Carnegie Museum of Natural History: Vertebrate Paleontology Collections

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Visit our Tour Destination: Pennsylvania page to see the entire tour of the state’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

Allosaurus fragilis:  The razor-toothed Allosaurus as seen in
Dinosaurs in Their Time at Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
Photo Credit:  Joshua Franzos for Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History: Vertebrate Paleontology Collections

400 Forbes Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA

Website:  Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Carnegie Museum of Natural History: Vertebrate Paleontology Collections

The Treasure:  The vertebrate paleontology collections at Carnegie Museum of Natural History are justifiably famous for their magnificent dinosaur skeletons but are just as important for the breadth and depth of their collections, from the early fish of the Silurian seas to cave fauna of the Pleistocene.

Accessibility:  Carnegie Museum of Natural History is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 to 5, Thursday from 10 to 8, and Sunday from noon to 5.

Andrew Carnegie.
Photo courtesy of Carnegie
Museum of Natural History.

Background:  At Carnegie Museum of Natural History, dinosaurs are the superstar attraction. They were big at the turn-of-the-century when steel magnate Andrew Carnegie decided that the new Carnegie Museum of Natural History needed dinosaur bones—the bigger, the better. And they’re still big today, proudly exhibited in Dinosaurs in Their Time, the museum’s thorough re-imagining of a dinosaur hall for the 21st century.

But a great vertebrate paleontology collection covers a huge spectrum of time, with only a medium-sized wedge for the age of dinosaurs in the middle. The Carnegie Museum’s collections trace the story of vertebrate life over nearly half a billion years, with 103,000 specimens extending from primitive early fish of the Silurian period (about 420 million years ago) to cave fauna of the Pleistocene (within the last couple of million years). While the collections are international in scope, they can boast of a fine representation of North American prehistory. The museum has prime fossils of bony fish from the Mississippian period found in Montana, amphibians and early reptile remains from the Pennsylvanian and Permian periods unearthed in the Mid-Atlantic region, mammal fossils of the Cenozoic era from the American west, and relatively recent (Quaternary epoch) fossils discovered in the Appalachians and Rocky Mountains.

A glimpse of the Big Bone Room, a collection storage area for the vertebrate
paleontology collections. Save America's Treasures funding contributed to
installation of a new climate control system for the collection storage areas.
Photo courtesy of Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Starting in 1898, Andrew Carnegie enthusiastically financed the Carnegie Museum’s western fossil hunting expeditions. The director of the museum, William J. Holland, fittingly repaid Carnegie for his generosity, naming the museum’s first great dinosaur find (the nearly complete skeleton of a new species of sauropod) after the museum’s patron—Diplodocus carnegie. Proud of his namesake dinosaur and the museum’s work, Carnegie continued to invest in the hunt for American dinosaurs.

Earl Douglass.
Photo courtesy of
Carnegie Museum of
Natural History.

In 1902, the Carnegie Museum hired Earl Douglass, a resourceful scientist with a trained eye and the fortitude to thrive in the sometimes harsh conditions of the American west. Concentrating on outcrops of the promising Morrison Formation along the Colorado-Utah border, Douglass spied eight Apatosaurus tail bones embedded at the top of a ledge on one of his outings. As Douglass and his crew unearthed this great find, a nearly complete Apatosaurus skeleton, they discovered that the surrounding rock was crammed with many more treasures. The exposed tail bones had lured Douglass to what turned out to be one of the world’s greatest fossil beds, loaded with dinosaur remains.

Over the next 13 years, Douglass shipped hundreds of tons of material back to the Carnegie Museum, comprising nearly forty Jurassic period dinosaur skeletons, including Apatosaurus, Camarasaurus, Diplodocus, Stegosaurus, and Camptosaurus. When the Carnegie Museum pulled out in 1924, satisfied with their haul, Douglass stayed on, now working under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Utah. He died in 1931, many years before his ambitious dream of establishing the quarry as a site for interpreting fossil-hunting was fully realized. In 1958, Douglass’ intact quarry wall, a veritable stew of dinosaur bones, was opened to public view as the centerpiece of Dinosaur National Monument.

Historic photo of Douglass' crew packing fossils at
Dinosaur National Monument, Utah, in the early 1900s.
Image courtesy of Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Tinted postcard of the Gallery of Paleontology at Carnegie Museum
of Natural History in 1907.
Image courtesy of Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Other Recommended Sites:  The Earl Douglass Workshop Laboratory, built into a hillside near the Utah quarry in 1920, is still standing at Dinosaur National Monument. After he discovered the site in 1909, Douglass chose to make Utah his home, inviting his wife and baby to join him for a pioneer life in the largely unsettled canyon area. He prepared the fossils there—eventually using the resources of this Workshop Laboratory—and then shipped them east by train to Carnegie Museum of Natural History for exhibition to a public hungry for dinosaurs.

Stegosaurus armatus:  Known as one of the
largest plated dinosaurs, the massive Stegosaurus
stands ready to defend itself in Dinosaurs in Their
Time at Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
This specimen was found in Utah by Earl Douglass
and crew between 1920 and 1922.
Photo Credit:  Joshua Franzos for Carnegie
Museum of Natural History.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Tuesday:  Brookville Historic District

© 2013 Lee Price

Free Library of Philadelphia: PA German Manuscript Collection

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Visit our Tour Destination: Pennsylvania page to see the entire tour of the state’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

John Freadrich tune booklet (Notenbuchlein) with Harmonics.
FLP Borneman Ms. 56.
Image courtesy of Free Library of Philadelphia, Rare Book Department.

Free Library of Philadelphia: PA German Manuscript Collection

1901 Vine Street

Philadelphia, PA

Website:  Free Library of Philadelphia

Free Library of Philadelphia: Rare Book Department

Free Library of Philadelphia: Fraktur Collection (in addition to the fraktur, this guide includes images and information regarding many of the manuscripts preserved through the Save America’s Treasures grant)

The Treasure:  The Pennsylvania German manuscript collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia reveals the great artistry and craftsmanship of the Pennsylvania German communities that flourished in the state in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Accessibility:  The Rare Book Department at the Free Library of Philadelphia is open Monday through Saturday from 9 to 5, with a daily tour of the General Collections at 11 a.m.

Plane geometry problem from a
mathematical exercise book.
FLP Borneman Ms. 155.
Image courtesy of the Free Library of
Philadelphia, Rare Book Department.

Background:  As part of his “Holy Experiment,” William Penn (1644-1718) advertised his new colony, the Province of Pennsylvania, throughout Europe, making it known that he welcomed persecuted minorities. Many Germans responded, creating a pathway into Pennsylvania (through Germantown, then located right outside Philadelphia) that provided assistance and encouragement for immigrants. Mennonites, Amish, Schwenkfelders, Lutherans, members of the Reformed Church, and many other religious denominations and sects were represented among the individuals and families that embraced Penn’s invitation.

The cultures of these new “Pennsylvania German” communities were distinctive, as the immigrants quickly adapted their traditional folkways to the American environment. They expressed themselves through a vibrant and colorful folk art that reflected their religious and social convictions.

But while the craftsmanship of their work was often charming, and sometimes deeply artistic, it was not recognized for its quality until the great heyday of the late 18th and early to mid-19th centuries had passed. Finally, in the early 20th century, collectors like Abraham Harley Cassel, Henry Chapman Mercer, Howard W. Kriebel, and Henry S. Borneman realized that the local attics and barns were sheltering often remarkable cultural documents, as valuable for their artistry as for their history.

In 1955, the Free Library of Philadelphia purchased the great collection of Henry S. Borneman, Esq., founder and first Dean of the Temple University School of Law. Taking deep pride in his own Pennsylvania German heritage, Borneman collected a broad range of items, including a magnificent collection of fraktur—paper documents (birth, baptismal, and wedding certificates; writing samples; awards; holiday greetings; etc.) decorated with a distinctive “broken letter’ calligraphy and often embellished with exuberant artistic designs.

Account book (1856-1858)
of Saml Serfass.
FLP Borneman Ms. 93.
Image courtesy of the
Free Library of Philadelphia,
Rare Book Department.

Justly proud of their world-class fraktur collection, the Free Library of Philadelphia has taken exemplary care of the fraktur, making it digitally accessible through a resource guide on their website. With their 2011 Save America’s Treasures grant, the Free Library turned to the other items in the Borneman Collection, seizing the opportunity to conserve and digitize the Pennsylvania German manuscripts, books, hymnals, and business account records that Borneman had collected. As they become more accessible, these items will continue to add to our understanding of life in the early Pennsylvania German communities.

Here are some more beautiful examples of some of the treasures that have received conservation treatment through the grant.

Bookplate for Johannes Funck from an
account book in German and English recording
his business transactions from 1789-1814.
The book plate is the work of
Johannes Ernst Spangenberg, formerly known
as the Easton Bible Artist.
FLP B-1032.
Image courtesy of the Free Library of
Philadelphia, Rare Book Department.

Geometry problems from a
mathematical exercise book.
FLP Borneman Ms. 156.
Image courtesy of the Free Library of
Philadelphia, Rare Book Department.

"The Incense Hill of Zion" (Zionitischer Weyrauchs Hugel),
a hymnal of the Ephrata Cloister with elaborate pen work
by the sisters of the cloister.
FLP Borneman Ms. 2.
Image courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia,
Rare Book Department.

Notes from the Editor:  

“If I were an 18^th century manuscript, and had a broken spine, and detached boards, not to mention all kinds of other injuries to my pages, I think I would contact the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) for a restoration appointment because I know that a lot of careful and expert work is needed to restore a manuscript.”

Quoted from the

Pennsylvania German Collection blog

at the Free Library of Philadelphia

I’ve highlighted this particular quote for two reasons.  First, it nicely links to the Free Library’s excellent ongoing blog series on the history behind these amazing manuscripts. Go and enjoy! And, second, I’m quoting it because I love the compliment it pays to my work place, the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts!

Other Recommended Sites:  Pennsylvania is home to many historic sites and museums that honor its Pennsylvania German heritage. Just an hour’s drive north of Philadelphia, you can learn about Mennonite and Schwenkfelder cultures at, respectively, the Mennonite Heritage Center and the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center (which also has one of the world’s finest collections of fraktur).

Music Copybook of Sarah Horsfield, Bethlehem, July 14, 1833.
Laid paper, gall ink, watercolor;  leather.
FLP Borneman Ms. 143.
Blog entry:  If I'm Happy, Then I Must Sing, Part 4.
Image courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia,
Rare Book Department.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Tuesday:  Carnegie Museum of Natural History: Vertebrate Paleontology Collection

© 2013 Lee Price

Black Horse Inn

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Visit our Tour Destination: Pennsylvania page to see the entire tour of the state’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

West view of the Black Horse Inn (Flourtown, PA) in 2008.
Photo courtesy of Springfield Township.

Black Horse Inn

1432 Bethlehem Pike

Flourtown, PA

Website:  The Black Horse Inn

The Treasure:  The Black Horse Inn is a picturesque reminder of the once-bustling inns that catered to clientele along the main 18th and 19th century thoroughfares.

Accessibility:  As restoration efforts continue, your best bet is to appreciate the exterior of the Black Horse Inn from the road. The interior is sometimes accessible during special events.

Exterior bar door at the Black Horse Inn.
Photo courtesy of Springfield Township.

Background:  Located in the center of Flourtown, the Black Horse Inn is a landmark on Bethlehem Pike, a once-major road that links Philadelphia to Bethlehem, PA, a distance of approximately 50 miles. Bethlehem Pike is still a busy road today, but it has long since lost the prominence that it enjoyed for nearly 200 years. Today (following Google Maps, Mapquest, or your GPS), you might get to Bethlehem from Philadelphia by jumping on the Schuylkill Expressway, taking the Northeast Extension, exiting to Route 309 in Quakertown, and finishing on Route 378 into Bethlehem. Altogether it takes about an hour, mostly high-speed highway driving—slowing only for a few traffic lights around Quakertown.

But traveling that 50-mile trip wasn’t so easy in colonial days. From 1703 to 1734, the British government oversaw the development of Bethlehem Pike (a.k.a. the “Great Road”), a colonial highway that stretched from Chestnut Hill to the newly established Moravian community in Bethlehem. Naturally, inns sprang up to serve the stagecoach business. The Black Horse Inn was one of the first, strategically located about ten miles outside Philadelphia at a point where the drivers would be looking for a place to rest or change the horses.

Abraham Wakerly appears to have built the first inn on the property in 1744, offering only a plain one-room building plus a kitchen. As travel and trade increased, business justified growth. There were significant additions and improvements to the Black Horse Inn in 1833, 1880, and 1908, keeping up with the times and the traffic.

The Black Horse Inn opened under British rule, flourished under President Washington, and was still going strong when Lincoln was in office and the Civil War raged. At the turn of the century, in 1901, the core stagecoach business was superseded by a trolley line set up on the Bethlehem Pike, still maintaining its status as the main corridor linking Philadelphia with sites north. When the trolley service closed in 1926, the Black Horse Inn became more of a local—rather than a regional—landmark. While it has not been regularly open to the public for the last quarter of a century, it continues to securely anchor its hometown of Flourtown, standing testimony to the area’s rich history.

The Black Horse Inn during restoration in 2007 with stucco removed from
the north side.  Photo courtesy of Springfield Township.

Other Recommended Sites:  Ten miles northwest on the Skippack Pike, enjoy a visit to the Peter Wentz Farmstead, a beautifully restored 18th century Pennsylvania German farmstead which served as General George Washington’s headquarters during the fall of 1777.

South view of the Black Horse Inn in 2009.
Photo courtesy of Springfield Township.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Tuesday:  The Pennsylvania German Collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia

© 2013 Lee Price