So Long and Toilsome a Journey: Transportation in Colonial Pennsylvania March 6, 2010

On Saturday, March 6th at 1:00 p.m., historian Dan Graham will present a lecture on the distribution systems of the local ironworks owned by the Potts and Rutter families in early Pennsylvania. Attendees will learn how the early routes used for the colonial iron industry became the roads we still use today.

Graham’s lecture kicks off the opening of the exhibit “So Long and Toilsome a Journey: Transportation in Colonial Pennsylvania.”

The Potts family built a far-reaching ironworking business, enjoyed imported luxury goods, and sent two of their sons overseas for their education. How did they manage it in a world without planes, trains, and automobiles? Visitors to Pottsgrove Manor’s new exhibit will learn about the different ways goods, people, and information were transported in the eighteenth century.

The exhibit will run from March 6th, 2010 through January 30th, 2011 and can be viewed while taking a guided tour of the manor house during regular museum hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. & Sunday, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Tours are given on the hour; last tour of the day begins as 3:00 p.m. A donation of $2 per person is suggested.

Pottsgrove Manor, home of John Potts, colonial ironmaster and founder of Pottstown, is located at 100 West King Street near the intersection of King Street and Route 100, just off Route 422, in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Pottsgrove Manor is operated by Montgomery County under the direction of the Parks and Heritage Services Department.