Ribbon from the 10th reunion of the veterans of the 45th Pa. Volunteers held at State College, PA on 26 September 1919. Likely attended by Blanton C. Welsh.
Provenance
Provenance: Passed down through the family, Blanton Charles Welsh to Emilie Benson (Welsh) Wiggin to Nancy Jane (Wiggin) Townsend.
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This ribbon was in an envelope which contained item numbrs #24-#31.
Credit
Courtesy of LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
1A: Wooden lift latch, 8 1/2 inches long, with 2 drilled holes in it and a cord tied through it. Written in pencil on back "Riot house door latch" .
1B: Bottom part of wooden latch, tapered, with notch in thick end to receive lift latch. 6 inches long, with two screw holes in it, mounted vertically with notch at upper end. On the back in pencil "Latch of…" covered up by a pasted-on newsclipping: "Historical Society Meeting. A number of new names proposed for membership - Christiana Relic Received. The stated October meeting of the Lancaster County Historical Society was held at the Free Library on Fri-" Paper ends there.-
Upholstered wingback commode chair has four turned Sheraton legs. Has replacement of original soiled handsewn homespun linen (remnants in this file), now an orange fabric with potted and vining flower design. Solid pinewood seat under cushion has center hole with fitted removable wooden disc.
This chair was from the Pownall home at Gap, where it was used by Dickinson Gorsuch, Maryland slaveholder, during his recovery from wounds sustained during the Christiana Riot of Sept. 11, 1851. His father and two others were killed during the skirmish at the home of freedman William Parker, and Dickinson was transported to the Pownall home for recovery. William Parker later published his story in the "Atlantic Monthly" in 1866, making it highly publicized.
This incident "is an important example of the struggle over the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act and the escalating tension between the North and the South. This act gave slave owners broad powers to recapture runaway slaves". (ExplorePAhistory.com)
Polaroid photos of chair before re-upholstery, in file.
Likely Lancaster or Chester Co.
Provenance
Provenance: Chair owned by the Pownall family & given in 1973 to the Lancaster County Historical Society by Mrs. Levi Pownall of Lancashire Hall (569-7279).
It was initially loaned to the Heritage Center (# L.77.9 and # 161.64.80) but soon donated to HCLC. Board minutes of Dec. 8, 1975 include Richard F. Smith's Museum Committee report noting a donation of a "Sheraton armed wing chair commode, used by the Pownall home in nursing Dickinson Gorsuch following Christiana Riot in 1851." Later unsigned note (Bruce Shoemaker?) states John Aungst of LCHS was consulted & chair was removed 11/9/84 from list on LCHS loan form, settling an apparent question of ownership.
four squares of hard tack. One square had been broken. Found in envelope which reads, "Hard tack given to Milton S. Royer Company L. Pennsylvania (near Middletown), 6th Volunteers, Camp Meade, August, 27, 1898." Made from flour, water, and salt.
Pieced quilt of silks, cotton batting, glazed cotton back, cut in 2 halves, made by Quaker Deborah Simmons Coates, wife of Lindley Coates (1794-1856). Has 19 horizontal bands of dress silks (many produced by Harmonist Community) in alternating triangles arranged in Birds in the Air or Flying Geese pattern using the template method. Large triangles of varying patterns alternate with large triangles with 3 smaller appliqued triangles of contrasting patterns. Colors are browns, tans, beiges, electric and royal blue, peach and green. Each quilt half has a green silk binding on the three outside edges, and tan silk on the inner vertical cut edge. Quilting patterns are clamshell, diamond, cross in a square and diagonals.
At quilt center is a cream-colored triangle with an abolitionist stamp depicting a kneeling enslaved Black male in chains over the words: "Deliver me from the oppression/ of man." This stamped triangle was cut in two when quilt was divided; image now hidden by modern binding. According to Cuesta Benberry research, this image of a kneeling enslaved person originated with the English ceramic firm of Wedgwood in the late 1700s. See items 08.242 and 42.76.11 in the collectiosn of Metropolitan Museum of Art for seals with a similar motif. The Wedgwood family were ardent abolitionists, decorating various ceramics with this image, resulting in its rapid adoption by American anti-slavery groups. Used in many forms and media over the years, it remains the logo of the still-existing Pennsylvania Abolition Society and appears on organization's official publications.
Lindley and Deborah Coates, of West Grove, Chester Co., married there on 12/16/1819 but lived near Christiana in Sadsbury Twp., Lancaster Co. They attended Sadsbury Friends Meeting House near Christiana. Ardent abolitionists, their home was what is now designated station #5 on the Underground Railway. Lindley became President of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1840, before William Lloyd Garrison. Deborah Coates became a Hicksite Quaker minister according to historian Beverly Wilson Palmer. Hicksites were the more radical Quakers, named after leader Elias Hicks.
Provenance
Quilt passed to son Simmons (1821-1862) & wife Emeline Jackson. (Deborah Coates lived w/ widow Emeline on her Chester Co. farm (Evergreen Hall in West Grove) for many years following Simmon's 1862 death. See census records). Descent to their daughter Elizabeth Jackson Coates who married Marriott Brosius, U.S. congressman from Lancaster. The quilt was then divided between their two daughters, donor's maternal grandmother Graceanna Brosius Biddle and her sister Gertrude Coho Reinhartson. The two halves were then reunited when given to donor, Marjorie Ayars Laidman. Deborah S. Coates was donor's great great great grandmother.
Overall good condition. Two halves of quilt (with recent inside binding on cut edges) are "mounted" on cotton muslin, side-by-side. Silks show significant deterioration -- cracking, splitting and abrasion -- with some losses. Binding also has deterioration with some losses. (See 1985-86 condition report by conservator Linnea Davis.)
Documented in Quilt Harvest #448-B (records in Archives).
Object ID
G.86.05
Place of Origin
Sadsbury Twp.
Credit
Gift of Marjorie A. Laidman, Heritage Center Collection
Pennsylvania Long Rifle; percussion cap; curly maple stock; iron barrel stamped "H. GIBBS" on top of barrel. Brass fittings and patch box. Some rust on iron and brass parts. Approximately .40 caliber muzzle. 44" barrel with an overall length of 61 inches.
See notes for information on Gibbs.
Provenance
Purchased by donor (Walt Dunlap) at auction in Lancaster County in 1956.
Henry Gibb Sr. and his son Henry Gibb were Lancaster City gunsmiths active for most of the nineteenth century. The father from 1812 until 1843 and the son from 1843 until 1880.
Place of Origin
Lancaster
Credit
Courtesy of LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Cape has finely over cast lower edge. Cape is fully lined with black wool with hemmed lower edge, tacked to outer cape every 8 to 15 inches.
Black wool collar with black velvet stiched to top side.
Underneath collar are two metal threaded pins that anchor metal ends with a chain for hanging the cape. This chain (3 inches) is inside at the neck above a label:
"JACOB REED'S SONS PHILADELPHIA"
2 ornate black cord frogs (7 inches in length) with a loop on the end to loop arouind a cord (2 inches). One on both sides. Sturdy hook and loop at neck.