Inoculating America: Smallpox and the American Revolution

“We shall continue the utmost Vigilance against this most dangerous Enemy,” wrote George Washington in a letter to John Hancock on the 21st of July, 1775, after receiving command of the Continental Army. Washington certainly had many dangerous enemies to consider:...

Back to School In Towamencin

A 19th century map of Towamencin Township. Locations of schools are marked with a red arrow. The Township of Towamencin was formally established in 1728; local landowners (including Edward Morgan) petitioned Philadelphia County to create the township (Montgomery...

Women of the Morgan Log House

To celebrate the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment, we thought we would share what we know about the women that lived at the Log House property. We know less about the women that lived here because, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, men were...

Visualizing the Diaries: Tools of the Historian

Often, we think of history as being done by looking at documents and material artifacts and using them to make inferences about what happened in the past. Historians do that a lot, and it remains to be the most effective tool for learning about the past. With the rise...

The Log House’s Revolutionary War Veterans

Even though they occupied the building we now know as the Morgan Log House longer than any other family, little is known about the Cassel family, who occupied the home from 1774 to 1873. What information we have we gleaned about Yellis and Elizabeth Cassel, their...