Rauner Special Collections Library

 Anthony Comstock was a man with an obsession and that obsession was vice. He started the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice (N.Y.S.S.V.) in 1873, which acted more or less as you might guess, lobbying for laws that would enforce a specific moral code for the public and then making sure that code was followed. Not long afterwards, the Comstock Act was passed, which made it explicitly illegal to distribute obscene matter via the U.S. postal service or other carriers.

When Hanover decided to erect a new meeting-house in 1794 it needed to find a way to pay for it. The meeting-house would serve many uses: a church, a place for important speakers visiting town, a venue for political debate. It was to be the focal point for the life of the town separate from the College that had come to dominate. In classic New England fashion, they allowed select pews to be claimed for a set amount of money or goods.

On June 8, 1863, concerned members of Philadelphia's Union League gathered to listen to a talk by George L. Stearns, an abolitionist and leading figure in the North's efforts to recruit Black soldiers. The Confederate Army was growing closer and closer to the "Birthplace of America", and Stearns emphasized the need for Black citizens to bolster the ranks of the Union Army. His words found purchase with the well-to-do members of the League, who immediately gave their support for the formation of three Black regiments in Pennsylvania.