.

This historical marker is located approximately where author, poet, women's rights advocate, and one of America's first woman editors, Sarah Josepha Buell Hale (1788-1879), lived from around the 1840s to her death in 1879. As editor of the women's magazine "Godey's Lady's Book" for four decades, Hale played a highly impactful role in shaping women's lives across the country. She is also famous for successfully promoting a national Thanksgiving Day to President Abraham Lincoln. The historical marker was placed here by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in 2015.

Sarah Josepha Buell Hale Historical Marker 

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was born on September 24, 1825 in Baltimore, Maryland and was the daughter of two free African Americans. She was a women of many skills as she grew up to be a historic poet, fiction writer, journalist , activist, as well as a few more trades. Harper would come to be a highly valued and influential speaker at various events during the fight for civil rights, women's rights, and educational opportunities for all. Furthermore, Frances EW Harper had written various pieces of literature that were quite meaningful because she had used them to express the experiences of her and other African Americans at the time. At the age of three, Frances had lost both of her parents and was forced to move in and be raised by her aunt and uncle, Henrietta and William Watkins. William Watkins had been an active abolitionist who was practicing self taught medicine, organized a Black literary society, and even opened up his own school in 1820 called the Watkins Academy for Negro Youth. Frances grew up following her uncle's actions, learning from what he did to fight for civil rights, all while also attending the Watkins Academy until the age of thirteen. During her times, it was normal for one to join the workforce at this age so Harper had begun to work as a nursemaid and seamstress for a Quaker household who owned a bookshop where the teenager would deeper explore in her love of literature. At age twenty-six, Frances EW Harper had decided to began teaching. She first took a job at the Union Seminary in Ohio where she became the first woman instructor there and then after a year she moved to a school in York, Pennsylvania. During this time, Harper's home state of Maryland passed a law that any free African American living in the North were no longer allowed to enter the state with punishment of being sold as a slave, causing Harper not to be able to return to her home. Due to this she decided to dedicate her life to the anti slavery cause. She created a career being a traveling speaker for the fight for civil rights while at the same time helping slaves escape through the Underground Railroad and writing many novels and poems about her experiences. Frances EW Harper's pieces of literature came to be historic over time as the effect they had on society showed as time went on. She began to write a lot of poetry for antislavery newspapers as her poem "Eliza Harris" was published in The Liberator, and also in Fredrick Douglass's Paper. Harper's short story "The Two Offers" was also the first published novel by an African American. She was hired by a few organizations to become a traveling lecturer and speaker including the Maine Anti-Slavery Society and Pennsylvania Anti Slavery Society. Harper's fight was not only for civil rights as she was an active activist for women's rights and the temperance movement. In 1866, Harper gave one of her most famous speeches at the National Women's Rights Convention in New York called "We Are All Bound Up Together". Harper continued to spend the rest of her career fighting for equal rights, equal opportunities for school and work, and education for African American women. She co-founded and became vice president of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, was superintendent of Colored Section of the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Women's Christian Temperance Union, the director of the American Association of Colored Youth, and lastly a member of the American Women's Suffrage Association. After collecting all of these accolades, she settled down in her home in Philadelphia but never stopped fighting for what she believed in.

This historic Philadelphia home is where poet, fiction writer, journalist, and activist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper spent her later years and the location where she passed away on February 22, 1911. Born in Baltimore in 1825, she was the only child of free African American parents. After growing up in difficult conditions, she embarked on a career as a traveling speaker on the abolitionist circuit. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper also helped slaves escape through the Underground Railroad and wrote frequently for anti-slavery newspapers. As a journalist and activist, she worked with Frederick Douglass and other reformers, earning a reputation for her writing which led some to refer to her as the "mother" of African American journalism. The house has since been named a National Historic Landmark and is open to the public during special events. 

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper House

Ruth Plumly Thompson was born on  July 27th, 1891 to George Plumly and Amanda Elton Thompson.  As a child, she spent some time in New York City when her and her family moved there after her father became the night editor of the New York Times. Unfortunately, at the age of thirty-one, George died of a heart attack due to heightening stress, and Ruth and her mother returned to Philadelphia soon after. While she enjoyed writing and telling stories as a child, her literary career did not  begin until she was in high school, when her first fairy tale was published in St. Nicholas, a popular children’s magazine at the time. After high school, Thompson was offered a full scholarship to Swarthmore College. Unfortunately, her family was grieving the loss of her brother at  the time , who had died in World War I, and was also serving her invalid sister. As a result, she declined the offer to spend more time with them, and to assist them financially by means of the money she earned through her published works in newspapers and periodicals.In her twenties, Thompson took her first job at the Philadelphia Public Ledger, and quickly grew in popularity. In a matter of time, she was granted a full staff position. Her time at the Philadelphia Public Ledger only lasted two years though, as Thompson was offered the position of editor at the Sunday Children’s Page. Accepting, she was supposed to follow the work of her predecessor, but instead wrote her own material. Immediately, Thompson gained a rapport with local children, and as a result continued to edit the Sunday Children’s page from 1914 to 1921. During these seven years working as editor, Thompson created the Santa Claus Club, an organization in which gathered food and gifts for underprivileged children during the holiday season. In addition to her editorial work during this time, Thompson wrote The Perhappsy Chaps,  The Princess of Cozytown, and the Wonder Book, three writings in which would be compiled in The Wizard of Way-Up. These stories of Thompson’s were noted for their cheerful, humorous, attitude toward life and language. In the Baum Bugle, author  Daniel P. Mannix  wrote that Thompson “considered any page that did not have at least three jokes in it- usually puns- a page wasted.”.When L. Frank Baum, famed author of The Wizard of Oz, passed away in 1919, Reilly &amp; Lee, the publishing house in which produced Baum’s bestselling series, Oz, began frantically looking for a replacement author. Having read many of Thompson’s tales with great glee and amusement, Mr. Lee was convinced that she was undoubtedly meant to be L. Frank Baum’s successor and the future historian of Oz. Having been a longtime fan of Baum and his work, Thompson accepted the position, and soon began attempting to recreating the Land of Oz, though not with immediate success.  Still, by 1921 Thompson managed to write her first book The Royal Book of Oz though it was published under the name L. Frank Baum, claiming that he had contributed the ideas to which she completed. In time, her work in the Oz series became more and more successful, resulting in her writing a new book for the Oz series each year from 1921 to 1939. By her nineteenth book, Thompson had created more than 320 new characters for Oz, which was over a hundred more than Baum had. Her books were praised for their uses of humor and imagination, and were popular amongst both children and adults alike, who enjoy their whimsical elements and their characterization.While Thompson wrote nineteen books for the Oz series and recalls doing so as “one of the happiest experiences of my life”, she faced hardships with many of her manuscripts towards the last few as they were rejected by Reilly &amp; Lee. As a result, Thompson’s connection with the publisher quickly faltered, as did her connection with the Baum estate. However, when The Wizard of Oz technicolor film was released in 1939 by MGM Studios, Thompson felt that the Oz series needed to be revived. Working to have some of the other Oz stories cartooned by Walt Disney Pictures, Thompson negotiated an offer with Roy Disney. Unfortunately, Mrs. Baum declined Disney’s offer and instead decided to sell the rights of the Oz series to a private producer. Even worse, the producer coincidentally did not have enough money to complete his “shorts” and so after nineteen Oz books, Thompson stated “I was reluctantly forced to resign my post of Royal Historian of Oz. But Oz is ever close to my heart… Someday I might even write another book about the strange happenings in that merry old kingdom of Oz.”.During the 1940s-1950s, Thompson wrote many short stories for Jack and Jill, a children’s magazine, and later on created and wrote the “Peter Puppet Page” for the magazine. Unfortunately, after a staff change in which resulted in the magazine’s policies changing, Thompson had trouble selling her work.  Returning to Oz once more, Thompson found her twentieth book rejected by Reilly &amp; Lee, who claimed they had another manuscript already in development. It wasn’t until the year 1972 that Thompson would publish again, when her book Yankee in Oz was picked up by the International Wizard of Oz Club. In 1976, they would also publish what would be her very last book ,The Enchanted Isle of Oz, in which she wrote as her health began failing. Shortly after, Thompson passed away on April 6th, 1976. Today, Ruth Plumly Thompson’s home at 254 South Farragut Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she lived and wrote the majority of her work, serves as a reminder to the legacy she left behind in both the real world and the land of Oz.

 Ruth Plumly Thompson was an American writer born on July 27th, 1891 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Throughout her lifetime, she held a variety of writing-oriented careers and wrote a vast collection of children’s stories. Her biggest accomplishment in life, and certainly the work in which she is most known for, were her contributions to Frank L. Baum’s Oz series.  Having been hired shortly after his death, Ruth Plumly Thompson became the successor to the Oz series, writing nineteen additional books to the series. In later years after her work in Oz,  she continued work as a free-lancer writing children’s stories for various magazines before sadly passing away on April 6th, 1976. The Ruth Plumly Thompson Historical Marker stands at 254 South Farragut Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania outside of the house where she lived and wrote. This marker serves as a reminder of both Plumly's legacy as a writer as well as the impact in which her work had on children and adults everywhere... even in the merry old land of Oz.

Ruth Plumly Thompson Historic Marker

Ethel Waters, a famous African American singer and Broadway actress was born on October 31, 1896 in Chester, Pennsylvania. She was best known for her wide vocal range and her slow vibrato. Waters was raised impoverished, by mother, Louise Anderson who gave birth at only thirteen, after being raped by local Caucasian man, John Waters.Waters suffered an unfortunate childhood. Her mother and her struggled both physically and mentally growing up. Her impoverished upbringing in Chester, PA influenced her decisions as a child. She was neglected by her parents and yearned for affection. As a teen she spent her days plotting with thieves and running drug errands for locals in Chester. With no sense of responsibility from her parents, Ethel had no supervision. Ultimately, music is the one thing Ethel could lean on in such hard times, it practically saved her. Ethel’s first marriage was at age 12, while she was still in school. When she turned 13, she became a chamber maid at a hotel in Philadelphia. Being a maid is what kept her on her feet. That year was filled with firsts for Waters as she also sang in public for the very first time. She was discovered during a talent show she participated in and continued to display her talents at churches and other public gatherings. At a costume party, on her 17th birthday Waters was persuaded to perform two songs and ultimately stunned her guests. This performance landed her a professional gig at Lincoln Theater in Baltimore. At 17, she began performing professionally, and billed herself as “Sweet Mama Stringbean.” Soon after, Waters continued her ascent to stardom, moving to New York City and appearing at the Plantation Club in Harlem. That was the performance that lead her to Broadway.In 1939, Waters became the first African American to star in her own television show, The Ethel Waters Show. This was a 15 minute variety show that included dramatic performances and featured guests. By the late 30’s, Waters had made her way to the top with several Broadway credits. She was considered one of the greatest blues singers, and even performed with some of jazz’s greatest, such as Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman. On top of her ever growing theater credits, Waters also starred in several movies, even winning the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for her performance in Carson McCullers’ The Member of the Wedding. This historical marker was place along Route 291 in 2015, placed near Ethel Waters park. This marker was placed here to commemorate her life provide inspiration to all. Waters was a star, overcoming racism and sexism to pave the way for contemporary singers, dancers and actors. She is a sign of hope and a wonder of success to all people. Her rise to the top after starting so low is inspiring and her story is truly amazing.After a long life of fighting her way into people’s hearts, Waters died of kidney failure on September 1, 1977 in Chatsworth, California.

This is a marker to commemorate the life of Ethel Waters, one of the most renown singers and actresses of the early 20th century. Waters was born on October 31, 1896, in Chester, Pennsylvania. This marker is where Ethel grew up. She did not have an easy childhood, and craved affection she never received. Her family was always on the move, and she suffered from many illnesses and injuries as a child. After a rough childhood, she moved to Baltimore and it was there that her career began. After her big break, Waters went on to become a famous jazz singer and a Broadway sensation. In 1933, Waters appeared in her first all-Black film, Rufus Jones for President, that featured the child performer Sammy Davis Jr. as Rufus Jones. She continued her career always holding multiple jobs at once, and was even nominated for an Academy Award in 1949. Waters was married three times, and had no children. She lived a long and successful life that came to an end from uterine cancer on September 1, 1981.

Ethel Waters Historical Marker

Broomall was born in 1847 in southeast Pennsylvania. She grew up in a Quaker family wanting to be a doctor, and her parents supported her dream. She began her medical career as a pupil assistant at the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, and she used this income to forward her opportunities for an education. While a student at WMCP, she attended different lectures set up by her dean. However, these were all-male lectures, and as a woman in the medical field, she endured many different types of harassment from male workers. They would continuously cat call her and minimize her importance and work. For the nineteenth century, this was common. Women were seen as inferior to men, especially in medicine. Many did not continue their work in the field because of the continuous degrading for their male counterparts. However, Broomall persevered and continued to attend schooling, completing the lectures. After schooling, she accepted a position as chief resident physician at the Women’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she remained for eight years. While a physician, she also taught classes at WMCP. She was eventually promoted to chair of obstetrics after the death of a superior. She then established one of the first clinics for maternity care in South Philadelphia and catered mainly to poor patients who were in high risk pregnancies. She studied antiseptics and procedures to ease the delivery of babies, and actually decreased the death rate during deliveries at her hospital to less than 20 per 2,000. She continued as a professor of obstetrics for another twenty years, and she was also a gynecologist for the Quaker-run Friend’s Asylum for the Insane in Philadelphia. Dr. Anna E. Broomall passed away at the age of eighty-five after being ill for months. She was believed to have been the oldest female physician in the country. Broomall was a pioneer for women in both medical education and the medical field itself. With her development of the Women’s Medical College Maternity in South Philadelphia, as well as her perseverance in a time where men dominated the medical field, she was able to revolutionize fetal medicine. A Pennsylvania historical marker was placed for her at 13th and Chestnut street in Chester, PA, close to her home.

Dr. Anna E. Broomall was an obstetrician and gynecologist known specifically for her revolutionary work in fetal medicine. She continuously worked with women in high risk pregnancies to decrease the infant mortality rate. Broomall strategized with different methods that were uncommon for her time, including cesarean section, to promote safer deliveries for both mothers and their babies, while also creating one of the country’s first maternity care clinics in Pennsylvania. She wrote articles and studied cases regarding different fetal complications, and she also presented ideas that would come to change the fetal medicine industry. 

Dr. Anna E. Broomall Historical Marker

This historical marker was erected to honor the life and many achievements of Anna Howard Shaw. This historical marker erected by the Pennsylvania Historical &amp; Museum Commission as a part of a series of historical markers.<blockquote>"The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission administers a program of historical markers to capture the memory of people, places, events, and innovations that have affected the lives of Pennsylvanians over the centuries since William Penn founded his Commonwealth. More than 2,000 cast aluminum markers tell the important and interesting stories that are part of the history of Pennsylvania."</blockquote>Few have a more interesting story than that of Anna Howard Shaw. Before she was a key player in the women's suffrage movement of the United States, Shaw was a master of several different crafts.Shaw was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1847. When she was four, she and her family emigrated to the United States and settled in Lawrence, Massachusetts. From an early age, Shaw had a call to preach. Her passion to preach received disapproval from her classmates, friends, and family who agreed to pay for her college education only if she abandoned preaching. Despite such continual opposition and isolation from so many, Anna chose to keep on preaching. Shaw went on to study at Albion College in 1873 with no financial support from her family due to her career path. Shaw then went on to study at Boston University's School of Theology in 1876 where she was the only women in her class. At BU, Shaw was exposed to many inequalities due to her gender. Shaw found it unfair that the male licensed preachers were given free accommodations in the dormitory and their board cost each of them $1.25 while it cost her $2 to pay rent of a room outside. Shaw also struggled to find work as a preacher in Boston. Due to these financial hardships, Shaw considered a career change.While serving Wesleyan Methodist Church in East Dennis, Massachusetts, Shaw earned a medical degree from Boston University in 1886. At age thirty-nine, she broadened her activity from pastoral and healing ministries to also become the “master orator” for social justice concerns, organizing and lecturing throughout the world for the causes of temperance, woman’s suffrage, and peace. Shaw was the first ordained woman to preach in Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, and London, and the first woman to deliver a sermon in the State Church of Sweden. The first woman awarded a Distinguished Service Medal for her work as chair of the Woman’s Committee of the National Council of Defense during World War I, Shaw was an advocate for the League of Nations covenant just prior to her death in 1919.Though Shaw was a very accomplished doctor and preacher, her legacy is due to her endless devotion to women's suffrage in the United States. Beginning in 1886, Shaw served as the chair of the Franchise Department of Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Her task was "to work for woman suffrage and then to use the ballot to gain 'home protection' and temperance legislation." However her focus on temperance subsided as she became more heavily involved in the suffrage movement by lecturing for the Massachusetts Suffrage Association and later the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). It wasn't until 1887 that Shaw met Susan B. Anthony. In 1888, Shaw attended the first meeting of the International Council of Women. Susan B. Anthony encouraged her to join the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). Having agreed, Shaw played a key role when the two suffrage associations merged to create the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). For the first time in the women's suffrage struggle, the movement finally had some teeth now that there was a united front. Shaw was the president of NAWSA from 1904 - 1915. Under her leadership, NAWSA continued to "lobby for a national constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote." She continued to lecture even after her retirement until her death. Shaw died of pneumonia at her home in Moylan, Pennsylvania at the age of seventy-two, only a few months before Congress ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution which granted women the right to vote.The location of Shaw's death is the basis for the placement of her historical marker by the Pennsylvania Historical &amp; Museum Commission. After a long life of significant achievement and social justice that jumped between many different locations in the Northeast, It is most fitting that the memorial dedicated to honoring this life is placed where it ended. Anna Howard Shaw is one of the most influential women in the history of the United States. The fact that this isn't the only monument honoring her legacy is testament to that. There is also a statue of Anna Howard Shaw that was erected next to the Community Library in Big Rapids, Michigan, in 1988. Boston University School of Theology opened the Anna Howard Shaw Center and the Albion College opened the Anna Howard Shaw Women's Center. There is also the Anna Howard Shaw Junior High School built in 1922–1924 in Southwest Schuylkill, Philadelphia. This historical marker will last for a very long time, just like the amazing legacy of Anna Howard Shaw.

Erected in 2014 by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, this historical marker was commissioned to honor the life of Anna Howard Shaw (February 14, 1847 – July 2, 1919). This marker can be found at the intersection of S Orange St. and S Ridley Creek Rd on S Orange St. Shaw was a leader of the women's suffrage movement of the United States. She was also a physician and one of the first ordained female Methodist ministers in the United States. Shaw is known for being a key member in the unification of various suffrage groups to create a united front in the women's suffrage movement. She lived near the location where this historical marker was erected from 1908 until her death.

Anna Howard Shaw Historical Marker

Fanny M. Jackson was enslaved only nine months after birth in October of 1837. She was a slave till she was 12 years old. There isn't much info from her time as a slave, but we do know she was set free from one of her aunts and spent the next few years of her youth as a servant in Massachusetts, for author George Henry Calvert, studying every opportunity she could. 1 Until 1860, Fanny was self- taught, learning how to read and write at any opportunity she had. She was very particular and determined to get an education. Later in 1860, she enrolled into Oberlin College, Ohio. Oberlin College was the first college that accepted both Black and female students. 2 Fanny enrolled into Oberlin College in 1860 at the age of 23, the first college to accept both Black and female students. “It was in me,” she wrote years later, “to get an education and to teach my people. This idea was deep in my soul.” As Fanny continued to back up this quote in the years to come. 3 During her time at Oberlin College, she took part in the men's course studies. She was advised from her peers not to take those classes, but she knew she was not forbidden to take them, so she took the risk and excelled at them. 3 During her years as a student at Oberlin College, she was given the opportunity to teach classes at the college. She was nervous at first that her students would not give her respect, but with the backing of her professors and faculty of the college, she was able to do it. Her classes became so successful, she had to divide her classes since they were becoming so big and increasing in the amount of students wanting to join her classes. She taught an evening course for the free African Americans in reading and writing, and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in 1865. 2-3 Fanny became very passionate about education and the education of African-American females. Right after graduation, Fanny had began teaching Mathematics, Greek and Latin in the Institute of the Colored Youth in Philadelphia. In 1869, with the departure of principal Ebenezer Bassett, Fanny was appointed the Principal of Philadelphia's Institute of Colored Youth. Which is now called Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, where she stayed for 37 years reconstructing a better education system for the students. 2 In 1876, her greatest contribution was to democratize an institution that middle-class Black families used to educate their children to become professionals and teachers. In following the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876, and greatly impressed by the Moscow Imperial Technical School's exhibit, she with difficulty persuaded the ICY's managers to embrace the "necessity of industrial education." She later wrote to Fredrick Douglass expressing that even though it was a hard decision to get past the amount of little confidence she had being a African-American Female, she would be able to teach and continue her mission as a role model and educator for the Black community. 4 After becoming principal of the of the Colored Youth, she inspired two generations to follow her lead.In a letter to Frederick Douglass in 1876, she explained her commitment: “I feel sometimes like a person to whom in childhood was entrusted some sacred flame…This is the desire to see my race lifted out of the mire of ignorance, weakness and degradation; I want to see him crowned with strength and dignity.” Her school was centered on this dream. She expanded the curriculum to include an Industrial Department, established a Women’s Industrial Exchange to display the mechanical and artistic works of young women, and founded a Home for Girls and Young Women to house workers from out of town. She then persuaded employers to hire her pupils in capacities that would utilize their education, to not only build confidence but show that her pupils are worth investing in as employees as hard workers. 5 In addition to providing African American youth with education, Jackson founded homes for working and poor women. She also was an influential <a href="https://www.Blackpast.org/entries-categories/journalists-reporters" target="_blank">columnist</a> who defended the rights of women and Blacks in local Philadelphia newspapers. Jackson added missionary work to her long list of accomplishments when she married <a href="https://www.Blackpast.org/aah/coppin-levi-jenkins-1848-1924" target="_blank">Rev. Levi Jenkins Coppin</a>, a minister in the <a href="https://www.Blackpast.org/entries-categories/african-methodist-episcopal-ame" target="_blank">African Methodist Episcopal (AME)</a> Church on December 21, 1881. In 1902 the married couple went to <a href="https://www.Blackpast.org/entries-categories/south-africa" target="_blank">South Africa</a> and founded the Bethel Institute, a missionary school which emphasized self-help programs. 6 Mrs. Coppin retired from her beloved school in 1902 at age 65 and began a new career. She had started to accompany her husband, now a bishop, to Cape Town, South Africa. From there, Fanny was an effective missionary, and was counseling African women. She returned to Philadelphia in 1907, sadly broken in health but not in spirit! In her last few years, she completed her autobiography, being a writer was also one of her incredible achievements. Reminiscences of School Life, which remains a record of a remarkable life. Fanny Jackson Coppin died in 1913 at age 76. Perhaps her greatest accomplishment was her influence on her students. She prodded them toward excellence. She made them dream. She made them become more than they ever thought they could, giving them hope, something many African-Americans did not truly experience till Fanny Coppin. Frances (Fanny) Marion Jackson Coppin was, indeed, a model of academic excellence; both in her life and in the heritage that she has bequeathed to those who followed. 5 A tribute to a true hero and matriarch of Fanny M. Jackson Coppin.Fanny was not only a writer, and educator, missionary and former slave, she was the hope and inspiration for the African-American community, especially female African-Americans.Fanny fought for people's freedom to learn at a higher educational level at the school for Colored Youth and in her later years and passing away at the age of 76, Fanny M. Jackson Coppin went down in history at the Matriarch to the school now called Coppin State University. 4

Fanny M. Jackson Coppin was born on January of 1837 in Washington D.C. Fanny was a slave after nine months of being born where she stayed a slave till she was twelve years old. There is not much information on her youth as she was a slave and there was no documents recorded. However, when she was set free in 1849, she became a servant for a famous author name George Henry Calvert. Fanny was an educator, a writer, missionary and former slave. She resided in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

Fanny M. (Jackson) Coppin

The Sitterly Historical Marker, located in Ercildoun, PA, commemorates the birthplace of, renowned physicist. Sitterly lived from 1898 to 1990 and was a devoted Quaker. Her religious affiliation is shown in the picture, Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends in Fallowfield. This historical marker was erected in 2005 by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission [1] Sitterly was a groundbreaking female scientist, doing research at various prestige institutions. Her research focused on the atomic spectra, gathering data and making discoveries that have proved invaluable to the scientific community.             Charlotte Moore Sitterly was born September 24, 1898, in Ercildoun Pennsylvania to a family of poor Quakers . From an early age, science caught her interest. She earned a degree in math from Swarthmore College while substitute teaching in order to pay for her degree. She told space historian David DeVorkin in an interview in 1978 that, “Substitute teaching and tutoring were the two fields in which a woman could get some money toward working her way through college; almost everything else favored the men.” [2] The head of the math department know that a famous researcher, Henry Norris Russell at Princeton, was looking for a research assistant. Sitterly eagerly agreed to work for him and begin researching the properties of stars. She worked for years with Russell, publishing numerous papers and even falling ill because of coal fumes. She desired to apply for a PhD, which was not possible for women at Princeton. In an interview with the National Bureau of Standards, she explained “I was used to prejudice against women because Princeton was a man’s stronghold, and a woman was really out of step there” [3]. In 1929, at age 31, Sitterly began a PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. She focused her doctoral research on the atomic spectral lines of sunspots. After finishing her PhD, Sitterly returned to Princeton as a research associate, and began working on multiplet tables. A multiplet table is essentially an encyclopedia of atomic elements, including electron states and wavelengths. This research was essential for the future of astronomical studies. In 1937, Charlotte Sitterly married Bancroft Sitterly, another of Russell’s students [4]. 1945 was marked by Russell’s retirement, and Sitterly’s move to the National Bureau of Standards. [5] This is now known as the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Finally, Sitterly’s final workplace was the Naval Research Laboratory, whilst maintaining a dual position at the Bureau of Standards. She is reported to be very meticulous by relatives, “Like she did with the atomic tables, she was just as meticulous at getting all the details and everything organized and worked out." [6] Another researcher, DeVorkin, said “I certainly had a feeling that she was very dynamic, very persistent and very clear-headed." [7]             Through her extensive astrophysical career in research, Dr. Charlotte Moore Sitterly received a number of awards and recognition. Her first award was the Annie J. Cannon Award, received in 1937. [8] This award is given by the American Astronomical Society to a women for distinguished contributions to astronomy. The next major award was the William F. Meggers Award of the Optical Society of America in 1972 for her work in spectroscopy and photonics. Finally, the Catherine Wolfe Gold Bruce Medal in 1990. This awarded honors lifetime contributions to astronomy by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. As stated by the society, she was the “world’s most honored woman astrophysicist.” Sitterly had 5 first author publications spanning from 1933 to 1958. In 1966, she had the opportunity to meet with President Johnson and other dignitaries from the White House. [9] Another interesting honor given to her was naming an asteroid after her and her work, “Asteroid 2110 Moore-Sitterly.”             Dr. Charlotte Moore Sitterly represents a new generation of female astrophysicists and paved the way for future women in science. Her research was ahead of her time, and her publications remain used and heavily cited to this day. She worked in the field of astrophysics from her time at Swarthmore college until she turned 87, earning her numerous awards for her lifelong achievements in the field. This historical marker pays homage to her birthplace, showing that everyone influential comes from somewhere. She was born a poor Quaker girl in Ercildoun, Pennsylvania, and went on to be one of the most heavily honored astrophysicists of her time.

This historical marker distinguishes Ercildoun, Pennsylvania, as the birthplace of prominent physicist and author Dr. Charlotte Moore Sitterly.  Sitterly was born in Chester County in 1898, but this marker was erected in 2005 by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.  This sign is publicly accessible at 660 Buck Run Road, in Coatesville PA, and is shown on the map below.  Sitterly was a devout Quaker, attending Fallowfield Friends Meeting. Most notably, Dr. Sitterly was an award winning astronomist, primarily studying the solar spectrum and atomic data, working at Princeton and the Bureau of Standards.  

Dr. Charlotte Moore Sitterly Historical Marker

The Woman’s Rights Convention of 1852 was the first convention held in Pennsylvania. However, this was not the very first women’s right convention held. The Pennsylvania convention followed meetings in Seneca Falls and Rochester, New York, Salem and Akron, Ohio, and two national conventions in Worcester, Massachusetts. The Seneca Falls and Rochester conventions were both held in 1848 while the meetings in Salem and Akron took place in 1850 and 1851. The national conventions in Worcester were also held in 1850 and 1851. The Woman’s Right Convention was held on June second and third in 1852 at the Horticultural Hall in West Chester, Pennsylvania. The main purpose of this meeting was to seek legal, social, educational, and economic equality for all women. Voting rights were also debated and endorsed on the first day.West Chester was deemed as best qualified to hold such an important meeting due to the overwhelming number of abolitionists and woman’s rights activists advocating in Chester County. West Chester has a great, long history of support and activism as it is home to several abolitionists and woman’s rights advocates. Several of these advocates identify themselves as Quakers. Quakers believe in four main principles; simplicity, truth, equality, and community. They also believe that all human beings are equal and deserve the same rights. These beliefs led to Quakers becoming a significant factor in woman’s rights activism.Many important figures involved in the movement attended the West Chester conference. Jacob Painter, a Delaware County Quaker, was responsible for the idea of holding the convention in West Chester. The meeting was formulated by Hannah Darlington, who had much experience through meetings with a Quaker group called Society of Friends. Her resume also includes anti-slavery conferences and the two national conventions in Worcester, Massachusetts. Ann Preston gave the main speech discussing the importance of education and work force for women. Other prominent reformers included Lucretia and James Mott, Frances D. Gage, and Ernestine Rose. Lucretia Mott was a Quaker minister who advocated for civil rights and wrote an influential novel called Discourse on Woman. Frances D. Gage was also an inspiring abolitionist who was significantly involved in movements in Ohio. She led the women’s rights movement in Akron, Ohio in 1851. Ernestine Rose was an active figure in the woman’s rights, antislavery, and temperance movements. She also held speeches where she talked on religious freedom and public education.In conclusion, the meeting ended with great movement forward including sixteen resolutions. Some of these resolutions included endorsing woman suffrage, the right of women to study sciences, equal pay for equal work, and equal treatment with the law. They also protested “no taxation without representation,” which dates back to as early as the American Revolution when the colonies were under the rule of England. These resolutions were only the beginning of what was going to follow. On June 24th, 1919, Pennsylvania legislature voted on ratifying the Nineteenth Amendment, legalizing woman’s suffrage across the country. The historical marker was placed in West Chester in 2003 by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

The Woman’s Rights Convention of 1852 was the first convention held in Pennsylvania.  The convention was held on June 2nd and 3rd in 1852 at the Horticultural Hall in West Chester, Pennsylvania.  The main objective of the meeting was to pursue legal, social, educational, and economic equality for all women.  West Chester was awarded a conference due to their strong background of women’s rights activism.  Several prominent figures attended this convention including Lucretia and James Mott, Frances D. Gage, and Ernestine Rose.  The meeting concluded with sixteen significant resolutions working toward women’s suffrage.  These resolutions included endorsing woman suffrage, the right of women to study sciences, equal pay for equal work, and equal treatment with the law.  


Woman's Rights Convention of 1852 Historical Marker

Ann Preston attended her early childhood education at a local Quaker school in West Grove, Pennsylvania as well as at Friends boarding school in Chester, Pennsylvania. She did this until she had to return home to care for her family when her mother became ill. As Preston wanted to continue her education, she decided to attend lectures of the local literacy association and lyceum. She also became a member of the Clarkson Anti-Slavery Society and the temperance movement, where she wrote petitions and lectures for the Anti-Slavery Society (PeoplePill).By the early 1840’s she had begun teaching physiology and hygiene to all-female classes, with a vision to educate women about their own bodies as well as their function. In 1847, she applied for an apprenticeship in medical education, working under Dr. Nathaniel R. Moseley. At this time, she started applying to four different medical colleges in Philadelphia, only to get turned away immediately due to her gender. Unfortunately, this was extremely common and at this time, all women who attempted to apply for medical school were rejected right away. However, this did not stop Ann and in March 1850, with her help, a group of Quakers founded the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania. Later that October, Ann enrolled in the first class. The following year, in December 1851, at age 38, she graduated. Following her graduation, she decided to stay for one year of postgraduate study and in 1853, she was assigned professor of physiology and hygiene (PeoplePill).A few years later, in 1858, the Philadelphia Medical Society loudly expressed their concerns against the Female Medical College for excluding women from medical societies as well as educational clinics. From this, Ann Preston decided to do something about this injustice and brought together a group of "lady managers," who supported the issue and had money to help support the cause. They later funded and ran a woman's hospital where women were now able to be included in medical societies and educational clinics. The women’s hospital opened its doors in 1861 and two years later in 1863, Dr. Ann Preston established a school of nursing (Changing the Face of Medicine | AnnPreston) The purpose of this Hospital was: "establish in the City of Philadelphia a Hospital for the treatment of diseases of women and children, and for obstetrical cases; furnishing at the same time facilities for clinical instruction to women engaged in the study of medicine, and for the practical training of nurses; the chief resident physician to be a woman.".In 1866, Dr. Ann Preston became the first woman dean of the Woman's Medical College, and then in 1867 was elected to the college board. In 1868, still determined to improve the educational opportunities, especially those of her students, she reasoned with Philadelphia Hospital, Blockley to allow her students to attend the general clinics there. And in 1869 she made a similar arrangement with the Pennsylvania Hospital (Yurtoğlu, Nadir).The Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania was originally called the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania. The name changed to Woman’s in 1867 and the associated Woman’s Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1861. In 1970, men were allowed to be admitted so it was renamed once again to Medical College of Pennsylvania. In 1930, the campus combined teaching and the clinical care of a hospital. It then became the first purpose-built hospital in the nation. Later, in 1993 the college/hospital merged with Hahnemann Medical School and finally was taken over by Drexel University College of Medicine in 2003 (Irimia R, Gottschling M).	In Ann later life she became extremely sick with articular rheumatism. She still worked through this with small restrictions. She stayed strong and continued to support her students into becoming strong women. On April 18th, 1872 Ann passed away in Philadelphia leaving her mark on the world. Ann left her savings to the college to help continue supporting women who want to try changing the world.  According to Steve Peitzman, “it is generally agreed that [Dr. Preston’s] inspiration and leadership carried the school from its tremulous beginnings to its first years of stable credibility,” (Peitzman, page 45).	Ann Preston was an abolitionist and her community, The Chester County Quaker Community, was passionately abolitionist and pro-temperance. The Preston family farm, Prestonville, was known as safe place for escaped slaves. And, as the dean of the Woman’s Medical College, Dr. Ann Preston was also the first to admit women regardless of any race (PeoplePill).

Ann Preston was born December 1, 1813, to Amos Preston, a Quaker minister, and Margaret Smith Preston, in West Grove, Pennsylvania, a Quaker community near Philadelphia. She was the second of nine children and out of their three daughters, Ann was the only one to survive to adulthood. Ann Preston loved writing and she published different books and poems, including Cousin Ann's Stories In 1849, a book of nursery rhymes. She is most known for starting the Women’s Medical College. This was the first college in which women were able to get an education and a degree in the medical field (Bacon, Margaret Hope). The historical marker was erected in 2008 by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and was placed here due to it being Preston’s place of birth. 

Ann Preston, M.D., Historical Marker

Born January 23, 1873, Amanda Berry Smith was immediately born into slavery. Her family was held on adjacent farms. At night her father Samuel Berry would work extra hours which eventually earned him and his family slavery. Once Amanda's family finally became free, they moved to York County, Pennsylvania and their house became a station on the Underground Railroad. While living there, her family was able to free many slaves before the start of the Civil War. Amanda claimed, "Our house was one of the main stations of the Under Ground Railroad. Sometimes the excitement was so high we had to be very discreet in order not to attract suspicion. My father was watched closely."Being a young, African American, Amanda Berry Smith was never given a formal education, as traditional education during this time didn’t allow for African Americans. So, instead, she worked. When she was only 13, Amanda left her home and began working as a live-in domestic worker. At the age of 17, she got married to Calvin Devine, who fought in the Civil War, but unfortunately died there. She moved to Philadelphia and married James Smith in 1865. James was an ordained deacon and planned on completing his ministry at the African Methodist Episcopal Church. After creating such a strong devotion to the church, Amanda remained in New York with their three children, while James moved in hopes of finding work. Unfortunately, at the age of 31, James died in 1868. As if this wasn’t hard enough, Amanda had to cope with losing all four of her children. She had five children total, but only her daughter Mazie made it past childhood. After the death of her second husband and children, Smith took it upon herself to travel and begin his ministry overseas. During this time, her love for the Lord grew immensely. She had decided to devote her life to the church and evangelism. Along with her preaching skills, Amanda displayed extraordinary talent through her singing and really took a liking to it. Others took a liking to it too. Smith often got many invites to sing and preach at various churches in New York and New Jersey. Along with the invites came hardships. She was faced with hesitation from the AME Church. Female preachers were not met with arms wide open and they didn’t ordain women. However, Smith kept pushing forward and eventually found her way.Making her vocation a full-time job, Smith eventually joined different groups that would help propel her missionary work. By 1875, she became a charter member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). This was a big deal because she was one of the few Black women to be so involved. In addition, she got involved with the Colored Women’s Clubs, which was an organization that addressed issues regarding African American women. Being active in these organizations propelled her into being recognized as the most popular woman religious leader of the 19th century.            Traveling throughout her time as a missionary, Smith wasn’t ordained as a minister but was still able to work internationally as an evangelist. In doing so, she became the first Black woman to do this type of work. In her time spent in Africa, she adopted two young Black children. Additionally, she became an advocate for African American orphans. Smith had settled in Chicago and by 1895, she became very serious about opening up an orphanage. It took time to raise funds to open, but in 1899, the orphanage opened. Funds came from various sources- preaching fees, private donations, philanthropist donations, and even sales of her book Autobiography.  After leaving Harvey, Illinois in 1899, Smith eventually retired and resided in Florida. Eventually, the orphanage was overtaken by the state and it became the Amanda Smith Industrial School for Girls. Unfortunately, in 1918, it was destroyed by a fire. This was three years after she passed away.

Born into slavery on January 23, 1837 in Long Green, Maryland, Amanda Berry Smith was no stranger to a hard-working environment. Her father, Samuel Berry, worked for wages at night in order to gain freedom for his family. Once her father bought their family freedom, their family was able to move to a farm in York County. Even after attaining freedom, Smith was faced with many hardships. Dealing with death and oppression, she fought her way to make a name for herself. Through her faith and caring demeanor, Smith touched the lives of many. 

Amanda Berry Smith

Sculpted by Ron Tunison and dedicated on November 16, 2002 this statue depicts a pregnant and exhausted Elizabeth Thorn as a symbol to honor the unique struggles that millions of women endured during the war. Elizabeth and her husband Peter emigrated from Germany to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in 1855. At that time, Peter Thorn took a job as the caretaker of the cemetery and the couple lived at the home that is connected to the gatehouse at the entrance of the cemetery. Peter Thorn enlisted and was assigned to the Union's 138th Pennsylvania Infantry and Elizabeth took on the duties of her husband as the caretaker during his service. The war came to Gettysburg and Evergreen Cemetery in 1863. As the armies maneuvered in preparation for one of the pivotal battles of the war, Elizabeth and her family were ordered to leave their home for safety. Once the fighting moved away from the area, the Thorn family returned to their home and found it almost completely destroyed with most of their possessions stolen while their livestock had been taken or slaughtered. Discovering wounded soldiers in her home when her family returned, Elizabeth did her best to care for them with the little food and supplies that had not been taken or destroyed. Once the soldiers left the Thorn home, Elizabeth was ordered by the military to start burying the soldiers who perished near her home. Elizabeth was six months pregnant at the time but still hand-dug graves and buried 91 soldiers and 14 civilians. Peter Thorn returned home in 1865 and the couple lived together they died only months apart in 1907. Both Elizabeth and Peter are buried at Evergreen Cemetery.

Dedicated in 2002, this statue depicts Elizabeth Thorn who replaced her husband as the caretaker of Evergreen Cemetery during the Civil War following his enlistment. Despite being six months pregnant at the time of the Battle of Gettysburg, Thorn cared for wounded soldiers and dug graves for over a hundred soldiers and civilians who had perished in the battle. The statue depicts a Thorn as she appeared following the battle, expecting a child as she worked to fill her husband's post as caretaker while also caring for her family and attending to the dead and wounded. Peter Thorn returned after the war and the couple lived together until 1907. Both are buried at Evergreen Cemetery along with many other women and soldiers of the Civil War era. 

The Gettysburg Civil War Women's Memorial

Irving Female college was the very first women’s college in Pennsylvania to grant degrees in arts and sciences. Along with being the 1st in Pennsylvania, it was only the 15th in the United States to achieve this accomplishment. The college was founded in 1856 by a businessman named Soloman Perry Gorgas who then named it after Washington Irving. Washington Irving was a famous American writer who also served on the board of trustees for the college. The home of Irving Female College is Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Mechanicsburg is located just near the state’s capital Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.The two main figures in Irving Female College’s establishment are Soloman Gorgas and Washington Irving. Soloman Gordas, a businessman from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, donated the land for the college's construction. Gorgas and his fellow college board declared to name the college after the famous author Washington Irving. Some of Irving’s famous pieces include “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle” [1]. Not only was the college named after Irving, but he also sat on the board of trustees until his death in 1859. [2]At its start, Irving Female College sat on 4.6 acres of land and consisted of two main buildings. Irving Hall, the original building, entailed classrooms and dormitories of the college. The newer of the two buildings, Columbian Hall was constructed in 1892. Columbian Hall added 40 more dormitories located on the upper floor and an auditorium on the lower floor. The enrollment for Irving College steadied around 100 students per year. The faculty included around 20 people, most of them part time teachers. The students at Irving College could pursue the degrees in English literature, and most notably for arts and sciences. Being the first college in Pennsylvania to offer women degrees in arts and sciences was a great accomplishment that set examples for future colleges. Students could also pursue two year certificate programs for piano, home economics, and secretaryship.[7]Irving College endured much change throughout its lifetime. Three years after the school started, the past Civil War brought hardships to its home in Mechanicsburg, PA and Irving College closed from 1883-1886. In 1891 Irving College introduced its new president, Edmond Ernest Campbell who also bought the college off of previous president Mary Kessler. Under Campbell’s presidency, the school thrived by expanding three times and maintaining the enrollment of around 100 students. Eventually Irving College and the "young ladies academy model" lost its supporters as a result of competition from larger colleges.[3] Already on a decline, Irving College shut their doors in 1929 after the Great Depression and financial difficulties took an even larger toll on it. In 1930, a group of alumnae tried to raise money in order to reopen the college but were unsuccessful in doing so. [6]Present day Irving College has changed quite a bit since it first developed. The two main buildings Irving Hall and Columbian Hall still exist but have since been turned into apartments. Argyle, the residence of the college president, was demolished in 1991. This was done in order to make room for the expansion of Seidle Memorial Hospital Complex. This hospital complex now sits on the original site of the college.[5] A historical marker was placed in 1954 by the Pennsylvania Historical &amp; Museum Commission to commemorate and acknowledge the important historical college. This marker is placed on the corner E. Main and Filber Street in Mechanicsburg, PA. The marker states “Irving Female College: Site of the College that was chartered in 1857 and named for Washington Irving, a trustee. First women’s college in Pennsylvania to grant degrees in arts and sciences. It closed in 1929.”.[4] In 1983, Irving College got listed in the National Register of Historic Places. [3]Irving College’s motto, “That our daughters may be as cornerstones, polished after the similitude of a palace.” was well embodied during its lifetime [2]. It achieved an incredible accomplishment of being the first institution in Pennsylvania to offer women degrees in science and art. Although the college is closed today, its buildings still stand along with a historical marker to acknowledge an important part of women’s history.

This historical marker pays tribute to Irving Female College located in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. The college was founded in 1856 by Soloman P. Gorgas whom named it after the famous American writer, Washington Irving. Irving College was the first institution in Pennsylvania to grant women degrees in arts and science. It encompassed the motto, “That our daughters may be as cornerstones, polished after the similitude of a palace” to place the importance of allowing women higher education opportunities. 

Irving Female College Historical Marker

Genevieve Blatt was born June 19th, 1913 in East Brady, to George and Clara Blatt. She attended Sacred Heart High School in Pittsburgh, followed by the University of Pittsburgh where she graduated in 1933 with a B.A. in Political Science followed by a M.A. in the subject the following year. In 1937, Blatt completed her law degree from the University of Pittsburgh Law School. The year prior, she had the distinction of being the first delegate to vote for Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1936 Democratic National Convention. She later secured an appointment as a solicitor for the city of Pittsburgh where she drafted the first ordinance regulating smokestacks. In 1947, Blatt worked as one of the founders of the Americans for Democratic Action and was also a Chief Examiner for Pittsburgh.After an unsuccessful campaign for State Auditor General in 1950, Blatt won her race for State Secretary of Internal Affairs in 1954, becoming the first woman to win an election for a statewide position. She held this position until 1966 when she lost her re-election bid. In 1964, she was appointed to President Johnson's Consumer Advisory Council as a member until 1968. In 1956 she was also honored as a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania. This honor is given to the women who have given extraordinary service and contributions to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Then, in 1972 she was appointed by Governor Milton J. Shapp to fill an unexpired term on the Commonwealth Court. She won her re-election the next year. Then, ten years later, she became a senior judge of the Commonwealth Court.One of Blatt's most notable accomplishments came while she served as a judge on the Commonwealth Court when she ruled against the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association for gender discrimination against women in sports. Many of the same issues involved in the case are codified in case law upholding Blatt's interpretation of Title IX. Blatt retired in 1993 and died three years later in 1996 in Hampden Township, Pennsylvania. Today, a scholarship in her name is awarded to students who attend the University of Pittsburgh.

Dedicated in 2000, this historical marker shares the life of Genevieve Blatt, the first woman in Pennsylvania to win an election for a statewide position. Blatt later became the first woman to be nominated by a major political party for the U.S. Senate, although she lost that race to the Republican incumbent. Blatt graduated with a law degree during the Great Depression and worked a variety of jobs that utilized these skills, including drafting city codes and serving on President Johnson's advisory councils in the 1960s. Blatt became the first female appellate judge in Pennsylvania in the early 1970s and wrote an influential decision barring gender discrimination in school athletics.

Genevieve Blatt Historical Marker 

Mira Lloyd Dock was born on Christmas Day, December 25, 1853, in Harrisburg, PA to coal businessman Gerard Dock and his wife Lavinia Lloyd Bombaugh. She was home-schooled by her mother for several years before she began attending a public school in Harrisburg, eventually moving to schools in Lancaster and Media, PA. From an early age, Mira’s parents avidly encouraged her to participate in outdoor activities and adventures, instilling in her a deep appreciation for nature. The passing of Mira’s mother, Lavinia, and the end of the Civil War in 1865, led their entire family to relocate in order to find schooling for Mira’s younger siblings. This relocation brought them back to Harrisburg, where Mira was born and where she would eventually leave a beautiful, lasting impression on the city.Mira had always been interested in the natural world because of her parents, however she was too busy supporting her family to pursue a career in it for many years of her life. It wasn’t until her father sent her on a trip to the Rocky Mountains to rejuvenate her health and spirit that she discovered her true calling- botany. Shortly after the passing of her father in 1895, she began attending the University of Michigan in pursuit of her Botany degree. Her family full heartedly supported her because they knew of the two decades of personal sacrifice that she made to care for them instead of pursuing her own passions. It is interesting to note that it was not common for women to attend college at the time of her admittance to the University of Michigan. She would eventually lecture at the State Forestry Commission in Mont Alto (Now Penn State Mont Alto Campus) from 1903 to 1929, a school she helped found by lobbying for its creation along with her professional partner J. Horace McFarlane. While at Mont Alto, she even taught from her a textbook she had written herself.Mira Lloyd Dock held many different titles throughout her lifetime, including botanist, educator, author, civic leader, social reformer, environmentalist, conservationist, and activist. She was the founder of the Civic Club of Harrisburg and, with the help of civic reformer and businessman J. Horace McFarlane, was able to mobilize businesses and voters while completing the ‘Harrisburg Plan’. The Harrisburg Plan’ was a plan to construct water treatment plants, sewer lines, expand city parks, and increase recreational land use in Harrisburg, which garnered national attention and gained Dock respect and recognition in her field. Mira gave speech to Harrisburg Board of Trade on Dec. 20, 1900 that triggered the publics embrace of the City Beautiful movement. Both her speech and work focused on the current unsanitary conditions of the Harrisburg riverfront, which was historically used as a trash depository prior to the development of municipal trash collection services. The City Beautiful movement in Harrisburg, among many improvements, produced the city’s park system and eventually led to a swamp being transformed into a public recreation area now known as Wildwood Park and Riverside park. Mira’s newfound respect as an activist secured her an appointment to the State Forest Reservation Commission in 1901, making her the first woman appointed to a position in PA state government prior to the ratification of the 19th amendment. She would stay on this committee for 13 years, recommending land for purchase for the government to conserve, often as state or national parks. She worked on numerous other beautification projects throughout her professional life including the Susquehanna Riverfront, Niagara Falls, several state parks, and the National Park’s Systems.After stepping down from the forestry commission, Dock continued to be active in environmental causes such as education, beautification of Niagara Falls, and local women’s suffrage movements. Mira’s sister, Lavinia, was a celebrated nurse who help found modern nursing education and a leader of the National Women’s Suffrage Movement. Together, these two sisters were among the most influential professional female civic activists of their time. Mira Lloyd Dock passed away on July 11, 1945 at the age of 91 in Cashtown, PA and was buried in her hometown of Harrisburg in the Harrisburg Cemetery.Mira Lloyd Dock’s historical marker is located at 40° 16.189′ N, 76° 53.654′ W. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in Dauphin County and was erected in 1996 by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Her marker is located at the intersection of N. Front Street and Reily Street, located directly across from Mira Dock’s home at 1427 N. Front Street. This marker is also near Riverfront Park, a recreational area created by her ‘City Beautiful’ movement. Coincidentally, Dock’s house was once owned by her colleague, J. Horace McFarlane’s, father and was used by him as a green house in the years prior to her living there. J. Horace McFarlane also has a marker just down the street from his close colleague Mira Dock, both of which are located near the Women’s WWI Memorial in Harrisburg.

This historical marker is a tribute to Mira Lloyd Dock (1853-1945), social reformer and environmentalist who lived directly across from this marker at 1427 N. Front Street, Harrisburg, PA. Dock became the first woman appointed to a position in Pennsylvania state government prior to the ratification of the 19th amendment when she was appointed to the State Forestry Reservation Commission in 1901. She was also responsible for starting the ‘City Beautiful’ movement that produced Harrisburg’s park system, improved unsanitary conditions in the city, and established other unprecedented civic improvements such as the creation of Wild Wood and Riverside Parks.

Mira Lloyd Dock Historical Marker

The First World War, also known as the great war, was a never before seen historic event that changed the perspective of war for all times. Along with this, it changed the lives of millions of people living in almost all corners of the globe. Technology advanced faster than ever, men were pulled from their homes and drafted to fight one another on the front line, and the constantly shifting tides of battle weighed heavily on the hearts of everyone involved. While the impact men had on the war and the impact the war had on men cannot be understated, often overlooked is the impact of women during this difficult battle.           With men being drafted to join the military, women were forced to pick up where they had left off on the home front. This lead to women joining the dangerous world of working in a factory. They were responsible for a multitude of things such as producing weaponry, land vehicles, ammunition, and airplanes (1). These volatile working environments put the lives of many women in danger. Women were also responsible for taking up non-specifically war related operations such as becoming phone operators and stock traders. This put a tremendous strain on women as they were also required to take care of their homes during all this. Women still had children that needed to be raised and tended to. Just because they were needed to help with the war didn’t mean that they could ignore their families. One of the most important things a woman was expected to do during the war was to “bolster the morale of their families at home and loved ones overseas” (1). Some women, deciding not to work in a factory, decided to become nurses. These nurses were often times on the war grounds tending to wounded soldiers. Women faced issues such as disease from being overseas as well as direct threat from enemy attacks. Dozens of women lost their lives trying to help the sick and wounded from the front line. Often these women were given military funerals in honor of their work towards the cause of the war (2). Some women even attempted to join the military on the front lines of combat. Some were successful; most others were met with a wall of problems (3).           When trying to enlist in the military, some branches, such as the coast guard and navy, accepted women. But the United States Army refused to allow females to join. Although women faced dangerous situations at home working for factories, the United States Army decided that they would not be letting women join or go into combat. Women such as Ruth Law, who was exceptionally qualified for overseas aviation and combat, were restricted to using their skills to recruit more men for the front line (4). Ruth Law was given an official position within the army; however she was given a modified version of the uniform as she was not permitted to wear the same one as soldiers. The societal expectations put on women caused discrimination during the times of war, however this did not mean that women didn’t find ways to impact the war and influence the outcome.           Women around the globe worked hard to bypass the societal red tape that was placed in their way. Many remarkable women did great things during the war. Women like Elizabeth Knocker who set up her medical tent near the front lines of combat, working often under fire and only leaving once her medical station was gassed by enemy forces, or Mary O’Connell Bianconi who worked as an ambulance driver and spent long hours serving the wounded while under heavy fire from the enemy lines. Along with these women was Elsie Maud Inglis, a surgeon who was told her services were not needed in the war. She set up her own organization and helped heal thousands of injured troops, eventually earning the Order of the White Eagle (5). Women also came together as a whole to host a Peace Congress in 1915 discussing “arbitration, armaments, territorial boundaries, and world organization” (6). Since war had led the men who usually ran the Hague Conference had to cancel due to war, the third Hague Conference was female ran and organized by the Netherlands Doctor Aletta Jacobs. The 1200 delegates in attendance gave speeches surrounding how overseas conflict should be settled in a less violent and more pacified manner. Many women during World War One felt the same way about peaceful settlement of conflict. As Jane Addams expresses, it was seen as unreasonable for men to “believe . . . that there will be great moral effects from this wholesale slaughter” (7). The Women’s Peace Congress fought for peace after war times and had a relatively large impact on the way the end of the war proceeded.           Despite the great impact women had on the war and the suffering women endured during the war to aid the cause, there is still a large under-representation of women in memorials and historical documentation about the war (8). Most war memorials, especially about the First World War, commemorate the soldiers who fought battles on the front line. While these are important, they fail to recognize the sacrifices that women all around the world made in an effort to assist in the war. At the core, the memorials of women reflect the sexist ideals and values of the historic world and “the role women have played or suffered in war in Britain has been met with at best mixed attitudes by the wider society” (8). The Women’s WW1 memorial in Harrisburg stands as a symbol of not only the sacrifices women made during the war, but also the unjust lack of importance often placed on these roles. It illuminates this fact by its relatively lackluster size, and the lack of information available about the decision to have it commissioned or its installment. It is important to always remember and respect the many challenges and sacrifices women faces on all sides and fronts of the First World War.

In Harrisburg, PA, in front of the water at N. Front Street stands a Memorial dedicated to the sacrifices Women of Harrisburg made during The Great War. Inscribed on this memorial is “In commemoration of the services and sacrifices of the women of Harrisburg
in the World War”. Women served in the war on many different ways. Some women served on the home front, some served in the front lines of combat. The monument itself depicts 8 women on its face, each representing a different role women played during the war including nurse, factory worker, and farmer. Although not much is known about this monument, it remains in Dauphin County as a powerful symbol of the impact women had on World War 1. 


Women's World War 1 Memorial Historical Marker

Martha Elizabeth Reifsnyder paved the road for thousands of women in the medical field. Through her hard work and determination, she was able to accomplish plenty of "firsts" which made women in the medical field more acceptable. Dr. Elizabeth Reifsnyder had accomplished many great things and is recognized by historians and medical staff alike around the world. Her groundbreaking surgery put her on the map and has kept her on it until this day.Nancy Musselman Reifsnyder and her husband, John, gave birth to Martha Elizabeth Reifsnyder on January 17th, 1858 in Liverpool Pennsylvania. Reifsnyder had a total of six siblings, but their names and ages are unknown.[1]Dr. Elizabeth Reifsnyder's childhood was spent like many others, school and play. After going through the Liverpool schools, she enrolled in the Millersville State Normal School, which was later renamed to Millersville University of Pennsylvania.[2] During the time of Dr. Elizabeth Reifsnyder's life, women going to any form of secondary education was unheard of. After receiving her degree, Dr. Elizabeth Reifsnyder moved onto the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.[3] Dr. Elizabeth Reifsnyder had already beaten the odds by going to college and getting an undergraduate degree, but being able to attend medical school is history making in itself. The Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania was one of the first medical colleges in the world to award women a degree in medicine.[4] She graduated from the medical school in 1881 when she was only 23 years old.[5] After this, Dr. Elizabeth Reifsnyder became an intern for a year so she could practice medicine without supervision.[6] Shortly after her internship ended, Dr. Elizabeth Reifsnyder moved to China in 1883, where she spent a majority of her career.[7]After opening the Margret Williamson Memorial Hospital in Shanghai, there were few and far between patients. People were skeptical of going to someone new especially someone who wasn't native. But one day, a woman stumbled into the hospital in dire need of help. She had a cyst containing over 20 gallons of fluid. Dr. Elizabeth Reifsnyder was skeptical, finding herself in a strenuous and dangerous predicament, but proceeded with the surgery anyway. The surgery was successful and the story of such operation spread like wildfire. By the time the hospital's 25th anniversary came, more than eight hundred thousand people had been treated.[8] There were times when two hundred and fifty people were cared for in a single day.[9] Among the massive amounts of patients Dr. Elizabeth Reifsnyder had seen, the wife of the Chinese ambassador to the United States, Mademoiselles Wu Tin Fang was one of them.[10]After Dr. Elizabeth Reifsnyder's heroic act on the woman, she never had a problem trying to get patients to come in. Soon after the story of the historic surgery spread, there was thousands of people flocking to Dr. Elizabeth Reifsnyder's doorstep to be treated.[11] Not long after that, the need for more medical buildings was no question. Dr. Elizabeth Reifsnyder personally directed the new institution and it eventually became one of the greatest hospital units in the Far East.[12]Dr. Elizabeth Reifsnyder opened the first hospital as Margaret Williamson Memorial Hospital for Women and Children in 1884 but it was later renamed to the Red House Hospital that still stands today. The Red House Hospital was the first hospital in Shanghai that was exclusively meant for woman and children. This hospital is comprised of two locations, the second location was opened in 2009.[13] Together, they occupy around 10.7 acres and over nine hundred thousand square feet of floor space. Not only were there multiple medical buildings, the original building (built in 1883) also had a home for medical workers and a house for the nurses and assistants added to the plans.[14]Dr. Elizabeth Reifsnyder periodically made trips home from China to visit family. Her final trip home, in 1914 was not supposed to be her final trip.[15] She had made numerous attempts to fly back out to China, but she never made it. Dr. Elizabeth Reifsnyder passed away in her hometown of Liverpool due to heart disease 8 years after returning at the age of 64.[16]

Dr. Martha Elizabeth Reifsnyder was born in Liverpool, Pennsylvania 1858. She opened up the first women's hospital in China, which was also the first of its kind there. Although she was born in Pennsylvania, Dr. Elizabeth Reifsnyder moved to China early on in her career and spent most of her life there.  Dr. Elizabeth Reifsnyder paved the way for modern medicine and performed a groundbreaking surgery that is still talked about today. 

Dr. Elizabeth Reifsnyder and the Red House Hospital 

Very little is known about Julia C. Collins, except that she identified herself as African American and that she was married to the African American Stephen Collins, who was active in politics and church affairs in Williamsport. Where she was born, whether as slave or free, who her parents were, and her level of education all remain mysteries. We do know that she wrote well and that in the late 1850s&nbsp;she was appointed by the Williamsport School Board to teach, although no school building in the city was open to Black children. (Julia would have had to teach in a home or in the building that was used as a church.)&nbsp; Julia began writing a novel in the waning months of the Civil War, and her work was serialized by&nbsp;The Christian Recorder, the national newspaper of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The story&nbsp;is set in antebellum Louisiana and Connecticut and focuses on the lives of a beautiful mixed-race mother and daughter whose opportunities for fulfillment through love and marriage are threatened by slavery and caste prejudice. The text shares much with popular nineteenth-century women's fiction, while its dominant themes of interracial romance, hidden African ancestry, and ambiguous racial identity have parallels in the writings of both Black and white authors from the period. The novel, and its serialized version, were near conclusion when Julia died of tuberculosis in November 1865. The dramatic title that Julia gave her novel, The Curse of Caste, is in keeping with the drama of the story of racial identity that&nbsp;she tells. Lina, a beautiful dark-haired woman, and Richard Tracy, the son of a New Orleans slave owner, fall in love. Richard discovers that Lina is actually a slave. Richard and Lina marry despite this, and Richard's father disinherits his son. The newlyweds flee to Connecticut, where Lina dies during childbirth while Richard is back in New Orleans to make an attempt&nbsp;to reconcile with his father. Instead of discussing things with Richard, his father shoots him, and as the badly wounded Richard is recovering, he is deceived into thinking that his infant daughter died along with his wife. That daughter, Claire, grows into a beautiful woman who never knows her own racial identity or that of her parents. The story shifts back to New Orleans, where Claire has taken a job as a governess in what turns out to be the Tracy household. A chance discovery of her parentage may change lives, reveal her true identity, and reconcile the family.&nbsp; The novel was eventually published by Oxford University Press in 2006. The editors who handled the manuscript&nbsp;composed a hopeful and a tragic ending, reflecting two alternatives Julia almost certainly would have considered for the closing of her unprecedented novel. In their introduction, the editors offer the most complete and current research on the life and community of an author who left few traces in the historical record, and provide extensive discussion of her novel's literary and historical significance. The Pennsylvania State Historical and Museum Commission dedicated a marker in Julia's honor in 2011. It is the first marker in Lycoming County to honor a woman, an African American, or an author.&nbsp;

Julia C. Collins was an African American essayist, teacher, and novelist who lived along the Susquehanna River in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Her 1865 novel, The Curse of Caste, or, The Slave Bride, is considered to be among the first published by an African American woman. Collins's life and writings provide a glimpse into the rarely documented experiences of nineteenth-century African American women, their families, and their communities.

Julia C. Collins

In the late 19th century, the Training School mostly educated women from the Williamsport area. For the first three months of their 15-month training program (later extended to 2 years in 1893), nursing students trained on-the-job, living on hospital premises and working 12-16 hours a day, six days a week, without pay. After this probationary period, they received a stipend of $3 a month. In their limited free time, the nursing students were expected to resist any “unworthy” behaviors, such as smoking, drinking alcohol, getting their hair done, or frequenting dance halls. Nearing the end of the 19th century, the nursing students’ housing was moved from the Williamsport Hospital to a home on the corner of Campbell and Louisa streets in order to make room for typhoid patients from the Spanish American War. Continuing into the 20th century, the nursing program was extended to three years and the curriculum was updated to include nursing theory, as well as nursing care and treatment. Advances in medicine in surgery around this time resulted in the responsibilities of the nurses in terms of patient care becoming more complex. This meant that certain nursing tasks of the late 19th century, such as carrying coal or doing laundry, had to be dropped. In 1925, nursing separated from hospital administration for the first time. Around this period, professionalism was emphasized in the nursing program, as reflected through their strict clothing and physical appearance requirements. It was expected that women wore plain dresses and rubber heels on shoes when on duty. Their teeth were required to be in good condition as well. Housing was a reoccurring problem for the nursing students throughout the 20th century. Students constantly had to seek out outside housing since the school could not accommodate all of those enrolled. Students found housing in private homes, the old pediatrics building on Rural Avenue, or Dickinson Seminary (Lycoming College). In 1942, this issue was mostly resolved with the conversion of two buildings, one on Louisa Street and one on Campbell Street, into nurses’ residences. Throughout its existence, the Williamsport Hospital School of Nursing opened doors for its students and graduates professionally and economically. In September of 1943, the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps program was incorporated into the Williamsport Hospital School of Nursing, granting tuition coverage for participating students with the expectation that they would provide their nursing services for the duration of the World War II. Nurses who studied at the Williamsport Hospital School of Nursing were sought after at this time and had plenty of opportunities to establish their own career in a respected profession, allowing them to make money for themselves or their families after training. Following the war, the school of nursing had to adapt to the new medical world of antibiotics and research. In addition to their training, nursing students were taught classes in Chemistry, Microbiology, Anatomy, and Physiology at Lycoming College. Student life remained restrictive with curfews, limited privileges (that could be taken away at any time), uncomfortable uniforms, and mandated study hours during the 1950’s. A cultural shift from 1959 to 1971 initiated liberating changes in these areas. Women were gaining self-esteem and pushed to work alongside the physicians rather than subservient to them. The nursing students were also allowed more freedom when they weren’t training. One graduate from the class of 1966 even remembers when several of the girls formed a singing group and called themselves “The Beetles”. The demographic of students also started to shift during this period. In 1961, the first male student was admitted to the program. In the 1970’s, the first African-American woman since 1894 was admitted to the program.The Williamsport Hospital School of Nursing closed in 1988 after 105 years of respected training. The decision to close the school, according to the Alumni Association, was prompted by a dramatic increase in educational costs that the hospital could not afford and the offering of nursing degrees at several colleges in the area. Although the training was rigorous and strict, the school opened doors that had previously been closed to women. Throughout its existence, women used the experience and education that they acquired at the school to advance their careers, further their economic and societal status, and gain independence, making the Williamsport Hospital School of Nursing -- although no longer an institution -- a pertinent site in terms of women's history in Lycoming County.

In May of 1988, The Williamsport Hospital School of Nursing Alumni Association planted a historical marker at this location in tribute to the school's 105 year history. The Williamsport Hospital School of Nursing, originally named The Williamsport Hospital Training School for Nurses, first opened on June 5, 1883. Dr. Jean Saylor Brown and Dr. Rita Church, two of the nine trained female doctors in the Williamsport area at the time, played an important role in the founding of both the Williamsport Hospital in 1881 and the Training School for Nurses in 1883. These two establishments arose out of the increase in population in Lycoming County as a result of industry growth in the area, leading to a demand for improved health care to deal with the increase in illness, accidents, and disease. 

Williamsport Hospital School of Nursing

Flora Snyder (Black) was born on February 20, 1870 in Somerset, Pennsylvania where she grew up. After attending schools in Somerset, she went to Maryland College for Women. After college, she moved back to Somerset County, married Franklin Black in 1893, and had four children. Missing the social aspect of school, she became convinced that farm women should also have time to get together for fun and learning.On October 14, 1914, Flora Black and about a dozen other women from the Somerset County Are founded “Die Hausfrauen” which means “the housewives” in German. They named it this because many of the women were of German descent. This organization was founded to contribute to the power and influence of farm women, to contribute to the community activity of farm women, and to develop leadership and promote better living and working conditions in the farm homes of Pennsylvania.Around the same time Flora Black founded her organization, there were many conventions going on where women could come together to learn and show off their agricultural skills. During the 1910s NC State College hosted the annual Farmers’ and Farm Women’s Convention. College faculty, as well as personnel of the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service, helped organize the events, presented the lectures, and conducted demonstrations of agricultural and home economics techniques and practices. For the two years of American involvement in World War I, these conventions provide a good window into the impact of the war on agriculture and rural citizens. The convention’s program for farmwomen focused on food conservation in order to get farm families to consume more of the food they grew themselves rather than purchasing food that is needed for the military and allies. These activities went hand-in-hand with U.S. Food Administration efforts to encourage Americans to consume less of certain foods so they would be available other places. Women also learned how to use cornmeal to save flour, made from wheat, and to serve leftovers creatively to reduce waste.As the anti-German sentiment grew during World War 1, Flora Black and the other founders, changed the name of their organization to the “Society of Farm Women.” She served eleven years as president of this society that she founded, and two terms as president of the Somerset County branch. Flora Black was active in the society until her death in 1951 at the age of eighty-one.The marker memorializing Flora is located on U.S. Route 219, three miles northwest of Meyersdale, PA. Erected by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in 2006. The marker says: “On this farm lived Flora Black, a civic leader active in the county and Commonwealth. Here on October 14, 1914, she organized the Society of Farm Women of Pennsylvania. In the ensuing years, groups in many Pennsylvania counties became Society affiliates, in furtherance of its aim to strengthen the role of farm women and promote better conditions in farm homes across the Commonwealth.”

Mrs. Flora (Snyder) Black was a civic leader, from Somerset County, who formed a group in 1914, originally called "Die Hausfauen" because most members were Pa. German women. The group provided community networks to help women on farms in Somerset County and across the state. She formed this group because she was missing the social aspects of school and was convinced that farm women should also have time to get together for fun and learning. As the anti-German sentiment grew during World War 1, Flora Black and the other founders, changed the name of their organization to the “Society of Farm Women.” She served eleven years as president of this society that she founded, and two terms as president of the Somerset County branch. Flora Black was active in the society until her death in 1951 at the age of eighty-one. The marker memorializing Flora is located on U.S. Route 219, three miles northwest of Meyersdale, PA. Erected by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in 2006.

Flora Black Historical Marker

The Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve began when two attorneys anticipated the development of the Route 30 corridor and purchased a large amount of land near Route 30 and Route 981. In 1991 the area did in fact begin to flourish with the expansion of the highway, that now included grocery stores, restaurants and businesses. Many in the community resented this development due to the harm it was causing to small businesses in the area. Winnie Palmer, late wife of Arnold Palmer, was one of those individuals. Winnie served on the board of directors of Saint Vincent College and had always loved looking across their land. She thought developing the land would ruin the scenery and view of the college campus and Basilica. She also wanted to do what the community wanted. Winnie then set out to preserve this scenery by creating the Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve.

​The Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve at Saint Vincent College is a 50 acre nature reserve adjacent to Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. The Reserve includes a native landscapes, trails, meadows, gardens, Environmental Learning Barn, Nature Explore Certified play spaces, pond, wetlands, and more! The property is open to the public for recreation, conservation, and education.


Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve

The Sisters of Mercy take vows of poverty, chasity, obedience and service (Sisters of Mercy). The sisters came to the United States to complete a mission. They wanted to serve the poor, and they specifically wanted to help women. Catherine Elizabeth McAuley was the founder of Sisters of Mercy; at the age of 49, she opened up a house for poor women and educated them. A famous quote by Catherine is, "Sisters of Mercy should be particularly kind - the kindest people of Earth, with the tenderest pity and compassion for the poor" (MercyHealth). She inspired so many sisters to be like her. What the sisters do, then and today, are envision a just world for people who are poor, sick and uneducated (Sisters of Mercy). They are women of faith who commit their lives to God and Catherine McAuley to serve, advocate and pray for those in need around the world (Sisters of Mercy).Saint Frances Xavier Warde was one of the first sisters. She brought six of the Sisters of Mercy to America from Ireland with her when she traveled over (Wikipedia). In just two years, Xavier created two convents in two years. In 1846, she created a convent in Chicago and in 1848, she created another one in a town called Loretto, which is located in Pennsylvania (Wikipedia). She did a lot of work while she was alive, and by the year 1883, she was the oldest sister living during her time (Wikipedia). Unfortunately, in 1884, she passed away; however, by the time she had died, she had created 82 works of Mercy in nine states (Wikipedia). Although she passed at 74 years old, she did a lot and helped a lot of people in her lifetime.Their are about eight other markers around St. Xavier's and they are al within 10 minutes of each other. This is a great history fact, because there are not that many elsewhere. Also, it s interesting because they are all in my hometown of Latrobe, Pennsylvania and slo just within 10 minutes of my home as well. A few of the markers are Saint Vincent College, Boniface Wimmer, Fred McFeely Rogers, and the Banana Split. All of these markers play a huge role in Latrobe's history, and this is something I grew up knowing my whole life.St. Xavier's and the Sisters of Mercy are still around today. As of 2019, there were still 6,200 sisters left worldwide (Wikipedia). Everything the sisters did were in hopes to care for the poor and needy, especially women. They were so kind and pure to share their skills all to help people. I hope that in future this institute will continue to grow and stay alive in honor of Catherine McAuley and St. Xavier.

In 1831, Sisters of Mercy was founded in Dublin, Ireland. They are a religious institute of Roman Catholic women (Saint Xavier University). In 1843, Sisters of Mercy came to the United States the whole way from Ireland by Saint Frances Xavier Warde. That makes Saint Xavier's the oldest institution in Sisters of Mercy, located in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. It was originally located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but eventually migrated to Latrobe. However, the Sister of Mercy are still located in Pittsburgh today. 

St. Xavier's

Helen Richey was born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania in 1909. Growing up, Richey was a tomboy. She consistently wore pants, kept her hair short, and played with mechanical boy toys. She graduated from High School in 1927 and then attended Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Tech for a degree in Education. Within a few months Richey dropped out of college and enrolled in flight school. This is where her pilot journey begins… In a bid to outshine a competitor James D. Condon the president of Pennsylvania’s Central Airlines hired Helen when she applied for a copilot’s position in December of 1934. Condon made sure that he reassured the U.S Department of Commerce that he was hiring a woman only for publicity purposes and didn’t plan to keep her for long. Richey’s first flight on January 1, 1935 was looked at as a breakthrough for women in aviation. Female pilots were rare. This brought popularity to Richey in newspapers. In 1934 the 25-year-old Native of McKeesport Pennsylvania beat out 7 male competitors for a position as copilot on the Central Airways mail route from Washington D.C. to Pittsburgh. She had more than 1,000 flight experience without an accident and had set a woman’s endurance record of 197 hours and 5 minutes with Frances Harrell Marsalis in 1938. Central Airways pilots were unhappy about a female invading the male area of the cockpit implying that Richey was too weak to fly in rough weather. Central Airways stood by Richey stating: “This is Pilot Richey. Yes, she is a girl. She’s young. She’s pretty. She’s a good flyer. But she’s more than that…” Eventually the pilots took their complaints to the Pilot’s Association which issued an advisory limiting woman to only flying in fair weather routes. Richey ultimately resigned in November of 1935. In 1940 Richey became the first woman to earn her instructor’s license and appointed as an instructor for air cadets in the Pittsburgh-Butler Airport. Two years later Richey joined the American wing of the British Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). Her duties during the job included ferrying aircraft and materials through the British Isles. She headed the ATA’s from 1942 until April 1943, when she returned to the states and joined the WASP’s (Women's Air-force Service Pilots). Ultimately the WASP’s were disbanded in 1944 and Richey couldn’t find work. After a brief unemployment period, Helen Richey felt the need to help England in its fight against Germany during second World War. So, she applied to the British air transport auxiliary for a pilot position. She had nearly 2,000 hours of flying experience, a commercial license, and her instructors rating. Richey also served as a flight instructor for the United States Army Air Corps. When she returned to the United States, Helen soon found herself in the Air Force service pilots’ program. As a member of the fifth class to graduate she completed training at Avenger Field on September 11, 1943. Within the next couple months, she ferried twin engines Mitchell B – 25 bombers throughout the United States battle in war. Other than flying, Helen Richey had a deep connection with co-pilot Amelia Earhart. In fact, Richey was convinced that Amelia Earhart's mysterious disappearance had sketchy undertones and believed there may have been secret activities surrounding the flight. Friends warned Helen that she was beginning to ask too many questions, when it was purely just an accidental tragedy. Soon after these accusations on Jan. 7, 1947, Helen Richey died in her New York City apartment. Her death was ruled a suicide, but some call it "impossible" to reject the possibility of a different cause (Tube City Almanac). Before her death, Richey’s friends attempted to find help find her a new job after the war, but she showed barely any interest, always wanting to stay in her apartment and read. She became a ghost. Her sister Lucille noticed that Richey seemed unusually quiet, depressed, and disconnected from her life. On January 7, 1947, Richey folded her wings by her own hand in her apartment in New York’s lower Manhattan’s Chelsea District accomplished pilot. She committed suicide in 1947 on a pill overdose in her apartment. Helen Richey’s marker is in McKeesport in Allegheny County Pennsylvania. The marker states that she became the first woman to pilot a commercial airliner. She faced discrimination because she was a woman and resigned within a year and went on to become the first woman licensed instructor by the Civil Aeronautics Authority. In World War II the commandment of the American wing British Air Transport Auxiliary; member of the Women’s Air-force Service Pilots and major by the war’s end. Richey left an impact in the Pittsburgh community with help of the marker, articles and books from libraries. She is an inspiration for women in the aviation field all over the world who want to have faced discrimination or want to be pilots/work in the flight industry.

Helen Richey was a female aviator during the early 1900’s. She was born and raised in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. Richey was not very interested in college, so she dropped out of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Tech and enrolled in flight school. She was the first woman to be hired by a United States commercial airline. Throughout her career she many broke records, starred in newspaper headlines, and befriended co-pilot Amelia Earhart. Although it seemed that she had everything going well for her, there was an unknown problem. Unfortunately, Helen Richey committed suicide in 1947 in her New York apartment. Despite Richey’s death, her legacy still remains a part of women’s history. Her marker is located in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. It is a representation of the inspiration and hard work that women in the aviation field have faced since the beginning of time. 

Helen Richey Historical Marker

Mother Jones lived from 1830 to 1930. She was originally from Cork, Ireland until she immigrated to Canada at the age of five. In 1861 she married George Jones whom she had four children with. She had several different occupations before becoming a well renowned labor leader and workers advocate. She first began working as a teacher in Michigan and later began work as a seamstress in Chicago. She even published three different pieces of literature including The New Right in 1899, Letter of Love and Labor in 1900 &amp; 1901, and Autobiography of Mother Jones in 1925. To some, she was known to be “the most dangerous woman in America.” She had experienced a tremendous amount of struggle and heartache as she grew up poor and then lost her husband and four children to the yellow fever epidemic. 	Mary Harris Jones was an advocate for all workers as well as a labor leader. On July 7th, 1903 Mary Harris Jones led the March of the Mills. This was a major march held in Kensington Philadelphia and went on for three weeks until they reached New York. She was fighting against child labor and attempting to collect funds for the children's parents who were striking textile factories. She felt as if having all of these children working was doing more harm to the society than good. In turn, more children ended up in liquor stores, reformatories, slums, and insane asylums. Children who had to work in the Mills often had to wake up at 5:00 a.m. everyday and worked an average of 55 hours a week. They received little or no education and often beaten or tortured. Mary Harris Jones did not agree with child labor and after seeing the horrific conditions she had to step in. She saw all of the injuries children received and how malnourished they were, so she had to step in. Mother Jones compiled a force of 300 children to join her in the march and most of the public began to rally around them. Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey took notice and made laws against child labor. 	In 1919, Mary Harris Jones was arrested in Homestead because of her drive and dedication to helping those steelworkers. This was one of the most profound and well-known attributes to her. The Great Steel Strike of 1919 began shortly after the end of World War I in 1918. The ending of this was showed positive conditions to come for the workers; however, this ended up not being the case. After a few months, steel workers struggled as the prices of resources rose and their wages stayed the same. At the same time, these steel companies that employed the workers inhibited the workers from having any meetings together. Mary Harris Jones along with Foster were two individuals who still attempted to hold a union meeting and were ended up sent to jail and fined. After their arrest, the city experienced a variety of different things including bombings, the red scare, and about four million total strikers. 	Mother Jones was also a part of other major events in our history including the labor riots in Pittsburgh in 1877 and the anthracite coal strike in 1902. The labor riots in Pittsburgh was also known as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. This strike was a result of a loss of jobs and lowered wages. It traveled all across the nation and finally ended when the military got involved. The anthracite coal strike took place in Scranton and was violent attacks between coal companies and immigrant miners. Again, the low wages and terrible conditions caused the strike to take place. This strike took a huge tool on toll on the economy and nation as a whole and Mother Jones had a huge role in it.

Mother Jones was a woman who was known for being fearless and strong willed. She was a female labor and workers’ rights advocate. No matter what, she was always determined to do whatever it took to help those workers out. Mary Harris Jones was a leader who ended up in jail for fighting for what she believed in. In the end, she left her mark as being “the most dangerous women in America.” She was a labor leader, author, and major influence in ending child labor through her March of the Mill. 

Mary Harris "Mother" Jones Historic Marker 

The city of Pittsburgh known today was not the same Pittsburgh of the early 19th century. Our city of cultural integration and beautiful architecture once consisted of nothing more than a few houses, unpaved roads, and air pollution from burning coal. This was the Pittsburgh where a Miss Jane Holmes made her home and began her legacy of giving. Jane Holmes quickly became one of the philanthropists that helped make the city what it is today. Because of her and people like her, Charity Navigator deemed Pittsburgh the most “charity-conscious” city in 2010.The legacy of Jane Holmes is often misunderstood as there were actually two separate women by the same name who sometimes are merged into one. The two Janes were first cousins with one being born in Baltimore and the other being born in Ireland. They are remembered as “Pittsburgh Jane” and “Baltimore Jane” and together they donated at least $1.5 million (equal to $43 million in today’s dollars). Here, the legacy of Pittsburgh Jane will be discussed.She moved to the Pittsburgh of the 19th century from Ireland with parents Nathaniel and Eleanor Kerr Holmes. She was one of at least five children with her brother William, who eventually helped her in her endeavors. In 1833, Miss Holmes converted her family’s home in the country to The Protestant Home for Incurables where lifetime care would be provided for the elderly and those society deemed “incurable”. This was a population often abandoned and overlooked during Ms. Holmes’ time. Following the opening of The Protestant Home for Incurables, Jane and her cousin raised money to build a home for aged women in Wilkinsburg and named it the Home for Aged Protestant Women. In 1984, the name was changed to the Rebecca Residence. Nine years later the two cousins joined forces again, this time with a Mrs. Felix Brunot to create The Home for Colored Children. It lives on to this day as Three Rivers Youth in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1881, Jane created the Home for Aged Protestant Men and Couples which was eventually renamed to Jane Holmes Residence and Gardens. The Protestant Home for Incurables has since been turned into a shopping center.Sadly in 1885, Miss Jane Holmes died. Having never married nor having any children, she continued her generosity in her will. In her will she established the School for Blind Children and left $50,000 to found a home for working Protestant boys up to the age of 21. Jane asked that this institute be a shelter for young boys and men who came to Pittsburgh to work or be educated. It was renamed Holmes Hall for Boys in 1915. After its closing, the fund Jane left for Holmes Hall continues to support similar organizations. In addition to the School for Blind Children and Holmes Hall, she bestowed over a dozen organizations that crossed racial lines including homes for the sick and elderly, hospitals, orphanages, and schools.Although Jane Holmes’ life ended during the 19th century, it is clear her impact has lasted long after her death. In 2004, several agencies joined forces to establish the Jane Holmes Legacy Council. The council created an internship in her name funded by the Buhl Foundation at four institutions as well as lobbied for a historical marker in her name. The historical marker is located outside the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children in Pittsburgh's Shadyside area. In 2006, the YMCA gave Jane Holmes a retrospective Leadership Award.3 UPMC Children’s Hospital created a society of giving in honor of Jane where they are geared toward giving care to every child regardless of the family’s ability to pay. Regardless of financial ability, everyone can take a page out of Jane Holmes’ book and treat our fellow people better.

This historical marker is located outside the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children. In her will, Ms. Jane Holmes left money to found this organization as well as several others. During her life, she supported and started numerous social service agencies that crossed ethnic, racial, gender, and class boundaries. Her efforts helped make Pittsburgh the place we know today. This historical marker was built in 2007, supported by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in order to honor the philanthropy efforts of Ms. Jane Holmes.

Jane Holmes Historical Marker

Marie Curie was a female scientist who was widely known for her discovery of Polonium and Radium who is also one of the most awarded scientists in history, holding numerous honorary degrees, countless awards, and many firsts (The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903). She is the first and only woman to win the Nobel Prize twice, the only person to win the Nobel Prize in two separate fields, and the first female professor at the University of Paris (The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903). Marie was also a big contributor to the allied war effort in World War I by pioneering new technologies and treatments for soldiers in the field (Marie Curie 2000). Overall, Marie Curie has had a significant impact not just in the scientific community, but the world.Marie Sklodowska Curie was born on November 7th, 1867 in Warsaw, in what used to be a part of the Russian Empire (Rutherford 1935, 673). Early in Marie’s life her father was fired from his job, and her family lost money in a poor investment, leading to financial troubles for the family (Mazowieckie Korzenie Marii). In late 1891, Marie left Warsaw for France where she would attend the University of Paris to study Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics (Marie Curie 2000). After several hard years spent studying, working, and fighting to survive the cold winters, Marie would meet her future husband Pierre Curie whose interest in science drew the two together (Marie Curie 2000). In 1895, Marie would marry Pierre Curie, her long-time friend and research partner (Marie Curie 2000).While Marie Curie was searching for a topic worthy of her thesis, she found the recent discovery of radiation a very interesting topic for her research (Marie Curie 2000). Marie, with the help of her husband, was able to discover two new elements by analyzing the radiation produced by different minerals that contained trace amounts of Radium and Polonium (Early Study of Radioactivity). Marie, Pierre, and French scientist Henri Becquerel would be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 for their work in studying radiation (Sokol, 1992). Afterwards, Marie’s husband would tragically die in a street accident in 1906, which caused the University of Paris to offer her the Chair of the Institute of Physics in place of her husband (Prof. Curie killed in a Paris street 1906). After this, Marie became the first female professor at the University of Paris and her next goal was the construction of a state-of-the-art laboratory that her and her husband always dreamed of (Marie Curie 2000). Marie would be given the head the Radium Institute which was a lab constructed for her by the Pasteur Institute and the University of Paris (Marie Curie 2000). Now that Marie was finally in a place of recognition with her own laboratory, she could begin working on the isolation of Radium for which she would earn her second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry (Mazowieckie Korzenie Marii).During the Great War Marie noticed the need to supply quick medical care to soldiers, so she invented portable X-ray trucks after quickly studying the relevant fields (Marie Curie 2000). Curie also invented a treatment for sterilizing wounds using what would later be identified as Radon gas (Marie Curie 2000). Even though her contributions were immense, she would never receive official recognition from France for her service (Marie Curie 2000). After the war, Maria Curie would travel the world where she was even given a gram of radium during her visit in the U.S. (Madame Curie’s Passion). After giving countless lectures and educational programs, Marie would travel to Poland one last time and succumb to the effects of radiation poisoning on July 4th, 1934 (Sokol, 1992).Marie Curie made an everlasting contribution to the scientific community and the world through her life and research. She received many medals, statues, and honorary degrees. One such degree is a Doctor of Laws from the University of Pittsburgh. The University of Pittsburgh invented the process that isolated the 1 gram of radium that Curie was awarded during her trip to the US. In 1967, the centennial or Marie Curie's birth, a plaque was erected that reads: “In commemoration of Maria Sklodowska Curie, A Polish scientist, Discoverer of Radium and Polonium. Conferred Degree of Doctor of Laws By the University of Pittsburgh on May 26th, 1921. Inspecting facilities of Standard Chemical Company at Canonsburg and Pittsburgh where were produced 76 of the 120 grams of Radium in the world including the gram donated to her by the Women of America and presented at the White House by President Harding. This Radium was extracted from Colorado Carnotite by a process invented and supervised by Glenn Donald Kammer of the University of Pittsburgh. Erected on the occasion of the centennial of Mme. Curie's birth in Warsaw, Poland, 1867.”

This historical marker honors Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867-1934), a highly awarded Polish scientist. As a child her father introduced her to the sciences leading her to enroll at the University of Paris. After decades of hard work and research, she would receive the Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields for her work with radiation and her discovery of Radium and Polonium. Curie also served in WWI by manufacturing portable X-ray trucks and developing new treatments for wounded soldiers. In addition to her Nobel Prizes she received countless medals, statues, and honorary degrees. One such degree was given to her by the University of Pittsburgh in 1921 and a plaque was installed for her 100th birthday.  

Maria Sklodowska Curie Historical Marker

The first
bridge that crossed the Allegheny River where the Carson Bridge now stands was a
wooden, covered toll bridge that was built in 1839 and designed by Sylvanus
Lothrop.&nbsp; This toll bridge, known as the
Hand Street Bridge, was designed for pedestrian and carriage traffic and was
replaced in 1890 due to its inability to handle the weight of the newly arrived
electric trollies.&nbsp; This second bridge
was a steel Pratt through truss bridge designed by George Ferris (of Ferris
wheel fame) and Gustave Kaufman.&nbsp; 

Shortly
after World War I, the War Department established new guidelines for the nation’s
bridges in terms of weight capacity, width and height.&nbsp; It did so to ensure that bridges deemed vital
could handle the weight of military hardware and that they were high enough to
permit passage of necessary supplies on the waterways below.&nbsp; In order to meet those requirements,
Pittsburgh’s 6th, 7th and 9th Street Bridges
all had to be replaced and the American Bridge Company of New York was tasked
with designing both functional and aesthetically pleasing structures.

Their engineers,
inspired by a German bridge over the Rhine River in Cologne, developed a unique
design and construction method due to the unstable soil along the Allegheny
River.&nbsp; Typical suspension bridges drape
massive cables on large towers and anchor them to the shore with huge concrete
structures.&nbsp; However, this option was
unavailable to the designers of the Three Sisters.&nbsp; As a result, they used a self-anchoring
system and utilized eye-bars rather than steel cables to hang the bridge deck.&nbsp; These eye-bar chains also drape over the
bridge’s towers.&nbsp; However, they are not
anchored to the shore, but to the bridge deck’s stiffening girder.&nbsp; The designers then hung the bridge deck on
eye-bars of varying lengths that are tied to the bridge’s catenaries or eye-bar
chains.

The bridge
was renamed to honor Rachel Carson primarily due to the lobbying efforts of
Esther Barazzone, the then President of Chatham University, Carson’s alma
mater.&nbsp; Carson, who penned numerous
books, to include 1962’s Silent Spring which is credited with initiating
the modern environmental movement, was born 15 miles upriver from the bridge that
now bears her name, in the Pittsburgh suburb of Springdale.&nbsp; She grew up on the family’s 65-acre farm, now
the Rachel Carson Homestead, and graduated from the Pennsylvania College for Women
with a degree in biology.&nbsp; She then
worked for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries while also writing.&nbsp; She was posthumously awarded the Presidential
Medal of Freedom by President Carter in 1980, 16 years after her death.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Named for author and environmentalist Rachel Carson, the bridge that now bears her name was completed in 1926 and originally known as the 9th Street Bridge.  It was renamed to honor Carson on Earth Day, 2006.  The Carson Bridge is one of a trio of bridges known as the “Three Sisters” due to their proximity to one another and similarity of design.  The other two, located just downriver, are the Andy Warhol and Roberto Clemente Bridges.  The Carson Bridge, like the other two, is a self-anchored suspension bridge that connects Pittsburgh’s downtown with its North Shore.  The “Three Sisters” were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

Rachel Carson Bridge

When the sisters arrived in Allegheny County, they began administering to the poor and afflicted. Mercy Hospital opened on January 1, 1847 and served an important need in Pittsburgh. Five years after their arrival, Pittsburgh was suffering a typhus epidemic and the sisters were among the few to accept patients at their Mercy Hospital. Due to their tireless service, some of the sisters died of typhus as well. Obituaries of these sisters include phrases such as "we must not exaggerate her loss, not merely to the religious community which she edified so much, but to all who came within the wide sphere of her usefulness". The Sisters of Mercy and the dedicated physicians and nurses at the hospital served the region through World War I, the Spanish Influenza, the Great Depression, and World War II. In the 1960's, Mercy decided to rebuild in uptown Pittsburgh. Over the next 40 years, the hospital expanded their buildings and facilities, and developed specialized programs and advanced technology. Today, Mercy Hospital remains Pittsburgh's only Catholic hospital with specials services that include neurosciences, Level I trauma and burn services, women's health, and physical medicine and rehabilitation.

This historical marker shares the story of the Sisters of Mercy who arrived in Pittsburgh from Ireland in the antebellum period. In 1843, Sister Frances Warde and six others arrived in the United States from Carlow, Ireland and made their way over the Allegheny Mountains on a train and stagecoach. They arrived in Pittsburgh on December 21, 1843 to open the first Mercy convent in the United States. On their way, the sisters ministered to the passengers, and tended to their physical needs, and taught them the tenants of their faith. As soon as they arrived, they began work assisting the poor and afflicted. This historic marker was dedicated in 1993 by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Sisters of Mercy Historical Marker

Up until 2013, the landscaping around the block house had not been utilized to its potential. This is why the Fort Pitt Society, asked LaQuatra Bonci to build a garden that would accomplish the goals of “create an attractive and welcoming outdoor space and pay tribute to those early members of the Fort Pitt Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania”. The garden honors Mrs. Edith Darlington Ammon, “who served as the Pittsburgh Chapter’s regent for ten years and as president of the board of directors for the Fort Pitt Society for over a decade”. If it wasn’t for her being leader of the Fort Pitt Society, “the red-block house would have not survived for 250 years, - if her and her Victorian friends had not fought valiantly to keep it at the Point”. She waged public relations battles against “real estate developer Frank Nicola, industrialist Henry Clay Frick and the powerful Pennsylvania Railroad”. This beautiful garden can be accessed by anyone wishing to visit Point State Park in Pittsburgh. 	Edith Dennison Darlington Ammon “was born in 1862 at her family’s estate, Guyasuta”. Edith married a lawyer named Samuel A. Ammon and joined the “Pittsburgh Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1891”. Soon after joining the chapter, she began moving herself up the ladder because of her love of “Revolutionary ancestry”. At the time she joined the chapter, they were trying to gain ownership of the Fort Pitt Block House “so that it could be restored and opened to the public”. In 1894, the wonder of the Block House, Mary E. Schenley gave them the building for free. After they gained ownership of the Block House, they restored it and opened it back up to visitors	In 1901 the Fort Pitt Society had to defend the Block House from construction and industrialists who wanted to remove the house. Edith Ammon led the ladies in a hard fight to stop the “industrial development of the Point by petitioning the city for a park at the Point”. Although the group was supported by many, the Point District was sold “in 1902 to Henry Clay Frick who in turn sold the property to the Pennsylvania railroad”. When the construction on the rail yard started, the block house became surrounded with “warehouses, terminals, and tracks”. 	This caused Edith Ammon to work on “drafting a bill for the state legislature to protect historic structures from eminent domain”. She spent months lobbying in Harrisburg and spoke out against the railroads. During one of her speeches, she said “Have you no history? Have you no pride? … Men who allow this precious spot to be sacrificed certainly have no pride at all. If these [historic] sites are destroyed nothing, but written pages will be left behind to tell their memory. Future generations will want to see them. We should not deny them the opportunity.”. Then in 1907, “with the help of State Representative Michael H. Kennedy of Pittsburgh”, Edith was successful when her bill was passed into law. 	In 1919 Edith passed away while still serving as president of the Fort Pitt Society. This is why Edith Ammon was chosen as the person who the garden was named after. The Edith Ammon Memorial Garden honors her and the other members of the Fort Pitt Society who saved the Block House from being destroyed. Their hard work has allowed the Fort Pitt Block House to remain in its original location and act as a historic site and museum that is free and accessible to the public.	Edith once said ““Men…with but the thought of gain and gold were dreaming of tracks and trains, of massive walls and wreathing smoke from towering chimneys, while we dreamed of fame and power, of peaceful paths where once was strife, of space and breeze, of floating flags and trees, not smoke and noise. They planned for vandalism…we for patriotism. Patriotism wins.”

The Edith Ammon Memorial Garden is located at Point State Park. It can be found surrounding the Fort Pitt Block House which is one of the oldest historical sites in Pittsburgh. The Memorial Garden has “wide pathways and attractive gardens of native plants culminating in the sandstone and bronze memorial to Edith Ammon”. Also, all of the plantings within the garden are native to Western PA. The idea for building the garden began in 2013 when the Fort Pitt Society “contacted local landscape architect, Jack LaQuatra of LaQuatra Bonci Associates, about creating a garden on the grounds of the Fort Pitt Block House”. 

Edith Ammon Memorial Garden

Mary Cassatt was born into an upper-middle class family from Allegheny City (now a part of Pittsburgh) in 1844. Though her parents objected, Cassatt studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She left school without a degree as a result of patronizing faculty and insufficient course offerings. After relocating to Paris, Cassatt took private lessons at the Louvre. Her work was well-received at the Paris Salon in 1868, considered the most lauded arts show in the Europe. It was in Paris that Cassatt discovered Impressionism, an art movement of the late nineteenth century. Impressionism diverged from traditional painting styles that rendered people and places in a lifelike manner. Conversely, Impressionism gave only the "impression" of people and places, using swift brush strokes and unblended layers of color. The style was initially rejected by art critics and the public, though a tight-knit group of artists in Paris promoted the style. These artists, including (but not limited to) Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne, Édouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, and Edgar Degas, are synonymous with Impressionism today. Cassatt befriended Degas, a French Impressionist known for painting dancers, and he convinced her to join the movement in 1877.  Cassatt became the only American and only woman to become part of this artistically rebellious group. Her transition to Impressionism, however, was more than a change in style. She wrote: <blockquote>"At last I could work absolutely independently, without worrying about the possible opinion of a jury! .... I hated conventional art. I accepted with joy....I was beginning to live."1</blockquote> The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War persuaded her to move home to Pittsburgh. She encountered problems selling her work back in the United States and her father refused to fund Mary's artistic endeavors. Once she was commissioned by the  archbishop of Pittsburgh to copy religious works, Cassatt was sent to Italy to paint and study. She resumed her career after a stint in Italy, eventually moving back to Paris and working again with Impressionist artists. Eleven of her paintings were exhibited at an Impressionist show in 1879, at which time Cassatt catapulted to artistic fame. Cassatt eventually began to favor more simplistic painting and faded away from the Impressionist movement. After her eyesight declined in 1910, she devoted time to ensuring artwork, including her own, ended up in exhibits and collections. Her works are dispersed throughout the United States and Europe. Mary Cassatt died in 1926 and was buried in France. She is remembered as a pioneer of Impressionism and for her lovely, intimate depictions of women and children. On the 160th anniversary of her birth, May 22, 2004, a state historical marker was dedicated to Cassatt near the location of where she was born in Pittsburgh. A small garden was also planted in her honor near the marker. Cassatt's birthplace, where she lived until age 4, was originally located on Rebecca St., which was changed to Reedsdale St. after Allegheny City was absorbed by the city of Pittsburgh in 1907. The Cassatt family left the Pittsburgh area for Eastern Pennsylvania in 1849.

This historical marker honors Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), an American Impressionist painter born near this location in Allegheny City (now Pittsburgh). She studied traditional painting in Philadelphia and adopted the unconventional Impressionist style after moving to Paris. She was the only American and woman artist to integrate with a group of contemporary Impressionists, including the likes of Monet, Renoir, and Degas, all based in Paris. Her airy, colorful paintings often depict women and children in relaxed, private spaces. The historical marker was installed in her honor in 2004 for her 160th birthday.

Birthplace of Mary Cassatt Historical Marker

Lois Weber was born Florence Lois Weber on June 13th, 1879 in Allegheny City Pennsylvania. She was the middle child and had two other siblings, Elizabeth and Mary. Her parents were George and Mary Weber. The family was of German descent. George Weber worked as an upholster with his father and brother. He also worked as a manager for a carpet cleaning business. Mary Weber was a homemaker. From the time Lois was a young girl, she had a strong passion for the arts. Much of her interest may have stemmed from her father’s involvement in decorating the Pittsburgh Opera House. Lois was passionate about singing, and she used it as a way to emphasize and enhance her strong faith. At 17, she joined a travelling church choir group. The group toured around the city and brought joy and religious salvation to many of their listeners. Weber moved from Pennsylvania to New York City in 1904 and began her career as a singer and musician. Though she started her career as a gifted pianist and was originally touring around the United States, a performance mishap in 1903 during a concert caused her a great deal of embarrassment and she gave up the piano for good. During this time, Weber placed much of her focus into acting. In 1904, she met Phillips Smalley, a prominent director and actor. They were soon married, as he proposed to her only a day after meeting her. The duo began travelling together and Lois was a devoted supporter of Smalley’s career. Inspired by her husband, Weber began directing films of her own. Weber had a strong personality and a knack for being diverse. She did not like to sit stagnant, as she was always focused on doing the next big thing. Little did Weber know that her decision to direct films would enable her to become one of the top names in Hollywood and an example by which other females in her industry could be inspired. Around 1907, Weber and Smalley had begun working together. They worked in motion pictures and were known by the nickname, “The Smalley’s.” During this time, their careers grew tremendously. They were averaging around two one-reel films per week. In 1908, Lois’s first production, “Mum’s the Word,” made its debut. By 1910, Weber and Smalley worked with a plethora of film production companies. Their collaborations with these companies aided them greatly in developing their careers and learning the ins and outs of good film production. In 1910, the Smalley’s gave birth to a daughter named Phoebe. Unfortunately, she died of complications during her early infancy. 1914 served as a major year for Lois’s career. During this year, The Merchant of Venice was released under her directorship. This film was widely successful and received great acclaim because it was the first American film directed by a female. Again, in 1915, Weber released another groundbreaking film called Hypocrites. This film took Hollywood by great surprise because it depicted the very first full frontal female nude scene in all of film history. In 1917, Weber formed her own company called Lois Weber Productions. During this time, Lois Weber achieved status as the highest paid director in Hollywood. Weber was widely controversial and discussed an array of topics in her work that were not socially acceptable. Weber discussed topics of poverty, contraception, capital punishment, and drug abuse. Weber was not concerned about conforming to proper “social norms,” and this diverse way of thinking may have helped her earn her high rankings in the film world. Weber was a firm believer that her films had the potential to bring forth great social and political change. Weber was also an avid supporter of fellow women and believed strongly in women’s rights. In 1922, Lois Weber and Philips Smalley ended their marriage. During this time, there was a decline in Weber’s filmmaking output. Many individuals criticized Weber and stated that her claim to fame was the result of having a powerful husband. Other people believed that by 1922, Weber had reached her fullest potential in the film world and could not possibly advance any farther. In 1926, Weber married Harry Gantz, a captain. Many people described Gantz as a terrible, abusive man. It is said that Gantz stripped Weber of her fortune and largely contributed to her mental deterioration. In 1939, Lois Weber passed away due to complications from a gastric hemorrhage. She was only 60 years of age when she passed. Weber was not “rediscovered” until the 1970’s when a group of historians decided to dig deeper into her past. For this reason, Weber is known as “the director who lost her way in history.”

Lois Weber was a dynamic, intelligent, and resilient female pioneer of the film industry. Born in Allegheny City Pennsylvania in 1879, Weber eventually moved to New York City in 1904 to pursue her passion; the theatrical arts. Also in 1904, she married Phillips Smalley, a prominent director and actor. In 1907, Weber and Smalley began working together and produced an array of successful films. By this point, the Smalley’s had moved to California and began to receive national acclaim for their films. In 1917, Weber formed her own company in Hollywood and achieved the status of highest paid director for both males and females. After a series of unfortunate events which resulted in a divorce and remarriage to an abusive spouse, Weber passed away in 1939. However, her legacy continues to live on. In the 1970’s, she was rediscovered by a group of historians and her achievements were closely studied. She is commonly known as “the director who lost her way in history.” Weber is best known for her films which centered around controversial yet important social issues. Topics included birth control, drug abuse, and poverty. 


Lois Weber (1879-1939)

On October 17, 1921, Dorothy Mae Richardson was born to parents Ralph and Mary Work, in Ft. Morgan, Colorado, before soon moving to Pittsburgh Pa, close to where her father had grown up. In June of 1940, Richardson graduated from Allegheny High School, in Pittsburgh Pa. On January 7, 1950, Dorothy Mae and her husband Donald had their first child, Rex Irvin Richardson. Ms. Richardson later organized a group that worked to preserve the existing housing in the North side of the city, as well as creating opportunities for existing renters to become homeowners. Dorothy Mae Richardson had always been concerned for public well being, but in the early 1960's, she had really began taking activism seriously. Her priorities at the time were for financial institutions to help the city either clean up certain areas, or even completely renovate and rebuild existing buildings. At the time, the plans for the city were to bulldoze the entire neighborhood, and either create project housing or new housing and condos. 	Throughout the late 1960's and early 1970's, several actions were made in order to implement the ideas of Ms. Richardson not just in the North Side of Pittsburgh, but throughout the city as a whole. In 1968, Richardson led her central north side neighbors to stand up against the city, with the intentions of rebuilding and renovating existing homes, as opposed to demolition. Her hard work resulted in generous funding from sixteen financial institutions, which allowed her to act and soon form Pittsburgh's Neighborhood Housing Service (NHS). Shortly after the Neighborhood Housing Service began in Pittsburgh, the formation of the Federal Home Loans Bank took place, which ended up being recognized nationwide	. When the Presidential administration became aware of the accomplishments Ms. Richardson has achieved in Pittsburgh, they invited her for a meeting in Washington, DC, which ultimately led to the founding of the now National housing service called NeigborWorks America. The Urban Reinvestment Task Force, led by Bill Whiteside from the Washington D.C area, used Ms. Richardson’s model, expanding the work beyond Pittsburgh to serve more cities. "By 1976, the task force had 14 staff members, and there are NeighborWorks organizations (then called Neighborhood Housing Services) in 45 cities." By 1980, NeighborWorks organizations were now operating in 126 cities. "The organizations began renovating distressed apartment buildings and promoting home ownership among families of modest means." 	On April 28, 1991, Dorothy Mae Richardson suffered from kidney failure which unfortunately Led to an early death at the age of 68. The legacy of Dorothy Mae Richardson has been far from forgotten, especially in the city of Pittsburgh. Thanks to Ms. Richardson, Pittsburgh housing is much better taken care of, and her name will forever be a part of the city. NeighborWorks established the Dorothy Richardson Award in 1992 to honor extraordinary resident leaders. "There are now more than 240 NeighborWorks organizations operating in urban, suburban and rural communities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico." NeighborWorks has provided tremendous help to Americans during times of great need. For example, they aided hurricane Katrina victims, as well as victims of foreclosures during the housing market collapse in 2008. None of this could be Possible without Dorothy Mae Richardson, and her legacy will live on forever.           Dorothy Mae Richardson had a significant impact on the North Side community, being that all her works originated from there, as well as it being her hometown. Because of this impact, as well as North Side being Ms. Richardson home, this historical marker was wisely placed where it mattered most. She didn’t specifically grow up on Arch or Jacksonia street, but this community as a whole benefited from the courageous works of Dorothy Mae Richardson.

Put in place on the corner of Jacksonia and Arch street on the North Side of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on October 16, 2019 was the historical monument for Dorothy Mae Richardson. The monument is in direct memory of Ms. Richardson as it begins with the years the she was born in and passed away. It is followed by a brief recap of all she did for the community, such as founding what became NeighborWorks America, which has helped thousands of Americans keep their homes while also updating the construction of neighborhoods nationwide. Throughout the 1960's and 70's, Dorothy Mae Richardson was one of the most influential and important people in the city of Pittsburgh,  and her memory will live on through her historical monument, located by a public intersection, which is open to anyone who chooses to visit the North Side of Pittsburgh at any time of the year.

Dorothy Mae Richardson Historical Marker

Rachel Carson was known for many things throughout her lifetime. A bright student who turned her passions of writing and environmental science into her career that changed lives for people all over the globe. However, she started off as just a small-town girl that grew up to impact the nation. Rachel was born May 27th, 1907 in Springdale PA which is a part of Allegheny County. The house that she grew up in is now the Rachel Carson Homestead. The family lived here until the 1930’s when they moved to Baltimore, but this four-bedroom rustic home is being preserved in Springdale PA. The current Homestead Association that maintains the house emphasizes the importance of it as it is the place where “Carson lived the early years of her life, where her sense of wonder was nurtured, and where the seeds of her environmental ethics were planted (Rachel Carson Homestead).”           Growing up in Pennsylvania already gave Carson an advantage about knowledge on nature and wildlife. In her town of Springdale, it’s said that Rachel could see the Alleghany river from her bedroom. Not far from the city of Pittsburgh, she noticed the pollution in the air that was emitted by factories and instinctively knew how bad that was for the environment. Her love of nature was instilled in her by her mother, and Carson would always be playing outside and exploring the land around the Homestead they owned. Rachel fell in love with nature, and how to take care of it. She harnessed this passion with the help of her mother and received a scholarship to Pennsylvania College for women, (Now Chatham University located in Pittsburgh PA), and intended to major in English, but changed it to Biology. After graduating in 1929, she attended John Hopkins University to get a degree zoology which she then graduated from in 1932. Rachel was a bright student who took her love of nature from her small homestead and put it towards an education where she would make discoveries that changed the world.           Her career landed her in Massachusetts, becoming one of the first of two women to be hired by U.S. Bureau of Fisheries as a researcher and science writer. She also did freelance writing on the Chesapeake Bay topics for various publications including The Baltimore Sun. This is how she made her income, by writing about her passion of nature. It was a small income, but she was supporting her family and also expanding her knowledge of nature. During her time with the government’s federal service she began to write books of her own. It started with Under the Sea-Wind and then her next book published in 1951 The Sea Around Us. These books gave Carson financial stability and recognition as a scientist. It was published after WWII and it was about the evidence of life and how the earth, moon and oceans formed along with their processes that make earth habitable. These novels paved that way for her most notable one published in 1962 called Silent Spring. Rachel was concerned with the disappearance of songbirds and analyzed the correlation of their disappearance with widely used chemical pesticides.            In Silent Spring Carson explained how DDT and other synthetic chemicals were killing far more species than they had targeted. She noticed the chemical remained in the air for years, and they were not only toxic to insects, but to all wildlife including humans. She stated, "For the first time in history, every human being is now subject to contact with dangerous chemicals from the moment of conception until death (Carson)”. DDT was introduced during WWII as an effective way to kill insects that would eat farmer’s crops. People were alarmed to read and hear about Carson’s findings. However, the Chemical industries came after her and tried to discredit her work. She even had to bring her findings to Congress in 1963 to protect human health and the environment. She could not be disproved, and eventually in 1963 President Kennedy began to pass laws that made the use of the chemical DDT illegal. Rachel Carson was just a small-town girl who grew up running around the woods and playing in the river and had just single handedly taken down corrupt chemical industries that were violating the ethics code of protecting the people they serve.           On April 14th, 1964, Rachel Carson passed away from a long battle with breast cancer in Silver Spring Maryland. She was only fifty-six. Carson was a writer, scientist, humanitarian, conservationist, and environmentalist. She noticed the changes in nature and linked them to the harmful chemical DDT. Carson died at a relatively young age, but her name still lives on and there are many organizations that honor her name and her legacy. A few of those institutions are The Rachel Carson Institution, The Falk School of Sustainability, and The Rachel Carson Center for the Environment and Society. Her goal was for human beings to see that we must take care of the earth for we aren’t the only ones who live here, and it gives us the great gift of life. Carson started an environmental movement that still continues to this very day and has made great strides. As a young girl she saw pollution coming from factories in Pittsburgh, and with the help of her mother on the homestead she began to learn about nature and came to love it. Carson wanted nothing more than to end pollution and preserve nature, for she saw it as a beautiful thing that should be taken care of. A historical marker was put up on Pittsburgh Street &amp; Colfax Street in Springdale, both in 1988, to remember where Carson came from and where her roots gave way to a love for nature that changed the world.

Rachel Carson, environmentalist, humanitarian, and author was born May 27th, 1907 in Springdale, PA and died on April 14th, 1964 in Silver Spring Maryland. Carson’s roots came from Allegheny County where she grew up seeing pollution emitted by factories in Pittsburgh and had a love of nature instilled in her by her mother. She harnessed this passion and became one of the most notable environmentalists in human history. She is famous for writing her novel Silent Spring, which detailed the harmful effects the chemical pesticide DDT had on human life and nature. She started an environmental movement and improved the health of millions of Americans across the country. A historical marker honors Carson on Pittsburgh Street & Colfax Street in Springdale to remember her small-town roots and how she became a globally known name. 

Rachel Carson Historical Marker 

Rachel Carson shaped how we view our role on nature today. With the relatively new usage of chemicals for wars, agricultural use, and more in the late 1800s to the early 1900s, Carson challenged prior ideas on how these substances could impact humans, animals, and the environment. Her ideas were met with fierce backlash from major chemical industries (not surprisingly), but her ecological education, experience, and research were supported by the public after her publication of “Silent Spring.” Without Carson’s dedication to the topic of human impact on nature, the world as we know it today may be much more saturated with harmful chemical toxins.Rachel Carson was always known to have loved nature; her mother commented on how much she would play outside and explore all the natural wonders growing up. She further proved her dedication by graduating as a marine biology student and then moving on to study at the Woods Hole Marine Biology Lab. She received her MA in zoology from the John Hopkins University in 1932. Carson continuously put forth time into biological sciences throughout her life, even before her major publications. She would write articles on natural life for the Baltimore Sun and later became the editor-in-chief for all publications in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.It was not until after World War II, when chemical pesticide use was at an all-time high, that Carson shifted her writing focus on to something she believed the public needed to know: the horrific effects that such drastic chemical usage can leave behind. Her writing focused on stressing how long-term the impact of pesticide use can be and challenged the widely-accepted views regarding it. Carson pushed an agenda that would modify all environmental views, permanently.Her most famous book, “Silent Spring,” was met with vehement backlash from most chemical industries and even the government. Many people labeled her as an “alarmist,” but her extensive research and education backed up everything she had to say. Carson went on to testify in front of Congress in 1963, demanding new policies to protect the natural world. Her efforts most definitely did not go to waste; the pesticide use in America was reversed, DDT was banned for agricultural use, and she started a movement within American that led to the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency.Rachel Carson continues to inspire generations of people with her passion for the natural world. She is remembered by many as a woman who did not back down despite some of the country’s most powerful individuals fighting against her. Carson changed the world as we know it today for the better, all in the name of science. She dedicated her time and effort into producing new environmental research, and to pushing for a change that was absolutely necessary for the sake of our own health, and nature as a whole.

The Rachel Carson Homestead is the birthplace and childhood home of nationally renowned author and scientist Rachel Carson. Located in Springdale, Pennsylvania, her family moved into the estate in 1901. Carson was born in 1907 within the home and spent her childhood to college years living there. She was an ecologist who wrote a number of books on the dangers of chemical exposure caused by humans (i.e. pesticides); her most famous and ground-breaking book, “Silent Spring,” spurred a reversal in pesticide use in America, banned the use of DDT for agricultural uses, and led an environmental movement that eventually resulted in the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The site is operated by a volunteer-only basis and open to the public for tours April to November. 

Rachel Carson Homestead

Stephanie Kwolek was born in the Pittsburgh suburbs of New Kensington PA in the year of 1923. Kwolek grow up with a passion of outdoors and nature due to her father loving the outdoors and was a huge nature advocate. This exposure of outdoor life started the basis of Kwolek's passion for chemistry. Kwolek's mother was a house wife and liked to make fabric and this also played a part in Kwolek passion for fashion as well. However, she wanted to combine natural elements and fabric together and this would lead to her greatest discover.	Stephanie Kwolek pursued a bachelors degree in chemistry at Margaret Morrison Carnegie University in hope of landing a job in the medical field. However, Kwolek wanted to pursue fashion but knew she was to much of a perfectionist for the field and would not make it. So, Kwolek had teaching chemistry in mind rather it be in a high school or university. Since she excelled so much in the chemistry field she wanted to explore and research it farther. After achieving her B.A. in chemistry she thought she would temporally apply for a job for research before applying for medical school. She decided to apply for a position at DuPont as a chemical researcher. 	When Kwolek applied to the position at DuPont she knew she had given up her motivation to go to medical school and had to persistently call in and ask if they reviewed her resume. Kwolek got the position over a good amount of people who applied and was one of the lead research members that tested fibers to be applied to new tires. Her passion for research begin to grow and grow which lead to her abandoning medical school and pursuing chemical research as a career. Kwolek made it a mission to work with specific fibers under specific temperatures. Kwolek discovered that petroleum based synthetic fibers under certain conditions turned their molecules into parallel shaped rodlike polyamides. These rodlike polyamides were durable, strong and stiff. DuPont allowed for a launching pad of this invention called kevlar.	In today's application of kevlar it is used in law enforcement, military, tires and even in cars. It has over 200 applications but most importantly has saved millions of lives. Today's body armor is founded on kevlar and is a major advancement not only in women's history but modern science. Stephanie Kwolek has been awarded with foundations, awards, recognition and a historical marker in her hometown of New Kensington PA.

Stephanie Kwolek was a historic figure not only in women's history but in modern science. Kwolek's research has saved millions of lived throughout her discover of kevlar and her achievements at DuPont and Carnegie University. Her research and more specifically her discover of kevlar has led to over 200 applications in society. As a native from New Kensington she has been enshrined with a historical marker and recognized from her university and the company she worked for. 

Stephanie Kwolek Historic Marker

Fannie Mooney was born in New Orleans in 1872. She married Charles Sellins, a garment worker in St. Louis, Missouri. She was forced to take a job in a garment shop following the death of her husband to support herself and four children. That very garment factory in 1913 became the birthplace of her fervor for organization. She became union leader of the factory and organized 400 women who were locked from the factory. Following her work in St. Louis and a stint in Chicago, she was hired by the United Mine Workers and moved to Pittsburgh in 1913. In February of 1914, in Colliers, West Virginia, she addressed 6,000 miners and while facing being arrested said, “a jail sentence holds no terror for me.” She cited her right as an American to speak for justice, “I am free and have a right to talk or walk any place in this country as long as I obey the law. I have done nothing wrong. In the summer of 1919, Sellins was assigned to the Allegheny Valley to direct picketing for striking miners at Allegheny Coal and Coke. The United Mine Workers Journal called Sellins an "Angel of Mercy," who went into the miners' homes, talking to their wives, taking care of their sick, and helping them in other ways. On August 26, 1919. A little while before the night shift began at the Allegheny Steel Company at West Natrona, Pennsylvania, Sellins was murdered. She was 47 years old. Also killed was Joseph Starzeleski. Accounts of what led up to the killings are contradictory. In 1920, the United Mine Workers of America District 5 members erected a memorial at Sellins' grave in Union Cemetery at Arnold, Pennsylvania. The inscription reads:  "In Memory of Fannie Sellins and Joe Starzeleski, killed by the enemies of organized labor, near the Allegheny Steel and Coal Company, at West Natrona, Pa." Area miners, steelworkers, and other union workers have conducted memorial services, labor day celebrations, and other special events at the memorial site over the years since then. In 1989, 70 years after her death, Sellins' grave was designated a Pennsylvania state historic landmark and a historical marker was erected. Pittsburgh has a particularly bloody history when it comes to labor disputes. Fannie Sellins’ fought tirelessly for immigrant laborers, American laborers, and union workers to try and improve working conditions for all. Losing her husband and having to support her four children thrust her into the labor force where she realized there were major problems. She took the experience and her dedication, and it propelled her through to the end of her life. Labor laws in America were forced to change thanks to people like Sellins, how made the ultimate sacrifice supporting her cause. She along with many others who lost their lives are who Americans celebrate on Labor Day.

Fannie Sellins was a union organizer who literally fought to the death for workers’ rights. She was assigned to the Allegheny River Valley while involved with the United Mine Workers of America to direct picketing by striking miners at the Allegheny Coal and Coke Company. On August 26, 1919, She witnessed Joseph Starzeleski being beaten by guards, and when she intervened, was shot dead by deputies on the scene. The coroner ruled that it was a justifiable homicide, stating that Sellins was inciting a riot. A Historical Marker, and memorial were placed at the Union Cemetery in Arnold, Pennsylvania to honor her life. 

Fannie Sellins Historic Marker

Elizabeth Jane Cochran, later given the pen name&nbsp;Nellie Bly for her journalism career, was born on May 5th of 1864. Bly was one of fifteen children and lost her father at the age of six. When Nellie’s father passed away, her family was not able to keep taking care of their home and land. This drove them to move to Pittsburg, where Nellie wrote the article that sparked her career in journalism. A man had written a letter to the local newspaper claiming that he did not know what to do with his unmarried daughters. A columnist from the paper responded, bashing the idea of women in the work place—suggesting that whoever wrote in should not push for their daughters to get a career. He believed women belonged at home, that they were the “fairer sex”.Many letters were written to the newspaper company after this article was published, but one caught their attention in particular— one written with phenomenal technique. Nellie showed up after a publisher for the company, George Madden, posted an ad in the paper asking whoever wrote the letter to come forward.&nbsp;Nellie turned her letter into an argumentative piece to be put in the paper, and the company,&nbsp;Pittsburg Dispatch,&nbsp;hired her. She was then given her pen name, Nellie Bly–the name that the public knew her by throughout her life, and what we still commonly call her today.Soon after being hired, Nellie was becoming bored of the topics she was assigned, like fashion. She wanted to write about more important issues. So, she quit her job with the&nbsp;Pittsburg Dispatch,&nbsp;and traveled to Mexico for six months with her mother. Nellie’s name was again found in the&nbsp;Pittsburg Dispatch,&nbsp;but not as an author. This time, Nellie was the one being written about, being named as a new foreign correspondent. On her trip, Nellie wrote about the widespread poverty of those in Mexico. She also wrote about&nbsp;their corrupt government system, their heavy tobacco use, soldiers smoking marijuana, and how many residents were addicted to playing the lottery. Nellie too reported on dictator Porfirio Diaz imprisoning a journalist, which put her in danger. So, she soon returned home and later wrote a book about her experience in Mexico titled “Six Months in Mexico”.&nbsp;&nbsp;Once back home, Bly was given a better position at the&nbsp;Pittsburg Dispatch&nbsp;as an arts reporter. Then, one day Nellie was not at work, but a letter was there in her place, reading that she was leaving for New York. Bly wanted to be a reporter in New York but was told no because she was a woman. So, in order to try and prove herself worthy of the position, Nellie was offering up some of her best article ideas to the managing editor of the&nbsp;New York World,&nbsp;John Cockerill. Cockerill had his own idea in mind, though, and Nellie was ready to take on the challenge—to become a patient at the women’s asylum on Blackwell’s Island (now called Roosevelt Island). Nellie faked insanity to be checked into the asylum. While here she experienced ice-cold baths, spoiled food, lack of clothing in cold temperatures, filthy linens, and care from doctors who did not show much interest in the well-being of patients. Bly got out of the asylum with the help of lawyers sent by the&nbsp;New York World.&nbsp;Once released, Bly began writing about the horrific mistreatment of the Blackwell’s Island asylum patients. She fascinated readers with her recollections, stating experiences she had throughout her stay at the asylum: “Suddenly I got, one after another, three buckets of water over my head…into my eyes, ears, my nose and my mouth. I think I experienced the sensation of a drowning person as they dragged me, gasping, shivering and quaking, from the tub…”. Bly’s article generated great public attention overnight, and eventually lead to reform within the asylum at Blackwell’s Island. The&nbsp;New York World&nbsp;gave Nellie a job in 1887 after generating such success from one article. From here Bly went on to write more articles, going undercover for many of them. Bly intentionally got caught stealing a purse so that she could experience and write about what happens inside of a jail, and also exposed a lobbyist by acting as a constituent’s wife, successfully bribing the lobbyist to get rid of a piece of legislation. All of these articles contributed to Bly being one of the most well-known and well-paid reporters of her time.&nbsp;1889 was the year that Nellie Bly captured the most attention. She decided to travel the world, but something about this trip was unusual—it took her only 72 days. She wanted to beat the record found in the book “Around the World in 80 Days”, and her personal goal was to make it in 75 days total. At first, the&nbsp;New York Worldwanted to send a man along with Nellie as a chaperone. Bly refused this idea, saying that if they sent a man with her, she would go work for a different newspaper company. While on her trip, she wrote about the people she saw more so than the places she visited. At such a quick speed, she didn’t necessarily get to explorer or examine places very thoroughly. Little did Nellie know that she was competing with female reporter Elizabeth Bisland from Cosmopolitan magazine, which was new at the time and trying to gain popularity. Although there were a few days of poor weather, Nellie still arrived back in time to beat the record from “Around the World in 80 Days”, along with her own goal of 75 days.&nbsp;&nbsp;She too beat Elizabeth Bisland, who arrived home four days after Nellie. This stunt is what gained Bly most of her fame, capturing the public’s attention. People were amazed at Nellie Bly the journalist’s quick trip around the entire globe. A year after her journey, Bly had her very own book published: “Around the World in 72 Days. This book described her experience around the globe, and the things and people she came across.&nbsp;In 1896, Bly had the opportunity to interview Susan B. Anthony, a large figure in the women’s rights movement. Throughout the interview, Nellie was told about Susan’s life, her beliefs, and her thoughts on women’s suffrage. Nellie went on to publish a newspaper article containing quotes from Susan, gaining her even more public attention.&nbsp;&nbsp;A year prior to this interview Nellie married a 70-year-old millionaire, Robert Seaman, at the age of 30. Robert owned Iron Clad Manufacturing Company, and agreed to support Nellie, her mother, and also one Nellie’s sisters. Robert passed away nine years into the marriage, and Nellie was left President of the manufacturing company. The company failed due to embezzlement from managers, so Nellie became bankrupt and decided to go to Europe. Before Nellie got to Europe, World War I began, and Nellie ended up being a front-line reporter. She wrote about being stuck in a trench during a shoot-out, and the struggles that those in the military faced. She stayed involved in the war for four years, eventually doing charity work for widows and orphans of the Austrian war.&nbsp;When Nellie finally returned home, she began to write stories for a new newspaper company,&nbsp;Evening Journal.&nbsp;She began a column in which she would reply to people who were struggling, trying to help them with their issues. Many of these people would show up at the hotel Nellie lived in, and from here she began delving into social work. She began helping orphans match with good parents, and Nellie herself ended up fostering a girl. Eventually, Nellie began to struggle with bronchitis, but still was pushing to help those in need. In 1922, Nellie experienced heart failure and pneumonia, and passed on January 27thof that year. She was named “the best reporter in America” by her past employer the&nbsp;New York World.&nbsp;Nellie Bly was a journalist who brought something new to the table. With her brave undercover stunts, passion for social justice, amazing accomplishment of traveling the world in 72 days, and her genuine care and interest in the lives of others—she is a historical figure to remember. Her success generated changed and improved many people’s well-being. She was daring, fearless, and driven, and her willingness to put herself in dangerous situations to expose social issues shows her care for others and love of reporting. Her childhood home is what helped shaped Nellie into who she became, so it is only appropriate for her historical marker to be located here. People can still visit the marker today, and take the time to remember a journalist who really set the bar high.&nbsp;

Traveling the world in only 72 days was only one of Nellie Bly’s great accomplishments. The Nellie Bly Historical Marker is located in Apollo, Pennsylvania, directly in front of Bly’s childhood home. This marker is used to honor Bly, who was also a popular journalist throughout the mid to late 1880s. She was quite the activist, using her journalism career to investigate social justice issues and to advocate for women. Nellie’s marker was erected on July 22, 1995 and is easily accessible to the public, and her childhood home is privately owned. The marker was put into place by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. 

Nellie Bly Historical Marker and Childhood Home

Westminster College was founded on January 21, 1852 in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. It is a liberal arts college with an affiliation with the Presbyterian Church in the United States. The name “Westminster” was chosen out of respect for the Westminster confession of faith .The confession of faith was drawn up to be the Church of England’s confession. In 1852 the college was one of the first coeducational establishments in the nation. Today Westminster College is a top-tier liberal arts college offering a variety of majors and minors. The college also offers 15 pre-professional programs. In the 1800s, Westminster College was still establishing itself as an institution. Rev. James Patterson was elected the first president of the college. A couple of years after Westminster college opened there was a fire that destroyed the college’s main building . A year later the college build a new building nicknamed “Old Main.” The college continued expanding by building a new library in 1885. The college got one of its biggest changed when they changed the name from “Westminster Collegiate Institute” to the name it goes by today “Westminster College”. The very first athletic team at Westminster College was baseball in 1884. Less than 10 years later the first football season started at Westminster College. With athletics growing at the college Westminster College decided to create the commission on athletics in 1898. The next year the football team would advance all the way to their first championship. In the 1900s, Westminster College evolved into the highly established institution it is known for today. In 1915 Westminster College eliminated its art department in order to save money but it was reintroduced to the college and was renamed fine arts.  Between 1917 and 1918 student government and majors and minors were introduced to Westminster College. Sadly in 1927, the second fire occurred on campus. In 1952 Westminster College celebrated their 100th birthday. In the 1960s Westminster College started enforcing a core curriculum. The college also reached 2,000 students. With more students, the college felt that dropping the dress code was more ideal for them. In the 1900s sports at Westminster college flourished. This resulted in the athletic council forming in 1922. The council was in charge of making sure the athletes were eligible to play. They looked at the athlete's grades and behavior to assess eligibility. Since Westminster College was one of the first colleges to be coeducational women make up a large part of the college’s history. The first graduating class at Westminster College included 10 women. Which meant this group of 10 women were some of the first to graduate college in the nation. Sarah McMichael was among these 10 women, she was the first women in the nation to graduate from college with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1857. About 30 years later Westminster College’s population of women would grow enough that they would open the first all-women’s dorm in 1885. In the 1900s the women at Westminster College continued to establish monumental achievements for women. In 1906 the women at Westminster College created their own club which is still established at the college today. The first women’s sport to be recognized at Westminster College was basketball in 1917 and was followed by soccer and tennis. Even though the college allowed women they still placed rules that only women had to follow. In 1950 women were not allowed out of their dorms after supper. Even with these strict rules women continued to seek an education from Westminster. In 1960 the college opened their second women’s dorm. During the two World Wars enrollment of men decreased. This allowed for women to enroll at Westminster College more easily. Today life for women at Westminster College has changed. The college provides coed dorms and a wider variety of women's sports. There are now 10 women sports offered at Westminster College. The enrollment of women at Westminster College even outnumbers the enrollment of men. The current and 15th college president, Kathy Richardson is the first female president of Westminster College.Today Westminster College is a highly awarded liberal arts college. Who prides themselves on strong academics, outstanding faculty, and individualized attention.  This is achieved through the 11:1 ratio of students to faculty. The college offers 22 varsity sports, 18 honor societies and more than 80 clubs. From the year 1852 to the year 2020, almost 200 years later, Westminster College has changed and evolved to fit the times. They have always been ahead of other colleges. They allowed their college to be coeducational when few other institutions in the nation were that socially advanced. Westminster College promoted an inclusive education for everyone. There is a historical marker located for Westminster College at the intersection of Neshannock Avenue and North Market Street. The marker reads “Founded by the Associate, not United Presbyterian, Church. Chartered 1852. One of the first two colleges in Pennsylvania to grant degrees to women, and the first to grant them the A. B. degree, in 1857.

This historical marker commemorates Westminster College which was founded near this location on January 21, 1852. Today, the institution is a liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church and located a few blocks south of this marker.

Historical Marker - Westminster College

A barrel maker by trade, Franklin Tarbell found his services in demand during the Pennsylvania oil boom of the mid-1800s. With his income rising, he bought the remains of the Bonta House of Pithole, Pennsylvania for a mere $600. All salvageable materials were moved to Titusville and in 1870 the Tarbell house was completed in an Italianate style. This style is characterized by tall windows, flat roofs, and decorative elements, such as bracketed cornices. The Tarbell House, completed in 1870, featured two stories topped by a cupola. While the majority of the house has been restored, the east wing was unable to be reconstructed because the lot was subdivided, and a separate residence occupies the land.Even within the first few years of its existence, the Tarbells were already making drastic changes to their abode. They switched to gas heat in 1872, necessitating the removal of their coal-based heating system. Decades later, indoor plumbing was introduced to the bathroom located off the kitchen. Before 1912, Franklin added an artist’s studio to the second floor for his other daughter, Sarah. Ida had moved out by this time, however, travelling the world as an investigative journalist. As such, Esther Tarbell (her mother) remained the head of the house after Franklin's death.Following the death of Esther Tarbell, the house was purchased by Lee and Inez Green. Over the course of their 65 – year ownership, they drastically changed the facade of the house as well as the interior. In 1920, the house suffered a fire after workers attempted to remove the east wing's wallpaper with blowtorches. During the initial reconstruction, the roof was given an incline, the porch was converted to a wrap-around, the cupola was removed, and the east wing was lost. The house was purchased by the Gibson family in 1983 before a mortgage company came into possession of it in 2006.In 2007, the Oil Region Alliance led a restoration team that worked until 2016 to restore the Tarbell house to its former glory. Their ten-phase plan resulted in award-winning reconstruction which involved structural repair, period-appropriate redecoration of the interior, and constriction of a replica cupola. Since then, the house has hosted teas and themed events with re-enactors, in addition to functioning as a house museum. Information about seasonal tea availability can be found on the Tarbell House Facebook page.

Built in 1870 by Franklin Sumner Tarbell in Titusville, Pennsylvania, this historic house was restored in 2007 by the Oil Region Alliance. It served as the childhood home of Ida Tarbell, whose investigative journalism lead to the breakup of John D. Rockefeller’ s oil monopoly by the Supreme Court. It used materials from the Bonta House of Pithole, PA (now a ghost town) in its construction and features curved interior walls, made possible by Franklin's experience as a barrel-maker. The House was restored by the Oil Region Alliance from 2007 - 2016, and now functions as a museum and seasonal tea venue. Its newest exhibit is a collection of political cartoons from the late 19th - 20th centuries.

Pennsylvania Women's History Heritage Trail

Historical Marker: Martha Graham's School of Contemporary Dance

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources