Abstract
IN 1857, BENSON LOSSING thanked John Fanning Watson for his “suggestions respecting local inquiries,” adding “I am more and more surprised, as I daily look into the reminisces [sic] of the past, at the total apathy of our citizens in regard to historical facts of great interest to all, with which our city abounds. The men and women of the Revolution have almost all departed from among us, yet I occasionally meet one whose recollection is exceedingly clear. From them I glean all that can be got, and hope to add a mite to your most valuable store.” Lossing (1813–91), based in Poughkeepsie, New York, was a key figure in the generation of antiquarians that included Philadelphia’s renowned chronicler John Fanning Watson (1779–1860). Along with John A. McAllister (1822–96), Ferdinand Dreer (1812–1902), Edward Ingraham (1793–1854), Edwin Greble (1806–83), and Frank Marx Etting (1833–90) of Philadelphia, as well as Brantz Mayer (1809–79) of Baltimore, Lossing was among those mid-nineteenth-century collectors who exchanged, discussed, accumulated, published, borrowed, sold, and donated an array of documents, prints and, occasionally, relics related to colonial and early national America. In seeking out the recollections of descendants, images of original building construction, and artists’ “good likenesses” taken directly from national fi gures, their interests and methods helped determine what information from the past was saved. These antiquarians’ preservation and collecting activities played a role in defining and emphasizing what elements of Philadelphia’s past were important, both at the time and in future decades.