Event: Brewing a Revolution: Coffee in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia — Presented by Penn Libraries

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The Penn community is invited to an enlightening event, Brewing a Revolution: Coffee in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia, held in conjunction with the exhibit Revolution at Penn. This event will delve into the significance of Philadelphia’s coffeehouses as major sites of political activity and debate in the decade leading up to the Declaration of Independence.

Philadelphia’s coffeehouses were major sites of political activity and debate in the decade leading up to the Declaration of Independence. Indeed, it would not be wrong to describe the American Revolution as the world’s first caffeine-fueled rebellion. And yet, few people know the history behind when and why coffee became part of North American daily life.

Join Michelle Craig McDonald (American Philosophical Society), author of the forthcoming book Coffee Nation: How One Commodity Transformed the Early United States, and Emma Hart to learn more about the vital connections between independence and the hot beverage that still gets most of us out of bed in the morning.

This event is held in conjunction with the exhibit Revolution at Penn, which examines the formation of the university, the debates that divided the school during the American Revolution, and the compromises that reorganized it as the University of Pennsylvania in 1791.

Sponsored by the Penn Libraries

Type: In-person
Location: Kislak Center Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, 6th Floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center
Audience: Open to the Penn Community
Registration: Registration is REQUIRED