History

Four journeys by early Americans Mary Rowlandson, Sarah Kemble Knight, William Byrd II, and Dr. Alexander Hamilton recount the vivid physical and psychological challenges of colonial life. Essential primary texts in the study of early American cultural...

A richly illustrated guide to the Ottoman Empire, 100 years since its dissolution, unravelling its complex cultural legacy and profound impact on Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. At its height, the Ottoman Empire spread from Yemen to the gates...

An authentic, rich tapestry of women’s lives in colonial America. Using a host of primary sources, author Brandon Marie Miller recounts the roles, hardships, and daily lives of Native American, European, and African women in 17th- and 18th-century...

Build one of the most iconic and elegant forms in American furniture history. Expert furniture crafter Kubalak teaches how to craft a reproduction of one of the most highly embellished and finest examples ever made. Using step-by-step photos, Kubalak...

Philadelphia is a city of neighborhoods and Fairmount is among its most famous.  But you know it for the Parkway and the museums.  Did you know it is also home to a ghostly history?  Eastern State Penitentiary has had countless reports of...

The Pulitzer Prize-winning history that transforms a single event in 1722 into an unparalleled portrait of early America.  In the winter of 1722, on the eve of a major conference between the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee (also known as the...

Ossman & Steel’s Guide to Health or Household Instructor  (its original title) is a collection of spells, remedies, and charms.  The book draws from the old Pennsylvania Dutch and German powwow healing  practices that in turn...

Long before Philadelphia’s food scene was splashed on covers of Bon Appétit and local establishments garnered accolades like “America’s best  restaurant,” culinary pioneers set the city’s restaurant industry ablaze. Frenchman Georges Perrier brought...

The Greek myths are timeless classics, whose scenes and figures have captivated us since ancient times. The gods and heroes of these legends hold up a mirror to the human condition, embodying universal characteristics and truths – whether it be the...

An illustrated guide to the fantastic world of Japanese myths: retelling the stories and exploring how Japanese mythology has changed over time, as new gods, heroes, and spirits have entered the  canon. While people around the world love Japan’s...

Interested in history and traditional pioneer kitchens, early cooking  methods, and original metals used in pots during the early years of  America, Sara became obsessed with the crafts of copper- and tin-smithing for kitchenware—specialty...

In Delaware society at the beginning of this period, to be a woman meant to engage in the activities performed by women, including diplomacy, rather than to be defined by biological sex. Among the Delaware, being a "woman" was therefore a...

This book is the first to chronicle the lives of African American women in the urban north during the early years of the republic. A Fragile Freedom  investigates how African American women in Philadelphia journeyed from enslavement to the...

Marital status was a fundamental legal and cultural feature of women's identity in the eighteenth century. Free women who were not married could own property and make wills, contracts, and court appearances,  rights that the law of coverture...

Lenape Country is a sweeping narrative history of the multiethnic society of the Delaware Valley in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. After Swanendael, the Natives, Swedes, and Finns avoided war by focusing on trade and forging strategic...

Barns are iconic features of the American landscape.  Among the wide variety of American barns, the Pennsylvania barn holds a special place in the agricultural traditions of North America. Combining features found in Alpine Switzerland and the...

In the annals of popular protest in America, these have been shining  hours, achieved entirely outside the conventional arena of orderly  protest, white paper activism and the timid bleats of the professional leadership of big labor...

Long out of print, this seminal collection of essays and photographs by artist, theorist and filmmaker, Allan Sekula was originally published by the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1984. Sekula sought to portray the inextricable bond between...