State Library of Pennsylvania: General Assembly 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.

After treatment:  The Statutes at Large, a law book from the Pennsylvania
General Assembly Collection at the State Library of Pennsylvania.
.Photo courtesy of the State Library of Pennsylvania.

State Library of Pennsylvania:  General Assembly Collection

Forum Building

607 South Drive

Harrisburg, PA

Website:  Bureau of State Library

The Treasure:  The Pennsylvania General Assembly Collection was the Independence Hall law library readily available to the Founding Fathers when they were writing both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

Accessibility:  The State Library of Pennsylvania is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 9:30 to 5 and the second Saturday of each month from 9:30 to 4:30. For information on the rare collections of the State Library of Pennsylvania, including the General Assembly Collection, check the contact information on the Rare Collections Library page.

Background:  You’d think it would be the most famous library in America. If embellished by a few quasi-historical anecdotes, the Pennsylvania General Assembly Collection might have had the potential to be the library equivalent of Betsy Ross’s flag, the Liberty Bell, or Boston’s Old North Church.

Instead, the Pennsylvania General Assembly Collection—the law library at Independence Hall at the time when the Declaration of Independence AND the U.S. Constitution were drafted and signed—became an inexplicable casualty of historic memory. Somehow, it quietly slipped out of recorded history after its move from Philadelphia to Harrisburg in the early years of the 19th century.

Yes, the resource library available to the Founding Fathers as they debated and wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the U.S. Constitution in 1787 was simply forgotten.

Before treatment:  The Statutes at Large
(same book as shown above).
Photo courtesy of the
State Library of Pennsylvania.

In the mid-1740s, Benjamin Franklin and Isaac Norris, II, spearheaded the drive to establish the Pennsylvania General Assembly’s library and make it one of the finest in the colonies. In his role as Clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly, Franklin purchased the core books of the Assembly library from William Strahan, a London bookseller. He selected these books to serve as a practical law library for statesmen, covering the breadth of English and international law.  Franklin and Norris then chose to round out the collection with additional volumes on philosophy, art, architecture, and the natural sciences. Today, these 420 books offer remarkable insight into the worldview of a Colonial statesman.

English law and philosophy forged the men who served in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Second Continental Congress, and the Constitutional Convention. The volumes of the General Assembly Collection—the works of John Locke, the Statutes at Large, and the works of Coke, Puffendorf, De Vatell, Grotius, and many of the other great European legal authorities—represent the legal universe that gave shape and legal credibility to the revolutionary documents of that time.

In summer 1776, the General Assembly Collection was maintained in the Library and Committee Room of the State Assembly Building, now commonly known as Independence Hall. Access to the Library and Committee Room was through the back door of the main Assembly Chamber. The books were readily available for reference.  Appropriately, the library prominently contained not just law, but the works of John Locke, whose influence permeates the Declaration, inspiring the immortal phrase, “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

Conservation Center for Art and Historic
Artifacts book conservator Jim Hinz lays
down Japanese paper mends on the interior
of a front board.  Photo courtesy of the
State Library of Pennsylvania.

Eleven years later, the Constitutional Convention met in secret at the State Assembly Building to draft a new set of laws to govern the young nation. Once again, the General Assembly Collection served as a readily available resource library to the assembled statesmen. Edmund Randolph wrote the first draft of the Constitution, which was then rewritten by James Wilson of Pennsylvania, and polished by a committee of Alexander Hamilton of New York, William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut, Rufus King of Massachusetts, James Madison of Virginia, and Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania.

For most of the past 200 years, the General Assembly Collection has been sadly neglected, even narrowly escaping destruction by fire in 1897. The volumes eventually became scattered among various historic sites and among the general collection of the State Library of Pennsylvania. In the 1950s and 1960s, leadership at both Independence National Historical Park and the State Library of Pennsylvania realized the importance of the collection and began the task of re-establishing it as an intact colonial library. Between 1986 and 1991, Rare Books Librarian Barbara Deibler painstakingly gathered the General Assembly Collection into one place again.

Today, the General Assembly Collection is the centerpiece of a beautiful state-of-the-art Rare Book Room at the State Library building. Funding from Save America’s Treasures contributed to the conservation treatment of the volumes, as conservators from the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts addressed issues of rotted leather bindings, detached boards, broken hinges, loss of covering materials, and overzealous oiling.

The Rare Collections Library Reading Room
at the State Library of Pennsylvania.
Photo courtesy of the State Library of Pennsylvania.

The Forum Building, home of the State Library of Pennsylvania.
Photo courtesy of the State Library of Pennsylvania.

Notes from the Editor:  The above background information is adapted (with permission!) from a newsletter article that I wrote in 2007 for my workplace, the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts. For this particular project, I assisted with the writing of the original grant request. After funding was released, our team of book conservators was honored to work on this truly important project.

I still think the General Assembly Collection is one of the least appreciated of America’s great treasures. Here’s my original conclusion to the newsletter article:

The General Assembly Collection has the potential to offer unparalleled insight into the legal and philosophical thought that sparked the American experiment.  As the Collection becomes better known to both scholars and historians, it may yield new understanding about the currents that shaped the founding of a nation.

Note to scholars and historians: Get to work!

A conservator at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts
repairs the shoulder of the textblock of one of the volumes in the
Pennsylvania General Assembly Collection.
Photo courtesy of the State Library of Pennsylvania.

Other Recommended Sites:  The State Museum of Pennsylvania is located just three blocks from the Forum Building. The collections include over 4 million objects and its museum exhibitions cover all aspects of the state’s history, including its pivotal role in the nation’s political history and its industrial contributions, as well as outstanding Civil War exhibits.

Volumes of the Pennsylvania General Assembly Collection in
vault storage at the State Library of Pennsylvania.
Photo courtesy of the State Library of Pennsylvania.

© 2013 Lee Price

Fort Mifflin

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Visit our Tour Destination: Pennsylvania page to explore more of Pennsylvania's historic sites, museums, and cultural collections.

The Commandant's House at Fort Mifflin, built in the 1790s to serve as a citadel or 'fort within a fort' -- the place of last
retreat. Save America's Treasures funding was used to stabilize the walls and install new rafters, roof, and cupola.
Photo courtesy of Fort Mifflin on the Delaware.

Fort Mifflin

Fort Mifflin and Hog Island Roads

Philadelphia, PA

Website:  Fort Mifflin

The Treasure:  Fort Mifflin became known as the “Valiant Defender of the Delaware” because of the courageous stand made here by a relatively small force of Pennsylvania militiamen in the fall of 1777.

Accessibility:  Fort Mifflin is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday from 10 to 4 from March 1 through mid-December.  Check the website for an extensive calendar of public living history events.

An 18th century Hessian map showing
Mud Island and Fort Mercer in 1777.
From the collection
of the Marburg State Library.
Source:  Wikimedia Commons

Background:  Once located on Mud Island, near the confluence of the Delaware and the Schuylkill Rivers, Fort Mifflin is part of the mainland today. Hog Island Road can take you to Fort Mifflin, but Hog Island is part of the mainland, too. Over the past two centuries, this portion of the Delaware River has been filled in, primarily now serving as home to Philadelphia International Airport. But despite the presence of planes flying low overhead, Fort Mifflin exerts its own strong presence today, evoking the feel of military life in the 18th and 19th centuries.

For its critical role in the Revolutionary War, Fort Mifflin deserves its own version of Rudyard Kipling’s “Charge of the Light Brigade.” Honoring heroism in the face of certain defeat, Kipling’s poem even has appropriate imagery to describe the siege of Fort Mifflin: “Cannon to right of them, / Cannon to left of them, / Cannon behind them / Volley’d & thunder’d.”

When the British troops under General William Howe occupied Philadelphia in September 1777, the General’s attention focused upon George Washington and his Continental Army located a short distance west of the city. Howe believed that he could defeat Washington if he could provide his own troops with appropriate supplies. But the supplies would have to be brought in by ships sailing up the Delaware River, passing Mud Island—and its Mud Island Fort (named Fort Mifflin two decades later)—en route.

The Pennsylvania militiamen at Fort Mifflin were determined to keep the supplies from General Howe and his troops. They set up an underwater line of chevaux-de-frise, logs tipped with fierce iron spikes, capable of ripping lethal gouges into the hulls of passing ships. The British fought back with cannon bombardments of the Mud Island Fort, but the rebels showed themselves capable of withstanding the punishment. At night, they repaired any damage inflicted to the walls of the fort.

A Revolutionary War reenactment at Fort Mifflin.
Photo courtesy of Fort Mifflin on the Delaware.

After a month-and-a-half-long stalemate, the British massed their full strength against the fort. On November 15, 1777, they brought in more than 200 additional cannons, dramatically increasing the fury of the assault. Spectacularly outnumbered, the fort on Mud Island had about a tenth that number of cannons with which to respond. By the end of a day of massive bombardment, approximately 250 Colonial soldiers lay dead or wounded. That night, the survivors set fire to the fort and retreated across the Delaware River to their allies at Fort Mercer in Red Bank, New Jersey.

By holding out for so long against the British, the militiamen at the Mud Island Fort bought George Washington needed time to establish winter quarters for his troops at Valley Forge. The fort itself, largely destroyed by fire and cannon, passed into legend as the “Valiant Defender of the Delaware.”

The fort was rebuilt in the 1790s, at which time it was officially named after Thomas Mifflin. Its long-standing military history subsequently encompasses service in the War of 1812, the Civil War, and World War II. Today, it continues to serve as an active base for the United States Army Corps of Engineers—making it the only currently active base that dates back to before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Overhead view of Fort Mifflin.
Photo courtesy of Fort Mifflin on the Delaware.

Notes from the Editor:  Not every one comes to Fort Mifflin for the history. Some come for the ghosts.

Other Recommended Sites:  Across the river in New Jersey, you can visit Red Bank Battlefield Park, the site of Fort Mercer, where the Pennsylvania militiamen retreated after the siege of Fort Mifflin. At Red Bank, the 18th century James and Ann Whitall House is sometimes open for tours (and the parkland along the Delaware is a wonderful place to fly a kite).

Sunset at Fort Mifflin.
Photo courtesy of Fort Mifflin on the Delaware.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Thursday:  State Library of Pennsylvania

© 2013 Lee Price

Johnstown Flood National Memorial

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

The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, a summer resort clubhouse that
flourished in the decade preceding the Johnstown Flood. The South Fork Club owned
the dam and reservoir that collapsed in May 1889 causing the catastrophic flood.
Photo courtesy of the Friends of the Johnstown Flood National Memorial.

Johnstown Flood National Memorial

733 Lake Road

South Fork, PA

Website:  Johnstown Flood National Memorial

Friends of the Johnstown Flood National Memorial

The Treasure:  Located on the shore of a giant reservoir called Lake Conemaugh, the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club was witness to unimaginable tragedy on May 31, 1889, when the dam broke unleashing a catastrophic flood.

Accessibility:  The park grounds of the Johnstown Flood National Memorial are open daily from sunrise to sunset, and the Visitor Center is open from 9 to 5. During current restabilization work, the interior of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club will only be accessible on special tours.

A scene of the flood's aftermath.
From the Robert N. Dennis Collection
of Stereoscopic Views at the
New York Public Library.
Source:  Wikimedia Commons

Background:  As with modern instances of catastrophic tragedy, like the September 11 terrorist attacks, the large story of the Johnstown Flood encompasses thousands of smaller stories, each grounded in individual lives that were instantly and irrevocably changed. When the dam collapsed, it unleashed 20 million tons of water that burst through a series of small towns before smashing into the City of Johnstown. In just under an hour, the water swept down a narrow 14-mile path, picking up trees, remnants of buildings, debris of all sorts, animals, and people, sometimes rising to a height of 60 feet. In the words of one witness, it looked like “a huge hill rolling over and over.”

The death toll exceeded 2,200.  Photographs taken later, during the rescue operations, depict the small villages of South Fork, Mineral Point, East Conemaugh, and Woodvale and the city of Johnstown smashed to pieces.

Stereoscopic view showing the desolation in front of Johnstown's Stone Bridge.
From the Robert N. Dennis Collection of Stereoscopic Views at the
New York Public Library.  Source:  Wikimedia Commons.

Debris on Main Street in Johnstown.
From the Robert N. Dennis Collection
of Stereoscopic Views at the
New York Public Library.
Source:  Wikimedia Commons

The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club played a controversial role in the flood. Unlike the working class environment of Johnstown, the South Fork Club was a rustic getaway location for some of the country’s wealthiest industrialists. Andrew Mellon, Henry Frick, and Andrew Carnegie were among the members who enjoyed waterfront access to the giant reservoir called Lake Conemaugh, up in a mountain summer resort 450 feet above Johnstown. The Club owned the dam and, notoriously, did little to maintain it.

To their credit, leaders at the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club saw potential disaster unfolding in the torrential rain that preceded the dam collapse. In the hours before the dam gave way, Club president Elias Unger and resident engineer John Parke strove to save the dam and warn people in danger’s way. But it was too little too late. Parke saw the water break through:  “(T)he fearful rushing waters opened the gap with such increasing rapidity that soon after the entire lake leaped out… It took but forty minutes to drain that three miles of water.”

Stereoscopic view of the nearly-emptied reservoir following the flood.
From the Robert N. Dennis Collection of Stereoscopic Views at the
New York Public Library.  Source:  Wikimedia Commons.

Other Recommended Sites:  Another site connected with profound national trauma is located less than an hour’s drive from the Johnstown Flood National Memorial. Flight 93 National Memorial is located 37 miles south of the park. The site commemorates the heroic actions of the passengers and crew that brought down United Airlines Flight 93, crashing it into an empty field two miles north of Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in order to foil the plans of terrorists on board.

Wealthy members of the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club would vacation in cottages along
Lake Conemaugh.  This cottage has been restored to reflect its appearance in the days before the flood.
Photo courtesy of the Friends of the Johnstown Flood National Memorial.

Stabilization work in progress at the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club.
Photo courtesy of the Friends of the Johnstown Flood National Memorial.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Wednesday:  Fort Mifflin

© 2013 Lee Price