Historical Markers/Pennsylvania History


Robyn has received approval from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission for the installation and dedication of eight historic roadside markers in Chester and Delaware Counties in southeastern Pennsylvania commemorating women and local history as follows:

1) Site of 1st Women's Rights Convention held in Pennsylvania in 1852 in West Chester, Pennsylvania at 225 North High Street;

2) Site of Home of Dr. Ann Preston, West Grove, Pennsylvania, who attended the 1852 convention and then went on to become one of the first female physicians in Pennsylvania;

3) Site of Home of Ida Ella Ruth Jones, an African American folk painter known as the "Grandma Moses of Chester County" who lived in Ercildoun, Pennsylvania;

4) Site of the Home of Dr. Charlotte Moore Sitterly, in Ercildoun, Pennsylvania, who became an astrophysicist and astronomer whose calculations of the sun have not been surpassed to this day.

5) The home of Mary Ann Shadd Cary, an African-American, who was born in 1823 in Delaware and moved to West Chester, Pennsylvania, when she was 10 years old. Shadd was the first woman publishers of a newspaper in North America called the "Provincial Freeman." Shadd published the anti-slavery paper from 1853 to 1858 in Windsor, Canada. After serving as a recruiter for black soldiers during the Civil War, Shadd moved to Washington, DC to teach in public schools. At age 46, Shadd became the first woman to enter Howard University's Law School and practiced law until her death in 1893.

6) The site of the Lynching of Zachariah Walker, an African-American steelworker from Worth Brothers Steel who was burned alive by a mob in 1911 in East Fallowfield Township in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Even though 12 men were arrested for their part in the crime and 6 trials were held, no one was ever convicted.

7) The site of Graceanna Lewis's childhood school called the Kimberton Boarding School in Kimberton, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Lewis was a humanitarian whose entire family worked on the Underground Railroad. She was also a scientist who studied flora and fauna in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

8) The home of the Reverend Dr. Anna Howard Shaw in Moylan, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Shaw was a friend of Susan B. Anthony and worked tirelessly for the suffrage movement her entire life.

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