The documents that tell the story of the summer of 1776

With the help of Penn Libraries' resources, we can seek out the objects, documents, and scholarly research that tell us what people were thinking and feeling at the advent of the American Revolution.

With so many events celebrating the semiquincentennial of the Declaration of Independence, including many hosted by the Penn Libraries, 2026 is a banner year for history buffs, patriots, and contrarians. However, the exuberant public celebration of our history should not hide the everyday opportunity for historical exploration afforded to the Penn community through the Libraries’ digital resources. The Penn community is not limited to sources curated and displayed in Ken Burns documentaries or even in the Libraries’ own exhibits. With the help of library resources, we can seek out the objects, documents, and scholarly research used by these curators and filmmakers and interpret them without intermediaries at any time. With that in mind, I set aside an hour one afternoon to explore documents written in or about Philadelphia during the summer of 1776, limiting myself to resources available on my computer through the Penn Libraries.

Letters and other writings

I started my research by looking for writings by the Founding Fathers who had gathered in Philadelphia that summer. On July 1, 1776, in Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson, feeling defensive, wrote a fellow Virginian that, "It is a painful situation to be 300 miles from one’s country…without a possibility of self-defence...If any doubt has arisen as to me, my country will have my political creed in the form of a ‘Declaration &c.’" Two days later, a more confident John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, "Yesterday the greatest Question was decided, which ever was de-bated in America…A Resolution was passed without one dissenting Colony that these united Colonies, are, and of right ought to be free and independent States.”

Eighteenth‑century style painting of a seated figure in a green coat reading papers at a desk with books and a red tablecloth. — Portrait of Benjamin Franklin by Charles Willson Peale. JSTOR Images.

That same day, a new issue of Benjamin Franklin’s The Pennsylvania Gazette was released, announcing, "Yesterday the CONTINENTAL CONGRESS declared the UNITED COLONIES FREE and INDEPENDENT STATES." Also in that issue, Daniel Goodman, a baker living on Arch Street, revealed "that he can and has for several years past, infallibly cured the BITE of a MAD DOG" using an old family cure. Advertisements offering rewards for the return of escaped indentured servants and slaves were also included, as they were in most every issue. Items of political note did not obscure the need to ‘secure’ labor, treat illnesses, and make a buck.

Military documents also help to paint a picture of the greater Philadelphia region at the time. Brigadier General John Lacey and troops serving in the Pennsylvania Militia were then headquartered in Ticonderoga, not far from the city. General Lacey kept an orderly book listing daily events, including commands, passwords, court-martial verdicts, and provisioning directions. July highlights included Captain Newland being found guilty of "damning and otherwise abusing" Colonel Stark, Colonel 'Mad Anthony' Wayne of Chester County seeking provisions for troops sent to Canada without shirts or stockings, and pleas for additional doctors from New York City and Philadelphia to treat ill troops. This last fact, together with repeated rules to promote good hygiene and distribute soap, suggests brutal living conditions.

Seeking an alternative perspective on political activities of that summer, I turned to the British Colonial Office papers, which includes voluminous correspondence from the period, typically regarding interests of the Crown. A letter dated July 5th from the captain of the ship Rachael, which had been in Philadelphia earlier that summer, reported that the Continental Congress had issued an order for every private house to be searched for lead to be converted into bullets. Also, notwithstanding Congress’s efforts to control prices of commodities consumed by the “pityable class of inhabitants,” the price of sugar had risen from 30 shillings to 8 pounds per hundredweight. Discontent in Philadelphia amongst both the elite and the “most tumultuous” was so high, we are told, that they would surely revolt at the first sign of a “respectable force” and welcome the return of British government. That did not happen, but we have every reason to believe that many in Philadelphia had mixed feelings about independence.

Objects

Objects also tell us about Philadelphia during that summer. For instance, this five-dollar Continental bill testifies to both the religious diversity among the patriots in Philadelphia and to a budding revolutionary economic infrastructure.

Five‑dollar Continental currency note from 1776 with ornate border, central emblem of a hand holding a branch, and handwritten signatures. — Signed five-dollar Continental bill, 1776. Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

It is signed by the ‘fighting Quaker' and Pennsylvania commissary Israel Whelan and the Jewish merchant Benjamin Jacobs, who loaned great sums of money to Congress.

Sound, smell, taste

Even more distant from the printed word are the sounds and smells of the time, which preserve something of the daily experience that often went unrecorded. The July 1775 issue of Pennsylvania Magazine included the song “Liberty Tree,” published anonymously at the time, but now known to have been written by Thomas Paine. This tune was heard on the streets during the summer of 1776.

"Liberty Tree" in Pennsylvania Magazine, 1775.

Other songs, true to the original in lyrics and spirit if not in instrumentation and accent, are available to stream, including those in this collection recorded for the Bicentennial, 50 years ago.

We can also find some hints about the weather in Philadelphia that summer. John Adams testified to the heat that enervated the patriots of Philadelphia just as it did the militia in Ticonderoga. In a letter to Abigail, he wrote, “the melting Heats of a Philadelphia Summer” would exhaust the finer Spirits of “a stronger Man than I am.” This fact about mid-Atlantic summers has remained constant. Fortunately, this was also true of ice cream, as can be seen in an advertisement by Philip Lenzi, confectioner, who had recently relocated to New York from London.

Interestingly, this notification also refers to the need for labor, in this case an apprentice. It is hard to peruse colonial-era newspapers for any length of time without stumbling across the issue of labor.

Having tracked down a reference to ice cream, I completed my tour of 1776 Philadelphia via the Libraries’ databases with as many questions as answers. Most pressingly, why was it much easier to find an advertisement for ice cream in New York than in Philadelphia? Also, what was the secret cure for the “BITE of a MAD DOG”? Furthermore, why didn’t Thomas Paine sign his name to Liberty Tree, and did Captain Newland and Colonel Stark resume cordial relations? These are questions for another afternoon of historical research.