Philadelphia’s First Catholic Cathedral
...races its history to 1763, when a second church was needed for the growing number of Catholics in the city. Built on land originally bought to serve as a cemetery for Old St. Joseph’s, Old St. Mary’s was referred to as “Mission Number 1” as St. Joseph’s was seen as
Thomas Nast Anti-Irish Cartoons
Among the recently digitized images added to our online collection are a number of drawings by cartoonist Thomas Nast. In 1846 at the age of six, Nast immigrated with his mother to the United States and by age 15 he had begun drawing for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated News.[1] He joined
Recently Processed Collection: John Gilmary Shea Correspondence
...z in the Children’s Catholic Magazine. It wasn't until the 1850s when Shea really began his work in American Catholic history. Between 1852 and 1855, Shea published several scholarly works that were critically acclaimed: Discovery and Exploration of Mississippi Valley (1852), History of the Catholic Missions Among the Indian Tribes
The Day the Bronx Bomber Played in Kensington
...profit. These thoughts may just be nostalgic longing for a time that never really existed. But there are stories that illustrate there once were simpler times. One of these stories took place in a Catholic parish in Philadelphia and involved the greatest baseball player of his time. During the 1920s,