The Chester County History Center has three virtual events on the calendar that are sure to inform and fascinate participants:

History Matters Speaker Series
William “Bill” Killefer: One of Chester County’s Early Major League Baseball Stars
Thursday, March 11 from 7-8 PM via Zoom

Join Michael Peich to explore the life and legacy of William “Bill” Killefer. Killefer was a catcher who played 13 years in Major League Baseball for the St. Louis Browns (1909-1910), Philadelphia Phillies (1911-1917), and Chicago Cubs (1918-1921). A resident of Chester County from 1917-1955, he has been largely forgotten locally, despite the fact that he helped define the role of the modern MLB catcher.

Click here to register.

Virtual Book Discussion
The Man Who Would Be King
Thursday, March 11 from 10-11:15 AM via Zoom

This is a riveting story about Josiah Harlan, a native of Newlin Township who inspired Rudyard Kipling’s classic tale and a John Huston movie.

Excerpt from Amazon.com: “In the year 1838, a young adventurer, surrounded by his native troops and mounted on an elephant, raised the American flag on the summit of the Hindu Kush in the mountainous wilds of Afghanistan. He declared himself Prince of Ghor, Lord of the Hazarahs, spiritual and military heir to Alexander the Great. Soldier, spy, doctor, naturalist, traveler, and writer, Josiah Harlan wanted to be a king, with all the imperialist hubris of his times. In an extraordinary 20-year journey around Central Asia, he was variously employed as surgeon to the Maharaja of Punjab, revolutionary agent for the exiled Afghan king, and then commander in chief of the Afghan armies. He forged his own kingdom, only to be ejected from Afghanistan a few months later by the invading British.”

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The Return of Dignity: Pennhurst and the Struggle for Disability Rights
Presented by Dr. Dennis Downey
Wednesday, April 7 from 7-8 PM via Zoom

Conceived in the era of eugenics as a solution to what was termed the “problem of the feeble-minded,” state-operated institutions subjected people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to a life of compulsory incarceration. One of nearly 300 such facilities in the U.S., Pennhurst State School and Hospital was initially hailed as a “model institution” but was later revealed to be a nightmare, where medical experimentation and physical and psychological abuse were rampant. In the 1950s, Pennhurst became a symbolic force in the disability civil rights movement in America and around the world.

Click here to register.