Wampum Belt, c.1682-1750.
Lenni Lenape Indians PA; clam, whelk shell beads, and leather.
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection at the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia.
Donated by John Granville Penn, 1859.

This belt has come to signify cooperation between the English Quakers led by William Penn and the Lenni Lenape. In his writings Penn espoused a benevolent policy towards the Indians, but the realities of the settlers’ desire for land meant that theory often gave to illegal and harsh practices.

There is no proof that the Lenni Lenape gave William Penn this belt to affirm their good relations at the fabled meeting under the spreading elm at the village of Shackamaxon, near today’s Fishtown neighborhood.

When the country teetered on the brink of war in 1859, John Granville Penn donated the wampum belt to the Society because there was “no better symbol of Pennsylvania’s peaceful heritage.” During World War I, the Society kept its new building open once a week until 11:00 P.M. for servicemen to enable them to be see the wampum belt, a visible reminder of the state’s peaceful heritage. - Chief Joe Brooks, President of the Delaware Tribe of Indians Tribal Council

Infant Coffin, c.1835-42.
Maker unknown; wood and metal.
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection at the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia.
Donated by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, 1984.

The excavation of the First African Baptist Church graveyard uncovered more than 140 burials, including this coffin. During the 1820’s and through the 1830’s the church and graveyard were located at Eight and Vine Streets near one of several of the city’s free Black neighborhoods.  The Board of Health closed this graveyard in 1841 due to overcrowding.

Analysis of the remains revealed the harsh living and working conditions of the members of this congregation. One third of the children buried here died from anemia-related illnesses such as weanling diarrhea. Many children had symptoms of iron deficiency anemia and sickle cell anemia. 

The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority discovered the cemetery of the First African Baptist Church in 1980 during archaeological monitoring of a large subsurface cut for the Philadelphia Commuter Rail Tunnel. Research in the historical record revealed that the Church had used this as a graveyard between about 1823 and 1842. Further excavation and analysis began in 1983 along with plans for the ultimate reinternment of the human remains. The human remains were reentered in the Eden Cemetery in Delaware County. Today the First African Baptist Church is located at Sixteenth and Christian Streets. - Melvin Garrison, Project Manager, Teaching American History Program School District of Philadelphia and Walter Tsou, MD, MPH