The Fulton Opera House Collection contains programs, tickets, and schedules for public performances and events at the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The programs list cast members and celebrities, as well as advertising for businesses and sponsoring organizations. The collection also includes a booklet from the theatre's centenary celebration in 1952 and items related to the Landmark Campaign to restore and renovate the theatre in 1995.
"None of the well-dressed crowd that gathered on the Hudson River side of Lower Manhattan on the hot afternoon of August 17, 1808, could have known the importance of the object they had come to see and, mostly, deride: Robert Fulton's new steamboat, the North River, the boat that is frequently - and wrongly - remembered as the Clermont. But, as Kirkpatrick Sale shows in this biography of Fulton, the North River's successful four-day round-trip to Albany proved a technology that would transform nineteenth-century America, open up the interior to huge waves of settlers, create and sustain industrial and plantation economies in the nation's heartland, and destroy the remaining Indian civilizations and most of the wild lands on which they depended. The North River's four-day trip introduced the machines and culture that marked the birth of the Industrial Revolution in America. The Fire of His Genius tells the story of the extraordinarily driven and ambitious inventor who brought all this about, probing into the undoubted genius of his mind but, too, laying bare the darker side of the man - and the darker side of the American dream that inspired him."--BOOK JACKET.
"Hosted by the Southern Lancaster County Historical Society and our many friends from Lancaster's "Southern End.'"
Contains local advertisements.
Contains bibliographic references.
Contents
Fulton's early years -- Southern Lancaster County Historical Society -- Events of the day -- Map of celebration events -- Robert Fulton the painter -- Index of advertisers -- Joseph Swift family -- Robert Fulton in Paris -- Robert Fulton's Clermont -- For further reading -- L. O. & S. Railroad at the centennial -- Press clippings from 1909 -- Committee members -- Clermont bicentennial sponsors.
Historic structures Survey and Determination of Eligibility Report : East Lampeter, Leacock, Strasburg, Paradise, Salisbury, and Sadsbury Townships, Lancaster County, Pensylvania
Chapters: Pennsylvania roots --Many, many a silant solitary hour --A prospect of considerable profits --An adventurer armed with fortitude --A curious machine for mending politics -- Works of genius and utility -- Wifey, hub, and toot -- Steamboat experiments -- Un succes complet et brillant -- Alias Robert Francis -- Mine is no common cause -- America -- Hudson River triumphs -- Monopolies are justly held as odious -- All the weight on one fulcrum -- The happiness of the earth -- The cupidity of many -- Fickle fortune -- Two such friends -- Useful and honorable amusements -- The nation's benefactor -- Stag at bay.
Summary
Born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Fulton flourished in Philadelphia, London, Paris and New York City. Contemporary letters, diaries, paintings and drawings were used in the writing of this book. Fulton begins as a fine arts painter, and then moves on to engineering. He develops the world's first steamboat service, thrusting America to the forefront of the Industrial Revolution. At the same time, he invents a means of raising boats on canals and a system of submarine warfare. Fulton's pursuit of fame and fortune is played out against the backdrop of the American and French revolutions, the Napoleonic wars, the Jefferson administration and the War of 1812. The book shows the extraordinary array of artists, scientists, diplomats, businessmen, and intriguing women with whom he interacted.
