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Mysterious Creatures of Colonial America

The subject of undiscovered aquatic, subterranean or terrestrial animal life throughout the world is a topic receiving an increasing amount of attention by scientists and the lay public alike. New species are constantly being discovered from remote areas in such familiar places as Vietnam, to the depths of the Amazon River in South America, resulting in the verification of local legends, oral traditions and myths of various indigenous peoples.
Hidden Histories
2/24/10
'Young at Heart' or 'Robbing the Cradle?'

On May 31, 2004 at the age of 97, Alberta Martin, the last surviving widow of an American Civil War soldier passed away at Enterprise, Alabama. She was only one of many young women who had married much older men who fought as soldiers in America's greatest military conflict.
Hidden Histories
2/1/10
Shackshoone: a Mysterious Native-American in 17th-century England

The presence of Native-Americans in Europe, as a result of European contact, is of course a well attested fact of history. From the time of Columbus forward, many went as guests, some as slaves, and others resided on the European continent as servants throughout the days of early exploration in the Western Hemisphere as well as during the period of Colonial-American history.
Hidden Histories
1/25/10
Comments: 1
'Hanging by a Thread' or 'Between a Rock & a Hard Place!'

There are many sayings still current in modern English, in reference to being in an unwanted position or predicament, such as the following: 'stuck between a rock & a hard place; hanging by a thread; between the Devil and the deep blue sea; or 'the wolf is at the door,' the latter usually mentioned in reference to someone's dire economic conditions.
Hidden Histories
12/14/09
With a Stake in the Heart: Suicides or 'Self-Murder' and a Peculiar Custom

During the Civil War in September of 1863, one Margaret Tinney, age 23, a native of New Jersey residing on Trout Street in Philadelphia, committed suicide by taking a large "horse pistol," which she promptly placed within her mouth, then "pulled the trigger," after which the "upper part of her head was almost entirely blown off." A few days later she would be buried in Lafayette Cemetery, with her 'official' cause of death being listed as: "suicide by shooting."
Hidden Histories
12/3/09
Please join us at Fondly, Pennsylvania

While our work on the Chew project has been completed for some time now, we at HSP continue to work hard on many other archives and conservation projects to make our collections accessible and available to the public.

You can read more about our work on collections like the Friends of the Benjamin Franklin House, the Allen Family Papers, A.A. Humphreys, George Meade, and many others at our new blog Fondly, Pennsylvania. Please join us!

Chew Family Papers
11/13/09
The Supernatural or Insanity? Dark Voices & Visitations from an Unseen World?

In June of 2004, in Monmouth County, New Jersey, a man decapitated & 'dismembered' his grandmother and girl friend, purportedly "acting on orders from God," though he referred to the home where the heinous acts transpired, as "the gateway to Hell," while a mother of five in 2001, drowned her five children in a bathtub in Texas, stating later that "Satan was talking to her. ..She had seen images of Satan in the walls, in the cinder blocks of her cell."
Hidden Histories
10/29/09
Comments: 1
Quaker Traveler Ann Mifflin & her 'Cave of Skeletons' in 1802

During the Colonial period and well within the 19th-century, as the early American pioneers plowed their land, cleared trees from property containing vast virgin forests, dug wells and explored the frontier, numerous ancient works of the former inhabitants of North America were continually brought to light in the form of burial mounds, fortifications, skeletons and mysterious artifacts.
Hidden Histories
9/28/09
A Chew Celebration

Please Join Us for "A Chew Celebration" at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107.

Chew Family Papers
9/25/09
Serpents in the Stomach: A 19th-Century Medical Nightmare or Figment of the Imagination?

In an 1818 publication, by famed Philadelphia physician & Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Dr. Benjamin Rush, entitled, Medical Inquiries & Observations, Upon the Diseases of the Mind, he included the account of a patient, who "believes he has a living animal in his body. A sea captain, formerly of this city, believed for many years that he had a wolf in his liver. Many persons have fancied they were gradually dying, from animals of other kinds preying upon different parts of their bodies," (p.80).
Hidden Histories
8/24/09