Poor Mary Mallon, as misunderstood today as she was a hundred years ago. Notoriously known as “Typhoid Mary,” she was a seemingly healthy, determined woman who immigrated from Ireland at a time when just being Irish was enough to arouse suspicion and social rejection. Being female and being poor added to her problems. Through no […]
October 6 marks the anniversary of the marriage of Sir William Keith to Ann Newbury Diggs which occurred in 1704 at The Collegiate Church of St. Katharine by the Tower – a medieval church next to the Tower of London. While the church was demolished in 1825, it was rebuilt from 1826-28 as St. Katharine’s in Regeant’s […]
Written by Margaret Marshall Strawbridge, September 25, 1929 I am basking in the sunshine, gray squirrels are skipping along the fence, a proud hen is cackling from the barn yard, the starlings and blackbirds are whistling to each other from the branches above me and the woods near by. I am living in memory [of] […]
Dr. Thomas Graeme died on the grounds of Graeme Park on September 4, 1772 on the day Elizabeth had decided to tell him of her secret marriage to Henry Hugh Ferugusson. She wrote: I sat on the bench at the window and watched him coming up the avenue. It was a terrible task to prepare. […]
Join us for a theatrical, historically-based séance in the spooky, candlelit parlor of the Keith House at Graeme Park. The experience will be conducted in the style of an early 20th century séance when “mediums” and “psychics” took advantage of those for whom death was a very near experience, perhaps having recently lost loved ones […]
Bring a picnic lunch and join us for a free scoop of ice cream, reading of the Declaration of Independence, and some 4th of July trivia, followed by a free walk-through tour of the Keith House. Kids (and adults) can try their hand at writing with a quill pen just like the signers of the […]
“My family went to church with Margaret at the Church of the Messiah in Gwynedd PA in the 1950’s and 60’s. She always wore a lovely hat. When someone inquired why she did this, she said “I think the Lord wants us to look our best”. She was a great support and friend to all […]
On this day in Graeme Park history, 1766, Elizabeth’s only remaining sibling, Ann Graeme Stedman passed away of an unknown, painful disease: the air “pierced with her departing Crys.” Elizabeth believed she’d died of a broken heart, mourning their mother, who had died 10 months prior. “She saw good Anna go: her gentle Soul / […]
On this day in Graeme Park History, 1801, Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson passed away at the home of Seneca Lukens, the clockmaker and friend with whom she stayed at the end of her life. Her friend Betsy Stedman composed the following letter to her cousin Deborah Senior in Jamaica informing her of the sad news: Dear […]
FROM THE ARCHIVES: This photograph of the parlor was taken in 1869 by John Moran and is held by the Library Company of Philadelphia. John Moran (February, 1831 – February 19, 1902) was a prominent landscape, architectural, astronomical and expedition photographer whose career began in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area during the 1860s. Moran was the […]