All Titles

The legacy of Arcadia University began in 1853, when Sylvania (Jones) Stevens and Juliet A. (Poundstone) Avery, along with several other students, left their family homes and accompanied Rev. Sheridan Baker to the Beaver Female Seminary in Beaver, Pennsylvania. After graduating in 1856, they were the first students to receive diplomas from the seminary. This book concentrates on the Glenside, Pennsylvania, campus up until the school’s name and status change to Arcadia University in 2001 and covers the many shifts in the school’s name and location.

Kenneth Samen graduated in 1992 with a bachelor of arts degree in communications from Beaver College/Arcadia University. For the past 27 years, Samen has worked for Prudential Insurance Company of America. This is Samen’s third title with Arcadia Publishing. His research for this book led him into his personal postcard collection and the university’s archives and, externally, to historical societies and institutional collections to locate images and items that have not been seen in years. Dr. Ajay Nair is a nationally recognized expert in student affairs and an accomplished scholar of social justice, race, and ethnicity. Dr. Nair was appointed president of Arcadia University in April 2018 and inaugurated in October 2018.

From sprawling potato farms and incredibly lavish estates, to whaling ships and early race cars, Long Island has an incredibly rich history often lost through the generations. In the world of racing, Long Island was once the horse racing capital of the state and hosted the nation's first professional auto races. Though farming still thrives in Suffolk County, there are only a few working farms left in Nassau County, where hundreds of farms dotted the landscape generations ago. Cold Spring Harbor, Greenport, Sag Harbor and Southampton were centers of the whaling industry in America and maintain a whaling heritage today. Author Richard Panchyk reveals fascinating narratives of Long Island's lost history.

Love Canal originated in 1894 as part of William T. Love's dream
to build a model city and power canal. The neighborhood emerged in the 1970s as an environmental nightmare and harbinger of the worldwide hazardous waste crisis. Photographs in Love Canal tell the story of the community's early development and the subsequent use of the canal by Hooker Electrochemical Company to discard industrial chemical waste from 1942 to 1953. In the late 1970s, the seemingly dormant dump began to leak, and residents found themselves in a slowly unfolding nightmare, learning that the waste dumped in the canal decades before was not simply garbage but actually a toxic brew of dangerous chemicals that were hazardous to life, health, and property.

Monmouth County's past encompasses more than just sandy beaches and rural farm life.

George Washington fought at the Battle of Monmouth as the region played a pivotal role in the birth of the republic. Henry Hudson anchored off Monmouth's shores in 1609 and was the first European to meet with the Lenape Native Americans there. A gun barrel of the USS New Jersey, the most decorated battleship in American history, was painstakingly transported to Battery Lewis, a fortification built along the county's highlands to protect New York Harbor during World War II. Bruce Springsteen elevated Asbury Park and the Stone Pony into a national music destination, and he remains the unofficial poet laureate of the Jersey Shore. Authors Rick Geffken and Muriel J. Smith highlight compelling stories of the seaside county's four-hundred-year history.

Both Roosevelt and Churchill recognized the importance of the land and naval battles of Plattsburgh. Many other, more famous, engagements were ruses meant to divert U.S. troops away from the prize Plattsburgh would afford: a clear pathway into New England. If not for the exemplary skills of two young military officers, Commodore Macdonough and General Macomb, and the force they commanded, regular army and naval personnel, New York and Vermont Militia, Native Americans, Veteran Exempts and boys from the local school, the war and the nation would have been lost. Using original source documents, author Keith Herkalo retells the battles at Plattsburgh, the key battles of the War of 1812.

The stories of the Revolutionary soldiers of Bergen County as told by Revolutionary War expert Tood W. Braisted.

Bergen County saw much of the American Revolution from its own doorstep. Close to British-occupied New York City, this corner of New Jersey was divided by the Revolution. Some people were staunch Loyalists or Patriots, in disagreement with their families and neighbors. Others wavered or remained neutral, while others changed their minds as was expedient. In the end, the years of hostilities led to massive damage and upheaval within the community as men either left home or stayed nearby to fight for or against secession from Great Britain.

Visit the alleys of Philadelphia's Kensington and Fishtown neighborhoods for stories from the Speakeasy War and more.

The docks and alleys of Philadelphia's riverward neighborhoods teem with forgotten stories and strange histories. In the overlooked corners of Kensington and Fishtown are the launching of the Industrial Revolution, the bizarre double suicide of the Rusk twins and the violent Cramp Shipyard strike. With a collection of his "The Rest Is History" columns from the Fishtown Star, local historian Kenneth Milano chronicles little-known tales from the Speakeasy War of 1890 to stories of seldom-recognized hometown hero Eddie Stanky, who went on to play for the 1951 New York Giants. Join Milano as he journeys into the secret history of two of the city's oldest neighborhoods.

Proudly laying claim to the title of the first town in the first state, Lewes, Delaware, has a history brimming with little-known tales of gentleman pirates, desperate acts of cannibalism and a failed British bombardment in the War of 1812.

Another attempted invasion occurred in 1853, when raucous New England fishermen intent on having a good time were repelled by residents armed with clubs and an old cannon. In 1926, the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse toppled onto the beach. With the light extinguished, bootleggers had an easier time plying their trade. On January 5, 1932, a captured rumrunner was accidentally set ablaze when an oil slick caught fire on the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal. Author Michael Morgan explores stories of impromptu presidential dips, charismatic preachers, German POW camps and other lost tales from the history of Lewes.

The Garden State After the Great War

Post–World War I life was dramatically different for New Jersey than it had been prior to the war. By 1920, the war was over for the Europeans, but it was still on for America until President Harding signed a paper in a local living room after a golf game. Harding’s out-of-wedlock child was born in Asbury Park, and Atlantic City began the beauty contest that would become Miss America. Prohibition hit what was an unwilling state, and the governor tried to keep New Jersey liquor legally flowing, while bootleggers and rumrunners made illegal liquor generally available. Joseph Bilby and Harry Ziegler detail this frenetic era in the Garden State.

Author Dale Richard Perelman tells the tragic story of the 1978 murders and the mystery surrounding them.

In the summer of 1978, a mother and her four-year-old were stabbed to death in the quiet town of New Castle. Police suspected the husband, Lou Kadunce, but were unable to find either a weapon or a motive. Sitting in a Lawrence County jail in 1981, convicted serial killer Michael Atkinson accused Frank Costal - a carny, petty thief and Satanist - of having an affair with the Kadunce husband and participating in the murder. A series of intense trials ensued as Costal was convicted of the homicides and a jury found the husband not guilty. Questions surrounding the case gripped the region and grabbed headlines in the Pittsburgh Press.

On the evening of January 28, 1922, several hundred people fought their way through the greatest snowstorm in Washington's history to see a show at the Knickerbocker Theater, the city's largest and most modern moving picture theater of the time. Unbeknownst to the theater patrons, the Knickerbocker Theater's flat roof was tremendously burdened by the weight of the snow. During the show's intermission, the snow-covered roof crashed down upon the crowd. As the roof fell, it collapsed the theater's balcony and pulled down portions of the surrounding brick walls, killing 98 people and injuring 133. Some of Washington's prominent politicians and business owners were among the casualties. The disaster ranks as one of Washington's worst in history, and the snowstorm continues to hold the record for Washington's single greatest snowfall.