Valley Forge Park—The Genesis of an Idea
Today we count Valley Forge National Historical Park as one of our nation’s treasures. The 3,500 acre park in Chester County, Pennsylvania is visited by about 1.2 million people annually. The Valley Forge Campground, the quarters of the American Revolutionary Army in the winter of 1777-78, was not always commemorated as an historic site. In fact, it took over a century of letter-writing, fund-raising, publicity, planning and legislation to have the land set aside as a memorial to the American soldiers, who camped, trained and perished there.
The earliest suggestion for an historic park at Valley Forge came from Isaac Anderson Pennypacker, a Phoenixville physician and later Professor of Theory and Practice at the Philadelphia College of Medicine. Dr. Pennypacker, whose grandfather, Lieutenant Isaac Anderson, carried dispatches from the camp of General Washington, was a well-connected Whig politician, who began his campaign for the creation of Valley Forge Park in 1842.
Pennypacker contacted some of the most influential politicians of the day to support the creation of an historic park at Valley Forge. He corresponded with Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky about the subject, as well as John F. Watson, author of the Annals of Philadelphia. He also brought powerful Whig politicians such as Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster and New York Governor William H. Seward to view the remains of the encampment.
Dr. Pennypacker wished to commemorate the valor of the Revolutionary soldiers, who camped at Valley Forge. On July 9, 1845 he wrote to the Village Record, a West Chester, Pennsylvania newspaper:
The scenes which here occurred can scarcely find a parallel in history. It was the crisis on which hung the fate of the country. Such it was considered by the men of that day. A nation’s gratitude should esteem the place sacred, and a suitable testimonial should be commanded to rise upon Mount Joy to commemorate the events connected with the history of the country.
Try as he might, Dr. Pennypacker failed to get the needed support for even a Revolutionary War monument at Valley Forge. He died of Typhus in 1856 at the age of 44. The work of planning and creating an historic park at Valley Forge fell to his son, Judge Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker, who later served on the Valley Forge Park Commission. In 1893 it set aside lands "to preserve, improve, and maintain as a public park the site on which General George Washington’s army encamped at Valley Forge.” Valley Forge became the first state park in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In 1976, Pennsylvania presented the park as a gift to the nation on the occasion of America’s bicentennial. Beginning December 2012, the Rare Collections Library will mount an exhibit in the State Law Library, highlighting its holdings on Valley Forge National Historical Park. The exhibit will run through the end of January 2013.
The Rare Collections Library is open to students and researchers by appointment, Monday-Friday, between the hours of 9:00 am and 12:00 noon, and 1:00 pm-4:00 pm. To make an appointment, contact Dr. Iren Snavely by telephone at 717.783.5982, or by email at: . The Rare Books reading room is also open periodically for tours to the general public and to Pennsylvania Commonwealth employees.
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