Located in the Great Lakes region, between Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, Lake Erie and Ontario, the Canadian province of Ontario, New York and New Jersey, Pennsylvania is one of the 13 original founding states of the United States. Its nickname, the Keystone State, derives from the fact that it forms a geographic bridge both between the Northeastern states and the Southern states, and between the Atlantic seaboard and the Midwest. It is bisected diagonally by ridges of the Appalachian Mountains. To the northwest is the Allegheny Plateau, underlain by sedimentary rocks of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian age, which bear natural gas and petroleum. In 1859, near Titusville, was drilled the first oil well in the U.S. into these sediments. Timber and dairy farming are also sources of livelihood for Pennsylvania. Along the shore of Lake Erie in the far northwest are orchards and vineyards. The state bird is Ruffed Grouse, the state flower is Mountain Laurel, and its motto is "Virtue, liberty, and independence".
Pennsylvania has 92 km of shoreline along the Delaware River estuary, and has one of the largest seaports in the U.S., the Port of Philadelphia. In the west the Port of Pittsburgh is also very large and even exceeds Philadelphia in rank by annual tonnage. The Pennsylvania Dutch region, including the Old Order Amish, the Old Order Mennonites and at least 15 other sects, are common in the rural areas around the cities of Lancaster, York, and Harrisburg. Despite the name, the people aren't from the Netherlands, but rather are from various parts of southwest Germany, Alsace and Switzerland. The state's four most populous cities are Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, and Erie, but the capital is Harrisburg, founded in 1785 by John Harris Jr., on his father's land.
Before the Commonwealth was settled by Europeans, the area was home to the Delaware, Susquehannock, Iroquois, Eriez, Shawnee, and other American Indian Nations. Both the Dutch and the English claimed both sides of the Delaware River, but the Dutch were the first who took it in possession. The British conquered New Netherland in 1664, and in 1681 Charles II granted to William Penn a land charter, the teritory being called Pennsylvania. The First Continental Congress (1774), as also the second one (1775), which drew up and signed the Declaration of Independence, took place in Philadelphia. Later, the U.S. Constitution was written, and Philadelphia was once again chosen to be cradle to the new American Nation. It became the second state to ratify the constitution in 1787, five days after Delaware. In the Civil War, 350,000 Pennsylvanians served in the Union Army forces, along with 8,600 African American. The Battle of Gettysburg (the major turning point of the Civil War) took place near Gettysburg, in Pennsylvanian.
References
Pennsylvania - Wikipedia
About the stamps
On the first postcard
The stamp is a Global Forever First-Class Mail International one ($1.10), about which I wrote here.
On the second postcard
The first stamp is the Christmas stamp for 2012, about which I wrote here. The second is part of the Wedding series, about which I wrote here.
sender 1: Irma Brown (direct swap)
sent from Bath (Pennsylvania / United States), on 08.04.2013
sender 2: Denise
sent from Jericho (New York / United States), on 06.01.2014
No comments:
Post a Comment