Patrick Coad, patentee of the galvanic battery, and interesting miscellaneous items

I am almost finished processing a small collection, Patrick Coad Family Papers (MC 37). An online finding aid will soon be available. Patrick Coad, undated Patrick Coad (1783-1872), an Irish immigrant who settled in Philadelphia, was the first American patentee of a graduated galvanic battery with insulated poles. Coad was

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Newman Centers

University of Pennsylvania 1918 Newman Centers play a vital role in the spiritual growth of Catholics who attend non-Catholic universities and colleges. The history of such centers is traced back to the University of Pennsylvania. In the year 1893, five students formed the first Newman Club with the purpose of

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Anti-Catholicism in Jacksonian Philadelphia

Anti-Catholicism was present in America since its founding though, by the early 19th century it had become “largely rhetorical.” The influx of Catholic immigrants, however, as well as the increasingly aggressive and authoritarian stance of the papacy, which became more outspoken in its denunciations of modernism and liberalism, established a

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The Bishop’s Bank

...n the wake of the potato famine in Ireland in the mid 1840's, thousands of Irish-Catholic immigrants poured into the city of Philadelphia. Although looked at with suspicion by the native population, these immigrants met the needs of a rapidly growing city looking for a pool of ready labor. Irishmen

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