The Philly History Truck steps—err, drives—into action this evening with the opening of Manufacturing Fire, the first exhibition to come about from the truck’s creative community process.

Passionate about history? Love a good treasure hunt? Well so do the so called privy diggers. What they do is certainly controversial, but it follows from a basic instinct to convene with the past. John Vidumsky caught up with “Digger George” for an interview, Peter Woodall went on-site for photos

With his latest book, Kensington historian extraordinaire Ken Milano delves into the Nativist Riots of 1844, when a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment resulted in death and destruction, including that of St. Michael’s Catholic Church. The rebuilt church, opened in 1847, hosts the book launch this evening

Harry K. takes a look at 807 Walnut Street, once a popular place of entertainment that, sadly, saw much death and destruction in the second half of the nineteenth century, and which, as a parking lot today, offers nothing to commend itself

On the 12th anniversary of a tourist striking the Liberty Bell with a hammer, Brad Maule talks with the man who did it, and examines where the bell—and what it represents—have come in the years since

The City’s founding paper, the Charter signed by William Penn himself, has recoiled from public view. Sam Robinson tracks it down, and finds out where else it’s been along the way

Cavemaster John Vidumsky takes us beyond even the usual lost caves of the Wissahickon to this one, dug originally by the Roxborough Mining Company in 1763–and used by a modern-day hermit

John Vidumsky discovers the people and the places behind the birth of electric light in America–at the heart of it the inimitable John Wanamaker and a brilliant inventor named Charles Brush whose power station, the first in Philadelphia, is still in use today