Philadelphia History Meetup

The Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides (APT) will hold its next monthly meeting on Wednesday, November 12 at 7 pm, in person at the Great Hall of Christ Church Neighborhood House (20 N. American Street) and livestreamed on Zoom. The meeting kicks off APT's 2025 Fall Training Program, "19th Century Growing Pains or We The People... Now What?" Professor Zachary Schrag opens up the program with a presentation on the Nativist/Bible Riots of 1844. Bring food and drinks and come early for social time!

In May and July 1844, Philadelphia suffered some of the bloodiest rioting of the antebellum period, as anti-immigrant mobs attacked Irish-American homes and Roman Catholic churches before being suppressed by the militia. The violence was part of a wave of riots that convulsed American cities starting in the 1830s. Yet even amid this tumult, they stand out for their duration, itself a product of nativist determination to use xenophobia for political gain. In the aftermath of the riots, shocked Philadelphians began debating new methods of maintaining order, a discussion that contributed to the consolidation of Philadelphia County in 1854.

Zachary is a professor of history at George Mason University. His book, The Fires of Philadelphia, describes these events and their place in history. Today, in an America beset by polarization and riven over questions of identity and law enforcement, his book shows us a city—one that embodies the founding of our country—that descended into open warfare and found its way out again.

The Zoom link will be shared in the APT Tour Talk newsletter the week of the meeting. Non-members should email Marianne Ruane at president@phillyguides.org no later than 5 pm the day of the meeting to receive the Zoom link. A recording will be available on the APT YouTube page for a month following the talk.

APT meetings are open to aspiring and working tour guides as well as anyone with an interest in Philadelphia-focused history. Attend one meeting for free and then it is $60 to join the association for the year or $10 per monthly meeting in-person event. (Early bird pricing for 2026 membership is in effect through December 31.) Zoom meetings are free. Please join us for convivial company, good food, fascinating presentations, and lively discussions.

The November Book Club Selection will be Treacherous Beauty: Peggy Shippen, the Woman Behind Benedict Arnold's Plot to Betray America by Mark Jacob and Stephen H. Case. Treacherous Beauty tells the true story of Peggy Shippen, a driving force in a conspiracy that came within an eyelash of dooming the American democracy. This book is 288 pages long (not a tome) and provides a fascinating look at Philadelphia during and after the British occupation. This selection also dovetails nicely with Valiant Ambition for those of you who want to do some extra credit work on the side.

Histories of the Revolutionary War have long honored heroines such as Betsy Ross, Abigail Adams, and Molly Pitcher. Now, more than two centuries later, comes the first biography of one of the war’s most remarkable women, a beautiful Philadelphia society woman named Peggy Shippen. While war was raging between England and its rebellious colonists, Peggy befriended a suave British officer and then married a crippled revolutionary general twice her age. She brought the two men together in a treasonous plot that nearly turned George Washington into a prisoner and changed the course of the war. Peggy Shippen was Mrs. Benedict Arnold.

After the conspiracy was exposed, Peggy managed to convince powerful men like Washington and Alexander Hamilton of her innocence. The Founding Fathers were handicapped by the common view that women lacked the sophistication for politics or warfare, much less treason. And Peggy took full advantage.

Peggy was to the American Revolution what the fictional Scarlett O’Hara was to the Civil War: a woman whose survival skills trumped all other values. Had she been a man, she might have been arrested, tried, and executed. And she might have become famous. Instead, her role was minimized and she was allowed to recede into the background—with a generous British pension in hand.

APT members will find Zoom details in the Tour Talk newsletter the week of the meeting. Non-APT members who would like to participate in the November book club should email APT Secretary Pam Covey at secretary@phillyguides.org no later than 5 pm the day of the meeting to receive the Zoom link. Please join us!