Contained in:Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society.Volume 85, number 4 (1981), p. 132-151Lancaster History Library - Journal974.9 L245 v.85
The Linden Hall Seminary Collection contains school catalogs and Linden Hall Echo, the school yearbook. Other items include financial records, fundraising information, school workbooks, and a diploma from 1886.
Admin/Biographical History
Linden Hall Seminary is a girls' school located in Lititz, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1742 by the Moravian community, it is the oldest continuously operated girls' school in the United States.
Preferred Citation: Title or description of item, date (day, month, year), Linden Hall Seminary Collection (MG0010), Folder #, LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Access Conditions / Restrictions
No restrictions.
Copyright
Collection may not be photocopied. Please direct questions to Research Center Staff at research@lancasterhistory.org.
Permission for reproduction and/or publication must be obtained in writing from LancasterHistory.
Credit
Courtesy of LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Other Numbers
MG-10
Classification
MG0010
Description Level
Fonds
Custodial History
This collection was cataloged prior to 1997; added to database 8 Febraury 2018.
The John Wise and History of Ballooning Collection contains material about John Wise, a pioneering balloonist from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and the history of ballooning. Articles written by and about John Wise provide information about the man and his career. The bulk of Series 1 is correspondence, research notes, and drafts of "The John Wise Story," by John H. Andrews. Series 2 contains material about the ballooning hobby, other early aircraft, and the history of air mail.
Admin/Biographical History
As an adventurous and inquisitive young boy, John Wise was drawn to the skies above his native Lancaster County. He was fascinated by aerial pursuits and began to conduct experiments. He tied his cat to his homemade parachute and observed the cat's safe descent from a local church steeple.
A keen interest in ballooning developed and Wise became a famous aeronaut. Although balloon ascensions were common at county fairs and carnivals he had never observed an ascension before he made his first one in Philadelphia in 1835. John Wise completed 462 balloon ascensions including Lancaster ascensions from Penn Square and the prison yard.
In the nineteenth century many ascensions were made just for the novelty of the event, but John Wise's approach was from a scientific perspective. Each ascension gave him a chance to conduct scientific investigations of the atmosphere, pneumatics and hydrostatics.
It also gave him the opportunity to develop a more advanced flying machine. Wise was the first to observe the "great river of air which always blows from west to east" in the higher regions of the atmosphere. Today we call this phenomenon the jet stream. He also developed the ripcord safety mechanism.
John Wise promoted the advantages of balloon transportation. In 1843 he conceived a project for crossing the Atlantic Ocean and asked Congress to appropriate $15,000 for the project. Congress rejected the appropriation. Wise suggested a plan to bomb the Castle at Vera Cruz during the Mexican War and during the Civil War the Bureau of Topographical Engineers requested his services as a balloonist. He is credited with the first airmail transportation in 1859.
Detailed descriptions of his ascensions and experiments are found in his book, Through the Air, published in 1873. The last ascent of John Wise took place on September 29, 1879 from St. Louis, Missouri. This flight ended disastrously in Lake Michigan where his balloon fell and his remains lie.
Prepared by the Lancaster County Historical Society, ca. 1995.
Collection contains the research materials of R. Harold Barton on the mills and bridges of Lancaster County. Included are field notes, working papers, photographer's negatives, and postcards. Indexes are available listing mills by name and location, and bridges by name.
Four notebooks are the finished product of the mills and bridges research of R. Harold Barton. These notebooks are in the library under Barton, R. Harold on the online catalog (LC621.85, B283, v.1-v.4). The notebooks constitute 1 cubic ft. of the collection.
The remaining six boxes are located within the manuscript collection. These boxes house working papers, field notes, worksheets, notebooks, photographs, negatives, additional albums of photographs and other miscellaneous material relating to Lancaster County bridges and mills.
Mr. Barton uses a numerical system to locate bridges and mills by township or by the names of the streams, rivers, runs and creeks. Three indexes have been prepared: one lists the bridges by name, one the location by town or townships, and one the names of the mills.
There are a few notes related to Lancaster County gunsmiths, missionaries, and Indian traders.
System of Arrangement
Collection is arranged by township, number, and index.
