Posts by Pamela
Celebrating the Fourth of July
Here in the United States, we’re heading into the July 4th weekend–a holiday that expands or contracts depending on where in the week it falls. It’s also a holiday where the meaning of what we are celebrating is often lost in the celebration itself. In the past I’ve used this post to remind all of…
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Molly Pitcher(s?)
In 1876, caught up in the patriotic excitement of the first centennial of the American Revolution, the people of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, raised a stone inscribed “Molly Pitcher” over the previously unmarked grave of a local resident, Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley (ca. 1754–1832). In the years before her death, Hays claimed to have served at the…
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In Pursuit–Version 2
The phrase “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is, I believe, one of the few portions of the Declaration of Independence that most Americans can recite from memory.[1] It is no surprise that two groups have chosen “In Pursuit” as the title for history-based projects For America 250. I reviewed one of those projects…
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