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Souvenir lithograph of skaters on the Delaware River during the winter of 1856.
Credit: Courtesy of the Library Company of Philadelphia
By the 1840s, Pennsylvanians were enjoying in an increasing range of recreational athletic activities. The freezing of the Delaware River during the severely cold winter of 1856 provided a rare opportunity to skate across the vast expanse of the frozen Delaware River, an activity memorialized in this souvenir lithograph.