Above: The Bangor, first iron steamer in America, built 1843-4 In 1842 the Wilmington outfit Betts, Pusey and Harlan, a builder of railroad cars, was a modest 20 person operation. That was all about to dramatically change, when Samuel Harlan accepted a repair job on the iron cylinder of the wooden steamboat Sun from Captain…
Above: Edward Williams Clay, Skaters on the Delaware River at Philadelphia, 1831 / National Museum of American History “Amidst the dreariness of wintry winds and chilling frosts that have stripped the rugged oak of its foliage,” begins memoirist Elizabeth Montgomery, on the topic of early 19th century Wilmington, DE winters, “that have disrobed all inanimate…
Plenty of people throughout history have faked their death in order to get out from under debt or a bad romance. But writing an elaborate letter about being lost at sea, stuffing it in a bottle, tossing it into the ocean, then hoping someone finds it? Seems like a dicey way to announce your demise.…
In 1905 tuberculosis (TB) killed four times as many people nationwide as typhoid fever. It was more lethal than diphtheria. 56,770 Americans died from it that year, the highest rate of death for any one disease. In Wilmington, DE about 150-200 people died from it annually. There was a tremendous amount of misinformation about the…
