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FIRST CITY
EARLY AMERICAN STUDIES
Daniel K. Richter and Kathleen M. Brown, Series Editors
Exploring neglected aspects of our colonial, revolutionary, and early national history and culture, Early American Studies reinterprets familiar themes and events in fresh ways. Interdisciplinary in character, and with a special emphasis on the period from about 1600 to 1850, the series is published in partnership with the McNeil Center for Early American Studies.
A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher.
FIRST CITY
Philadelphia and the Forging of Historical Memory
GARY B. NASH
University of Pennsylvania Press
PHILADELPHIA
Copyright © 2002, 2006 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
First paperback edition 2006
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112
Text design by Dean Bornstein
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nash, Gary B.
First City: Philadelphia and the forging of historical memory / Gary B. Nash
p. cm. (Early American studies)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8122-1942-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8122-1942-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Historic preservation—Pennsylvania—Philadelphia (Pa.)—History. 2. Memory—Social aspects—Pennsylvania—Philadelphia. 3. Philadelphia (Pa.)—History. 4. Philadelphia (Pa.)—Historiography. 5. Philadelphia (Pa.)—History—Societies, etc. I. Title. II. Series
F158.3 .N37 2001
| 974.8′11′0072073—dc21 | 2001047082 |
For Carol and John Clarke and Gwen
CONTENTS
Introduction · Making History Matter
Chapter 1 · Pieces of the Colonial Past
Chapter 2 · Recalling a Commercial Seaport
Chapter 3 · The Revolution’s Many Faces
Chapter 4 · A New City for a New Nation
Chapter 6 · Reforming Philadelphia
Chapter 7 · In Civil War and Reconstruction
Chapter 8 · Workshop of the World, Schoolhouse of History
INTRODUCTION: MAKING HISTORY MATTER
“Truth is shaped strictly by the needs of those who wish to receive it.”
—Russell Banks, Cloudsplitter (1996)
“Men of literary tastes … are always apt to overlook the working classes and to confine the records they make of their own time, in great degree, to the habits and fortunes of their own associates.… This has made it nearly impossible to discern the very real influence their character and condition has had on the fortune and fate of the nation.”
—Frederick Law Olmsted, A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States (1859)
As many Americans know, the two most important documents in the history of the United States, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of 1787, were drafted and signed at the State House in Philadelphia, now Independence Hall. The city was also the site of the first American paper mill, hospital, medical college, subscription library, street lighting, scientific and intellectual society, bank, and government mint. The city served on and off as the official capital of the country until 1800. Today, we remember less about the significance of Philadelphia to the history of the nation than the record shows. But even the memories lodged in the public mind cannot be taken for granted, and they are far from complete. Indeed, the Philadelphia story could have been written another way; in fact, it has been rewritten many times. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the unearthing of Philadelphia’s past is a thriving business. Today, the long look backward by historians is renovating the public recollection of the city’s past.
Remembering Philadelphia’s bygone days existed from the beginning, as soon as a mother told her children a story about olden times or a father reminded his offspring of his arrival in Penn’s woods. But for a long time the city’s history was passed only informally from one generation to another. No biography of Philadelphia’s founder appeared for almost a century after his death. No city history appeared until Philadelphia was
