Call Number:

3443

Repository:

Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Extent:

1.0 linear feet (; 5 volumes)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate cited item or series here], A History of Philadelphia (scrapbooks) by Thompson Westcott (Collection 3443), The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Date:

circa 1867-circa 1884

Creator:

Westcott, Thompson

Abstract:

Full title: A History of Philadelphia, From the Time of the First Settlements on the Delaware to the Consolidation of the City and Districts in 1854. A scarce and virtually unique presentation of the first appearance of Westcott's History of Philadelphia, pasted in its original newsprint form into five scrapbooks of approx. 250 pages each. Five scrapbooks, each containing in triple-column form the original text as published in the Philadelphia Sunday Dispatch between 1867 and 1884. Westcott completed the history to circa 1826.

Thompson Westcott (b. June 5, 1820) emerged from a legal career as one of Philadelphia’s leading journalists and editors which gave birth to a lengthy series on the history of Philadelphia covering 217 years. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Charles (1785-1841) and Hannah (1780-1870) Westcott. Primarily known as a journalist, Westcott served as a legal apprentice from age 12 to 17 with Charles M. Page. His formal education was completed at the University of Pennsylvania in English and law for which he was subsequently admitted to the bar in 1841.

When he first started writing he contributed more humorous pieces to the St. Louis Reveille, New York Mirror, and Knickerbocker Magazine all under the pen name Joe Miller Jr. His more serious writings and editorial work first appeared in the Public Ledger in 1846 where he served as a legal reporter, and acted as editor to the Dollar Newspaper. Quite influenced by his work there, and interactions with other journalists in the city, Westcott wrote and did editorial work for several papers including The Sunday Dispatch (1848-1884) , Philadelphia Inquirer (1863-1871), Philadelphia Record (1884), and the Commercial List.

Westcott spends the majority of his career at the Sunday Dispatch, thirty-six years. This paper was the first Sunday weekly published in the city. It is here that he begins composing a series of articles on the “History of Philadelphia.” The first article that appears in 1854 opens with a contrastive view of “Philadelphia’s” landscape then, with its previous state whereupon Henry Hudson and other European explorers’ settled. “The green forest has disappeared, and in its place have arisen lofty piles of brick and marble. The stillness and quiet which reigned in the solitudes beneath those shadowy old pines have fled forever, and in their places have arisen the clang and the roar and the tumult of a mighty city.” Further he wrote, “The red man is gone—and in his stead have come pale men and dark men from other countries and climes beyond the sea, of different races and of varied language, but still gradually blending with and augmenting the mighty mass of human life now congregated upon this spot, where, but about one hundred and eighty five years ago, reigned the silence and solitude of the unbroken woods.” The last entry in this series of compositions concludes with an elaborate description of infantry soldiers uniforms, apart of his discussion of contemporary customs and social arrangements in 1826. He retires from the Sunday Dispatch in 1884 with his last news article on April 20th.

Thompson Westcott died in 1888 in Philadelphia. He and his wife, Mary Seiser (1833-1900), were wedded there in 1853. They had two children Thompson Seiser Westcott (1862-1833), who studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania later becoming a leading pediatrician in the city, and Mary Westcott (1865-1910). The family’s first known ancestor who emigrated to the United States was Lewis Westcott who lived for some time in Bridgeton, Cumberland County, New Jersey.

This is a collection of five volumes of scrapbooks containing pasted entries of Thompson Westcott’s news articles on the History of Philadelphia from 1609 to 1826. According to the appraiser, Mabel A. Zahn, these scrap books are one of two collections of it’s kind containing the full record of original articles of Westcott’s writings. When the collection was gifted to the Historical Society by David McNeely Stauffer, in 1915, there were a total of “32 large quardo volumes.”

Accordingly, the volumes here are filled with rich historical writings, etches, and engravings. Westcott produced a serious historical account equal to all other historical writings on the City of Philadelphia according to Joseph Jackson. Consequently, these writings were eventually used as a framework for the three volumes of the “History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884” edited with J. Thomas Scharf in 1884.