Join the Discussion about Jewelers Row

Join us at the Philadelphia History Museum on Thursday, September 22, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. as we co-sponsor a conversation about the history and significance of Philadelphia’s Jewelers Row.  Speakers will include Paul Steinke, Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia; Hy Goldberg, Jewelers Row Business Association; Bob Skiba, Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides; and representatives from Visit Philadelphia.  The program is free, but registration is required. 

Like Us? Help Us Reach the Next 1,000

At The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, we have a lot to celebrate this month. We have the long-awaited Super Bowl victory, now added to our page about professional football. One of our co-editors, Howard Gillette, has been selected to receive the 2018 Visionary Historian Award from the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.  In addition, throughout this February we are celebrating Black History Month by highlighting more than thirty of our articles on African American history in the Philadelphia area, including essays about the region’s role in the Civil Rights movement, prominent black Philadelphians, and contributions from black communities in the region. We have at least one essay a day lined up to be shared on our Facebook page for the whole month of February. We have a diverse collection of essays on African American history covering a wide range of topics–our social media feed for this month of celebration will never be boring!

We’re also pleased to announce that we have reached a milestone of 1,000 followers on Facebook. We can’t wait to reach the next thousand with you! As we work to add to our essays available as well as our number of fans across social media, we’d love to hear from you about what your favorite articles have been or if you have a topic you’d like to nominate for an essay.

We love engaging with our fans across social media with comments, shares, and suggestions. If you haven’t already, please like us on Facebook at the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia and follow us on Twitter @Backgrounders for daily essay postings and notifications about new articles up on the site. We look forward to reaching the next thousand followers and sharing some great essays with you this year!

Milestone: 650 Topics Published

We’re pleased to announce that The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia has reached a new milestone of 650 topics published online. The 650th topic, published on December 27, 2019, is Turnpikes, written by the encyclopedia’s Editor in Chief, Charlene Mires.

Our publishing during 2019 was supported by generous contributions by individual donors, including those who gave during our annual one-day fund-raiser on Rutgers Giving Day. Watch for your next opportunity to contribute on March 25, 2020–the next Rutgers Giving Day–or add your support any time by using the link on our home page. Thank you!

National History Day Webinar

nhd-logoTeachers, please join us on Wednesday, November 2, at 4:30 p.m. for a free webinar tutorial with our education outreach coordinator, Melissa Callahan. The webinar will provide an overview of the resources available from The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia and offer ways in which students might use those resources to create an outstanding National History Day project. Once you sign up for the webinar you will receive a confirmation email.

NEH Teacher Institute: Cultures of Independence

Applications are due March 2 for this new teacher workshop funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Cultures of Independence: Perspectives on Independence Hall and the Meaning of Freedom will raise awareness of how Independence Hall has been involved in the ongoing process of creating a nation and civic life, not just in the magical moment of July 1776.  During each day of  a week-long workshop, 36 teachers will be immersed in a process of discovering and developing strategies for teaching the ongoing history of the American independence. Dr. Charlene Mires, author of Independence Hall in American Memory and Editor-in-Chief of The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia will be the scholar-in-residence. Other editors, contributors, and civic partners of the Encyclopedia will participate as speakers and hosts.

The workshop will be offered twice:  June 21-26 and July 26-July 31. For additional information about the program and procedures for application, visit the workshop website hosted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

New Call for Authors: Winter-Spring 2015

The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia is expanding and opening new subject categories with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mayor’s Fund for Philadelphia, and Poor Richard’s Charitable Trust. To join more than one hundred leading and emerging scholars who have already contributed to this peer-reviewed, digital-first project, let us know your choice of topics.

To see the list of topics available link here.

The scope of the project includes the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding region of southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and northern Delaware. Prospective authors must have expertise in their chosen subjects demonstrated by previous publications and/or advanced training in historical research. Authors will have the opportunity to select feasible deadlines and will have the option of volunteering or receiving modest stipends. To express interest, please send an email describing your qualifications and specifying topics of interest to the editor-in-chief, Charlene Mires, cmires@camden.rutgers.edu. No attachments, please. Graduate students, please include the name and email address of an academic reference.

Guidelines for writers:
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/about/guidelines-for-writers/

Roster of authors:
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/category/authors/

Editors and staff:
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/about/editors/

New Program Series Explores Civil Rights Struggles

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Thirteenth Amendment and the abolition of slavery, local cultural institutions will host screenings of clips from Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle.  The African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP), Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP), the National Constitution Center (NCC), and the Philadelphia History Museum (PHM) have also developed programming using these video clips to launch larger explorations of whether or not equality is ensured with the passage of new laws or amendments.  For details about these free events, which are co-sponsored by The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, please visit our events page.

These four documentaries feature riveting new footage illustrating the history of civil rights in America. Each film tells remarkable stories of individuals who challenged the social and legal status quo of deeply rooted institutions, from slavery to segregation. AbolitionistsSlavery by Another NameThe Loving Story, and Freedom Riders include dramatic scenes of incidents in the 150-year effort to achieve equal rights for all. Presentations and discussions featured in the AAMP, HSP, NCC, and PHM programs will focus on the specific themes and subjects of the documentary series.

“We are thankful to the NEH and Gilder Lehrman Institute for the ability to bring these programs to Philadelphia. It is an opportune time to be having these conversations,” said Beth Twiss Houting, HSP’s Senior Director of Programs and Services.

Educators will also be able to receive ACT 48/CEU credits at each Created Equal? event. A teacher workshop on February 28 will also focus on civil rights struggles.

The Created Equal film set and public programs have been made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as part of its Bridging Cultures initiative, in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.


Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle is made possible through a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as part of its Bridging Cultures initiative, in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

New Support from The Mayor’s Fund for Philadelphia, Poor Richard’s Charitable Trust

We are pleased to announce new financial support for The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia project.  From The Mayor’s Fund for Philadelphia, the project has received a grant of $25,000. In addition, Poor Richard’s Charitable Trust has contributed $2,500.  These much-needed awards will help us to continue to expand the Encyclopedia’s content, especially in ways that serve the needs of the region’s students and teachers. We extend our thanks to these valued partners as we continue fund-raising efforts among individuals, corporations, and foundations.

New: Teaching With The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia

We have learned a great deal from the students and educators who have turned to The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia to explore local, regional, and United States history. In return, we now offer a brief guide, Teaching With The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. The guide offers assignment tips, outlines correlations between encyclopedia essays and typical textbook chapters, and includes a digital scavenger hunt activity for introducing students to The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia.

Link to download the PDF document — and please share your ideas for the next edition!

 

Nominate A Topic

What would you like to know about Philadelphia and its history? Nominate a topic and tell us why you’d like to see it in The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. To submit your ideas to the editors, simply scroll to the bottom of this page.

On the Trail: A History of American Hiking — New Book by Encyclopedia Contributor

We are pleased to share the news of a new book by Silas Chamberlin, author of the essay about recreational trails in The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia.  His book, On the Trail: A History of American Hiking, is a history of American hikers and their role in creating the nation’s trail system.  According to Yale University Press:

Cover of the book On the TrailIn the mid-nineteenth century urban walking clubs emerged in the United States. A little more than a century later, tens of millions of Americans were hiking on trails blazed in every region of the country. This groundbreaking book is the first full account of the unique history of the American hiking community and its rich, nationwide culture.

Delving into unexplored archives, including those of the Appalachian Mountain Club, Sierra Club, Green Mountain Club, and many others, Silas Chamberlin recounts the activities of hikers who over many decades formed clubs, built trails, and advocated for environmental protection. He also discusses the shifting attitudes of the late 1960s and early 1970s when ideas about traditional volunteerism shifted and new hikers came to see trail blazing and maintenance as government responsibilities. Chamberlin explores the implications for hiking groups, future club leaders, and the millions of others who find happiness, inspiration, and better health on America’s trails.

Chamberlin will discuss and sign his book at the Penn Book Center, 130 S. Thirty-Fourth Street, Philadelphia, on Thursday, December 8, at 6:30 p.m.  For more information, link here.

One Year Later

It’s been a busy year since we launched the Encyclopedia project with a Civic Partnership and Planning Workshop in April 2009.  To summarize our progress and challenges, we have prepared a brief annual report.  Thanks to all of our partners and the new friends we are making at branch libraries and through the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable.  Please continue to add to these discussions on our Events page and join us for our additional programs this spring.

Our Enhanced Digital Platform

Example of map page: South PhiladelphiaWelcome to the newly enhanced Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia! As you explore our website, you will discover an array of new features and pathways for exploring our growing project. This enhanced digital platform builds upon suggestions from our users and partners, and it will allow us to continue to expand and take greater advantage of the capabilities of digital publishing.  Take a look around!

Browse by geography. Explore topics through maps of sections of Philadelphia and counties in the region.

Browse by time period. Go to the timeline and link to any of our nine time periods. For each, you’ll find related topics as well as a more detailed timeline, an image gallery, topics on a map, links, and a related reading list.

Image of Encyclopedia Home PageConnect headlines and history. We have partnered with WHYY NewsWorks to make connections with the news through the Backgrounders feature on our home page and on individual topic pages.

Enhanced topic pages. We have improved our design and added links to additional digital resources so that each essay serves as a topical hub to resources throughout the region.

New theme pages.  Our featured essays on themes such as “City of Brotherly Love” and “Workshop of the World” now have an enhanced presence on pages that also feature related topics, timelines, maps, and image galleries.

Author index. At a glance, this page displays biographical information about our authors and provides links to their essays.

Greater coverage. With the addition of timelines for themes and time periods, we provide a more comprehensive chronology of the region.

Greater accessibility. We have sharpened our typography to make the text more readable for individuals with low vision, and we have implemented other accessibility features.

More to come. Our site also enables browsing through artifacts, and we are working with the Philadelphia History Museum to add objects using virtual-reality photography.  Also watch for additional maps and, of course, more topics as we continue to build The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. For all of this, we extend thanks for the participation of our users and partners and for the work of our digital publishing team. Implementation of the enhanced website, created in partnership with the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, was made possible by a generous grant from the William Penn Foundation to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (the institutional home of the Encyclopedia). Concept designs, funded by a planning grant to the University of Pennsylvania Press by the Barra Foundation, were created by Brian T. Jacobs with input from participants in THATCamp Philly.

Our Home Base

The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia is a project of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities, in cooperation with our numerous civic partners, associate editors, and advisers.  The new mailing address for the project is: The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities,  Department of History, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ  08102.

Our Students Behind the Scenes

At the home base of The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH) at Rutgers-Camden, students and recent alumni play important roles in producing each new topic. In the process they gain a deeper understanding of regional history and build skills in digital publishing. Read more about these activities and other public humanities news on the MARCH website.

Program Updates – April Roundtables

We’re so pleased by the brisk registration for the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable events in April. Unfortunately, we have already reached the capacity of our room for the roundtable on April 22, “Imagining Philadelphia’s Future,” at the Academy of Natural Sciences. Please add your name to the wait list by visiting our “Events” page, and we’ll let you know if we can accommodate more people. Also, consider joining us for our other roundtables this spring. An added attraction for the roundtable on April 1 is a book-signing for Women of Industry and Reform: Shaping the History of Pennsylvania, 1865-1940, by Marion Roydhouse, published by the Pennsylvania Historical Association.

Project Milestone: 300 Topics Online

This month we passed a new milestone in the creation of The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia: our 300th topic published online. Published on March 8, topic number 300, “Board of Health (Philadelphia),” by James Higgins, added to our growing category of topics about health and medicine.  We would like to take this opportunity to thank the many contributors, civic partners, and staff members at Rutgers-Camden who are devoting their talents and good will to the service of this resource for the Philadelphia region. Our current phase of expansion is made possible by generous funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mayor’s Fund for Philadelphia, and Poor Richard’s Charitable Trust.

Project Milestone: 400 Topics Published Online

This week The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia reached and surpassed 400 topics online with the publication of the essay Community Development, by Howard Gillette Jr. and Domenic Vitiello, two of our editors. The continuing growth of this regional resource is made possible by the talents and good will of hundreds of writers, our civic partners, and the staff of editors, fact-checkers, and digital publishers working at our home base at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH) at Rutgers-Camden. The current phase of expansion is funded by generous grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mayor’s Fund for Philadelphia, and Poor Richard’s Charitable Trust.

Project Milestone: 450 Topics Online

With the help of so many writers, editors, project partners, and financial supporters, The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia has reached a new publishing milestone of 450 topics online–an increase of more than 150 topics from this time a year ago. The distinction of being topic No. 450 goes to the new essay about Norristown, Pennsylvania, by Michael D. Shaffer.

The current phase of expansion is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mayor’s Fund for Philadelphia, and Poor Richard’s Charitable Trust. To watch us climb to more than 500 topics this spring, follow us on Facebook or Twitter or sign up for our list-serv by submitting your email address on the home page. Thank you for your support!

Project Milestone: 500 Topics Online

This week The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia reached 500 essays online — a major milestone for the project. The editors extend thanks to all of the authors, editors, project partners, and staff members who have contributed their time and talents to creating this unparalleled resource for understanding the Philadelphia region’s history and experience.

Topic #500 is Italians and Italy, by Stefano Luconi. Click here to read the essay and explore links to related reading, collections, places to visit, and websites.

Project Milestone: 550 Topics Online

The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia has been growing rapidly this summer, and we are pleased to announce that the project has reached a new milestone: 550 topics published online. The 550th essay to be published is Dispensaries, by Steven J. Peitzman, a longtime contributor who participated in one of our early Greater Philadelphia Roundtable programs, “City of Firsts.” He has written two previous essays for The Encyclopedia: City of Medicine and Typhoid Fever and Filtered Water.

Report from the PHA

The Encyclopedia editors had the opportunity to lead a roundtable discussion about the project at the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Historical Association conference, held October 14-16, 2010, at Susquehanna University.  We were pleased to see scholars from so many universities taking interest in the project and contributing their ideas and thoughtful questions.  Thanks to the historians from Penn State, Temple University, Villanova University, Philadelphia University, Millersville University, Lehigh University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere for your participation.   (That was quite a lineup of past presidents of the PHA in the back row!)  Specific topics recommendations received have been added to our nominations list on the home page of this site, and we look forward to receiving more.

Connecting the Past with the Present, Building Community, Creating a Legacy