The Battle of Antietam: a Philadelphia soldier’s experience

This past Monday, September 17, marked the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest single-day battle in American history. The 69th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, with which Philadelphia native William C. White served, participated in this harrowing conflict. Several letters that White wrote to his parents shortly after

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“An Appeal to Truth”

As a volunteer here at PAHRC for the summer, I’ve been cataloging the pamphlet collection. One of the first pamphlets I dealt with immediately caught my attention. Entitled “An Appeal to Truth”, it was written in 1915 by Cardinal Mercier, who was then serving as the Archbishop of Malines (Mechelen)

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Josephine Walsh (center) on her way to Europe, July 1900

A “petulant girl”?: Josephine Walsh’s diaries

I’ve been volunteering at PAHRC this summer, and am currently creating an inventory for two artificial collections: “handwritten manuscripts” and “manuscripts books.” It appears that many of the items in these collections were removed from manuscript collections.For instance, many of the items that I’ve come across were created by Josephine

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Portrait photograph of Robert M. O'Reilly, circa 1870

A lengthy and active military career

I recently finished processing the Robert M. O'Reilly papers (MC 34) which document a good portion of O'Reilly's career as a surgeon for the U.S. Army. O'Reilly's appointment as surgeon general of the army, a position he held from 1902 until  his retirement in 1909, was the last in a

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