Established in 1799 in one of the three original counties in Pennsylvania, the borough of West Chester is steeped in history. West Chester serves as the county seat and is the home of West Chester University of Pennsylvania, once known as West Chester State Normal School. Two hundred years of memories vital to Pennsylvania's renowned history will be celebrated in the year 1999, West Chester's bicentennial. Much of this history is brought to life in West Chester. A collection of over two hundred images which were generously lent by West Chester residents make up this journey back into the borough's past, covering the years from the dawn of photography up to 1920. Many of the images within have never before appeared in print, and they vary from authentic photograph postcards of the community to the photographs taken between 1875 and 1910 by Gilbert Cope, the co-author of The History of Chester County (1881). Also among the illustrations are old broadsides, one of which is the oldest existing Chester County broadside. The first newspaper printed in Chester County, dating back to 1794, and a sketch of one of West Chester's oldest homes round out this fascinating visual history.

The son of Sogolon, the hunchback princess, and Maghan, known as "the handsome", Sundiata grew up to fulfill the prophesies of the soothsayers that he would unite the twelve kingdoms of Mali into one of the most powerful empires ever known in Africa, which at its peak stretched right across the savanna belt from the shores of the Atlantic to the dusty walls of Timbuktu. Retold by generations of griots, the guardians of African culture, this oral tradition has been handed down from the thirteenth century and captures all the mystery and majesty of medieval African kingship. It is an epic tale, part history and part legend.

A look at Westchester County’s place in the American Revolution and Washington’s plan to trick Cornwallis and march to Yorktown. During the summer of 1781, the armies of Generals Washington and Rochambeau were encamped in lower Westchester County at Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley, Hartsdale, Edgemont, and White Plains. It was a time of military deadlock and grim prospects for the allied Americans and French. Washington recognized that a decisive victory was needed, or America would never achieve independence. In August, he marched these soldiers to Virginia to face General Cornwallis and his redcoats. Washington risked all on this march. Its success required secrecy, and he prepared an elaborate deception to convince the British that Manhattan, not Virginia, was the target of the allied armies. Local historian Richard Borkow presents this exciting story of the Westchester encampment and Washington’s great gamble that saved the United States. Praise for George Washington’s Westchester Gamble “Borkow has done a first-rate job of telling the story of the American Revolution in Westchester County and putting dramatic events there in the context of the larger war--especially the decision to march to Yorktown.” —Thomas Fleming, author of The Perils of Peace “Just when it seemed that the subject of the American Revolution had been thoroughly explored, Richard Borkow has given us a fresh look at the war's culminating event—the 1781 march of French and American troops to Virginia.” —Joseph Wheelan, author of Jefferson’s War and Mr. Adams’s Last Crusade

A companion to an exhibition at The Hudson River Museum, a collection of original essays accompanies an array of photographs, paintings, maps, ephemera, and other images that capture the growth, development, and transformation of the suburban New York community of Westchester over the course of a more than a century. Simultaneous.