William Penn. Image © 2002 www.clipart.com.

When President Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis to Philadelphia for a crash course in the scientific skills he would need and the supplies the trip would require, the choice was obvious. In the early 1800s Philadelphia was the young nation's intellectual, cultural, social, and trade center. But why not Boston or New York or Washington? Why had the nation's brightest minds flocked to this city on the Delaware River?

The answer goes back to one man. William Penn.

next >