State of Pennsylvania Posters, Prints, Photographs, Calendars
images for educators and home schoolers, themed decor in studio or office.

There are 44,700 miles of state-administered paved roads in Pennsylvania – more than in New Jersey and all of New England combined. Yet along those miles a driver might encounter such things as a horse and buggy reined by a bearded farmer or his bonneted wife. Or around the next curve one of the state's 300 covered bridges. Or an old fieldstone barn bright with hex signs. Or a battleground of the Civil War, the Revolution, the French and Indian War.

Past and present are close neighbors in Pennsylvania, the “Keystone State” of the original 13.

(poster text about Pennsylvania)

Showing Both Sides of the Firefly, Also Called Lightning Bugs, Photographic Print

Fireflies, also known as lightening bugs, are beetles that produce light in their abdomen to attract mates. The males fly about flashing, a waiting female will flash back if she is interested. The firefly even has a song - Glow Little Glowworm, The Mills Brothers hit of the 1950s.

The Firefly is the Pennsylvania and Tennessee State Insect and proposed as the Indiana State Insect.

• more insect posters
• State insects

Northeast Native American Cultures -

Poster Text: The northeastern part of the U.S. and Canada includes coastal lands, rivers, the Great Lakes, valleys and mountains. before the arrival of European settlers, this region was mostly one vast forest. In these woodlands teeming with deer, bear, rabbit, and other animals, most of the Indians were hunters and gatherers. They also fished in the lakes and rivers. In wet marshy areas Indians gathered wild rice. And in the summer, some tribes planted crops of corn, squash, and beans. ...

William Penn
b. 10-14-1644; London
d. 7-30-1718; Berkshire, England

William Penn, a pacifist Quaker, was the founder and “Absolute Proprietor” of the Province of Pennsylvania. Penn received what was to become the state of Pennsylvania as a land grant from Charles II in repayment for a loan made by Penn's father to the king.

Penn, who visited the colony several times and wanted to settle in Philadelphia, hoped an income would be generated by those who were drawn to Pennsylvania because of his charter guaranteeing “free and fair trial by jury, freedom of religion, freedom from unjust imprisonment and free elections”.

William Penn's Treaty with Indians, November 1683; Benjamin West, Giclee Print

FYI - In 1681 Penn decreed that one acre of old-growth forest must remain for every five acres cleared, making him an early environmentalist and conservationist.

Edward Hicks- Peaceable Kingdom with William Penn in the background Lesson Plans
• more Native American Cultures posters

Valley Forge, 22 miles northwest of Philadelphia, was the site chosen by George Washington for the Continental Army to over the winter of 1777-78.

The site was far enough away from the British to make surprise attacks less possible and still close enough to keep the British from foraging outside their Philadelphia encampment.

The name Valley Forge comes from an iron forge on Valley Creek.

• more Revolutionary War posters

The northeastern region of Pennsylvania has the largest known deposits of anthracite coal in the Americas and the mining industry was a primary economic engine until the 1950s.

One of the most serious labor disputes in U.S. history occurred in the Pennsylvania town of Homestead. On July 6, 1892, a union strike and company lock-out resulted in a battle between the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (AA) and the Pinkerton National Detective Agency hired by the Carnegie Steel Company to protect the physical plant.

• The Homestead Steel Strike of 1892

The replica of a blockhouse that was once part of the American Fort located on Presque Isle is named for General “Mad” Anthony Wayne who died there while on a diplomatic mission to the old Northwest Territory in 1796.

General Wayne was serving as the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and was appointed to this position by president George Washington.

Milton S. Hershey founded the Hershey Chocolate Company and the “company town” of Hershey, Pennsylvania.

• Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar