Steven Butler presents Historic Sites of Philadelphia: About This Site

About This Site
(In the event you are curious.)

Dr. Steven Butler in Philadelphia, 2012

During the United States' Bicentennial in 1976, I was a college student in Providence, Rhode Island, just finishing up my Bachelors degree, which I received that summer. Among the things that my family and I did to celebrate America's 200th birthday was to visit Philadelphia, where the nation was born, go greet the Tall Ships as they sailed into Newport, Rhode Island just prior to sailing on to NYC for the Fourth of July, and going out to see the Queen of England and her consort, Prince Phillip, when they visited Newport, Rhode Island just prior to hosting the President of the United States, Gerald Ford, aboard the royal yacht, Britannia.

Fifty years later, I am a retired college U.S. History Professor.

Fourteen years ago, in the summer of 2012, I revisited Philadelphia, where I visited and photographed all the historic sites featured on this website. That's me, by the way, in the photo to the left, standing in front of Independence Hall in downtown Philadelphia.

Wanting to do something tangible to help celebrate the nation's 250th birthday, I wrote a book, An American Revolution Scrapbook, which contains seven lost, little-known, or seldom-told stories about the American War for Independence, as the British like to call it. You can purchase it for the special semiquincentennial price of $17.76 on Amazon.com.

I also decided to create this website so that other people, who may not be able to travel, can see all the "must-see" historic sites in Philadelphia through my photographs, accompanied by some explantory text.

Please note that this website does not use cookies, collect or sell data about you, or contain any advertising beyond promoting the book I mentioned above. I created the site simply for the purposes of education and entertainment and because, as I said above, I wanted to do something tangible to help celebrate the nation's 250th birthday.

Please also note that I have no official connection to any of the historic sites featured in this website, nor do I live in Philadelphia, although I do have an ancestral connection to the city (through an 18th century forebear) and also a connection to one of the Founding Fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence: Owing to the fact that Thomas Jefferson and I share a common ancestor (an Englishman named Christopher Branch, who was an early-day settler of the James River valley in Virginia) he (Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence) is (was?) my Fourth Cousin, 6x Removed. As you may imagine, I am quite proud of that fact.

Did you know that in addition to writing the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson also selected our nation's first offical motto, E Pluribus Unum? That is one of the stories in my book, An American Revolution Scrapbook, which as I already pointed out above, is available for sale right now on Amazon.com for the special price of $17.76 (plus tax and shipping.)

So, now it's time for you to stop reading this page and go explore my website, which I hope will both entertain and educate you about the birth of our country, the United States of America.

Comments or questions?

Send email to: docbutler@yahoo.com