Commemorating the Walking Purchase: Celebration and Deception

214 E. Center St.,Nazareth PA 18064

13 November, 2022

Description

The Walking Purchase of 1737 was a controversial land deal between the Pennsylvania proprietors and four Delaware (Lenape) leaders that granted the proprietors some 1.2 million acres in choice land in the Lehigh Valley and beyond. By the early twentieth century, historical accounts often described it as the “shameful,” “notorious,” or “controversial” Walking Purchase. Why, then, did the State of Pennsylvania develop four historical markers to this event in the 1920s? In this talk, Dr. Andrea Smith will explore the cast of characters involved in this curious case of public history making, the opposition they confronted, and their motivations for staging grand public celebrations in 1925. Andrea Lynn Smith is Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Lafayette College. Please note, the lecture takes place in the museum located on the second floor of the 1740-1743 Whitefield House, which does not have an elevator.