PENNSYLMANIA

EPISODE 19: DEATH IN YELLOW, PART 2. In 1793, the U.S. capital Philadelphia was struck by a terrible yellow fever epidemic, one that caused President George Washington and Congress to flee the City, which ultimately lost 10% of its population to the disease. In our last episode, we met three notable Philadelphians of the Early American period. Most famous among them was Dr. Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence, physician to America’s founding fathers, and one of the most prom

EPISODE 18: DEATH IN YELLOW, PART ONE. It was perhaps the greatest calamity of the newly constituted United States, and it struck the capital city. In 1793, an epidemic of yellow fever decimated Philadelphia, and caused President George Washington and Congress to flee the City. By the end of the outbreak, about 10% of the city’s population had died of the disease. Three important people stayed in the City to tend the sick and combat the disease: Dr. Benjamin Rush, a founding father later known a

EPISODE 17: THE PITTSBURGH LINEUP CARD. On September 1, 1971, something unusual happened at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. The game that night – between the Pittsburgh Pirates and their home-state rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies – started at 8:05pm when Dock Ellis, the Pirates’ pitcher, strode to the mound. From where he stood, he could have looked from the outfield to the infield to the catcher and noticed that every one of his starting teammates was Black or Latino, including superstars

EPISODE 16: THE LIVE AID CONCERT. At dual press conferences in London and New York City on Monday, June 10, 1985, it was announced that in just one month’s time there would be a 17-hour, two-stadium, benefit concert for famine relief in Ethiopia. The bicontinental event, to be called Live Aid, was organized by Irish musician Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats. It would feature a “global jukebox” of over 40 of the top stars in British and American music, from Mick Jagger, Elton John, Queen, David Bo

EPISODE 15: HESS'S OF ALLENTOWN. This is the story of the Pennsylvania department store that for several decades was more well known and more glamorous than the city in which it was located – Hess’s of Allentown. The brothers Hess founded their dry goods store in Center City Allentown in 1897. By 1929, it had grown to become a large department store at the same location. By this time, both Hess brothers had died, leaving Max Hess, Jr., their 18-year-old heir. Max, Jr, would turn out to be one of

EPISODE 14: REVOLUTION ON $33,000 A DAY, PART 3. This is the concluding episode in our three-part series on the financing and supply logistics of the American Revolution. It begins with financial and monetary crises having hit both the Continental Congress and the Pennsylvania Assembly. The Continental Congress has created the new role of Superintendent of Finance, and named Robert Morris to the position. Morris and his aides made several major reforms. They solved the army’s supply problems thr