When many people think of the harvest, they think of autumn. But another important time for gathering crops, not to be forgotten, takes place in the heat of the summer! Read More
historic site
William’s World: Make Your Mark
“One drop of ink makes thousands, perhaps millions think…” – Lord Byron Although from different centuries, Lord Byron and William Penn shared a common tie: the fervent use of the quill pen Read More
17th Century Child-Rearing: It’s A Hard-Knock Life
Here at Pennsbury Manor we just finished our annual Colonial Summer Camp, and boy did they have fun! This summer camp features a number of activities that were common to Read More
William’s World: To Butter and Beyond
Just as in the time of William Penn, the work was never done, and so too do we find our fourth post in regards to Dairying! Our first posts covered the Read More
The Country Life: Growing our Clothes
As the summer heat drags on, we turn our focus to an important crop we’ve been growing in the Kitchen Garden: flax. This reed-like plant has been used for thousands Read More
William’s World: We’re So Cheesy
We’ve recently been discussing just how important dairying was, first as a career for the idyllic milkmaids and as a country business that was transported into towns (resulting in a more convenient, but poorer Read More
Penn’s Pen: A Government of Freedom
On Sunday we honored William Penn’s early hopes for a land of freedom. Now we want to highlight the personal freedoms he made into law, just before sailing to his Read More
Penn’s Pen: Caretaker of a New World
In honor of our upcoming Independence Day, we thought it fitting to share some of William Penn’s thoughts. In the letter excerpt below, Penn had just received the Charter from King Charles II and Read More
William’s World: Men of Metal and Mettle
Back in May, we posted an article on the Joyner’s Trade. Now our intern Ray is exploring the blacksmithing tradition at Pennsbury and wants to share what he’s found! A Read More
William’s World: Hi-Ho the Dairy-O!
“My cow is a commonwealth to me… for she allows myself, my wife and son for to banquet ourselves withal.” ~ Food in Early Modern England A while back, we posted Read More