Pennsylvania
Phillidelphia
Here is Independence Hall, where so much of out history took place in the early years of our country! In this beautiful building the Declaration of Independence was fought over, negotiated and then signed! Tickets are only $1 to get in and see but get your tickets ahead of time because there is a daily limit!
Betsy Ross’s bedroom is in the picture above. I learned so much by going through the tour here! She actually didn’t own this house, she rented her room from a fellow widow. Betsy was a seamstress by trade, which was a very respectable trade at the time for a widow. In the front room on the first floor, was her shop. Here she made curtains, bed sheets, bed curtains, table clothes, shirts, and trousers. Her business got hurt by the boycott of America during the revolution just as other businesses did. But she believed in the American cause. So when Washington came and asked her to design and make the first flag, it wasn’t just an honor, it was business. Flag making at the time was big business. You must remember, flags were hung everywhere at the time to note who ran places: British or French. It wasn’t but a few decades between the French and Indian War till the Revolution. But with dedication to her country also came chances because she had to hide and sew the first flag away from outside eyes. This left her only sewing in the dim light of her bedroom at night causing eye strain. The picture below is notable because these were the stairs in this house, two sets of them! Whatever you do, don’t walk them while tipsy, they really utilized space!
This picture and the one underneath shows Benjamin Franklin’s printing office from where he published so many papers. Those are the cabinets where he kept all the printing letters. While the guys working this museum and showing everyone how the entire machine worked, had made it look easy, the letters can be on the small side. But what is miniscule are the punctuation! They were tiny!
Valley Forge
Dispatchers came and went constantly, into one of two offices that were the two rooms on the first floor. This picture is of Washington’s office. In it you see the table that everyone gathered around to confer over what the continental arm’s movements would be. The picture below was Washington and Martha’s bedroom and dining area.
The house shown above is the tiny house where General Washington wintered and revived his continental arm during the winter of 1777-78. Here in this small house lived Washington, his wife and about 24 aids. Some of those aids had beds in one of the 4 bedrooms, some just slept where they could. While this wasn’t the first winter the Continental Army with stood, it was the hardest. In the picture below are some of the rebuilt buildings that were used as barracks.
