Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia

As Executive Director of Jazz Bridge, I’d love to see Philly Jazz History on this site. Our history and jazz traditions are recognized world-wide and should be represented here.

The history and legacy of Stephen Girard and his “Girard College” is an inspiring one for people of all ages and backgrounds. Girard’s seafaring adventures brought him to Philadelphia whee he decided to live out the rest of his life. Girard’s generous contributions to Philadelphia and his founding of a great school, Girard College, is surely a part of Philadelphia’s history. The full story of Stephen Girard is an interesting one and should not be overlooked in the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia.
The website – http://www.stephengirardsgirardcollege.com – deals only with the history and operations of Girard College as Stephen Girard mandated it to be. This website is not the full story of the generous contributions that Stephen Girard gave to the world.

The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
1630 Latimer Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103 215-735-6737 info@nscdapa.org

I want Nominate is:” Transsexuals the face of LGBT Freedom in History ”

The connection of LGBT Philadelphia and NYC LGBT activism is undeniable, but so are Transsexuals who were always visible and found in every profession and class of society during the eventual gay and lesbian coming out in the later half of the 20th century .
Transsexuals have been trailblazers in being the face of what is now World Pride and accredited with the STONEWALL riots and their Beauty which bind the NYC, Philadelphia LGBT freedom.
the STONEWALL Monument by NPS had the only Trans woman from the STONEWALL Riots 1969 who happens to be the youngest Veteran of all the STONEWALL Vets. testify in May 2016 in front of the Secretary of the INTERIOR Sally Jules and the world that night in NYC, this trans women is also a native Philadelphian.
So with that introduction of the topic…
Nance Lomax

What kinds of medicine were specifically used during the colonial times

I would like to nominate a comprehensive treatment of Philadelphia and western Pennsylvania in the search for an effective domestic alternative to olive oil that enveloped Thomas Jefferson, John Bartram and his sons, William Hamilton of the Woodlands, and Henry Muhlenberg of Lancaster, along with Francois Michaux, son of Andre, and Patrick Archbold of the Laurel highlands near Greensburg in the examination of what became known as the Buffalo Nut, or Pyrularis pubera, in later years.

Bartram and Jefferson, and perhaps Hamilton all became aware of the perceived value of the oil in the nut, as a potential source of cooking oil, and Bartram gathered nuts and plants, which all three likely tried, unsuccessfully, to propagate and cultivate in their garden operations. By 1800 or before, Hamilton became involved with Muhlenberg, still apparently with Jefferson et al,; and was working in Lancaster, in company with Hamilton, using seeds supplied by Patrick Archbold, a farmer, Sawyer, and Miller.

In June, 1802, Francois Michaux paid a courtesy visit to Hamilton at the Woodlands, to extend the compliments of his father, a friend of Hamilton, as Michaux was embarking on his own biological gathering travels through the American wilderness, and found Hamilton away, visiting Muhlenberg at Lancaster. As Michaux was heading that direction, he stopped in Lancaster and met both men, who asked that he detour on his trip west through the Laurel mountains and entreat Archbold to send more Buffalo Nut seeds. Michaux did this, renting a horse at an appropriate stage stop, and spent two days with Archbold on July 3, 1802.

There are many interesting twists to the story; How is it that the best minds of the time couldn’t cultivate the plant? (It involves then-unknown chemical messenger systems that allow the seed to lie dormant until conditions are correct – that is, the presence of an acceptable host plant for a parasitic connection, not discovered until the 1960’s and still dimly understood…), and why is there a widely varying concept of the toxicology of the plant oil? (That may trace to chemical differences in the variety of host-chemistry combinations from one host to another, or with a multitude of hosts within the same plant culture.)

There is an entire chapter on the various naming’s proposed for the plant, from one made by Muhlenberg honoring Hamilton, to the one claimed by Francois on behalf of his now-deceased father, based only on the testimony of the son, who belatedly admitted that he and another botanist published his recently-deceased father’s papers in the father’s name well after his death, and using the son’s testimony of supposed earlier events, to precede Muhlenberg’s work, allowing Michaux’s naming to survive, and then survive several later naming’s of the same plant by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque and Asa Gray over the next several decades.

More information is available if the topic is deemed acceptable to pursue…

I would like to see a biographical entry on Benjamin Rush, cross linked to other relevant essays in the Encyclopedia. I would especially like to see something that addresses Rush’s contributions to anti-slavery activism, and his connections with Quaker anti-slavery, eg. Anthony Benezet.

I ask my students to analyze Rush’s 1773 anti-slavery tract (anthologized in Lubert, Hardwick, and Hammond, THE AMERICAN DEBATE OVER SLAVERY, 1760-1865), and regularly direct them to your encyclopedia to research the document’s context.

All best wishes,
Kevin R. Hardwick
James Madison University