In late June, 2025, 50 people gathered to tour places we’ve talked about on the podcast, and learn more about the women of the Philadelphia area. Here we are at one of the favorite stops: The Alice Paul Center for Gender Justice in Mount Laurel, New Jersey!
Our Field Trip to Philadelphia was what we call a “long weekend.” From Wednesday evening until Sunday morning, we packed a lot of learning, exploring, general merriment , and LOTS of women’s history into our days. In this episode, we let our travelers call in from the road, or after they returned home, to share their experiences.
Swag bags and noshies at the ready for the first night cocktail party at McGillin’s Olde Ale House.Magical bus tour on the first night to get a preview of the cityEvery swag bag includes local snacks, thanks, Nancy for the assist!There were mothers and daughters, sisters, friends, and married couple on the tour–and a lot of people who knew that they wouldn’t be alone even if they traveled solo.photo by DorieThe Museum of the American Revolution was a wonderful trip back in time, and seeing Washington’s tent was very moving! (They didn’t allow photos of the actual tent.)Half our group on a Beyond the Bell tour called “Badass women of Philadelphia.” Highly recommend it if you are in the city.Three travelers getting ready for a walking tour of Philadelphia, Krystal, Bridget, and Tracy photo by BridgetAn exhibit at the Museum of the American Revolution about how women, and people of color, were able to vote in New Jersey…until they weren’t. Photo by Janet B.And another about Indigenous People giving reasons why they could support either the British or the Colonists during the American Revolution. Photo by Susan B.Nancy and Susan B experting leading trivia!Our trivia space was small, but we crammed it with both travelers and people who were tour adjacent (and a couple people who recognized the area as public space and came in for a sit-down. It really was public space! )National Park Service Rangers as reenactors at Valley Forge.Our pilgrimage to Paulsdale House, the childhood home of Alice Paul, is now the Alice Paul Center for Gender Justice.Nancy Rosoff captured this photo of Alice and her basketball team (from Paulsdale, Nancy didn’t take it herself, of course.)This Alice Paul quote caught Tom P’s attention (and Cynthia K’s who sent us the same photo from her angle.Betsy Ross was there to celebrate women’s history with us at our end-of-tour party at the Betsy Ross House! Photo by LynOur sidequest to the US’s oldest residential neighborhood, Elfreth’s AlleyA sub-group of eight went on a special sidequest dinner for the tasting menu at Kalaya Thai. Photo by BridgetCynthia and Lori on a sidequest to Stock’s BakeryThey met on the tour and took a sidequest to Fonthill Castle and the Mercer Museum (nice shirt, Melissa!) Photo by BridgetSusan with one of her daily doses of Bassett’s ice cream at the Reading Terminal Market.
TIME TRAVEL WITH THE HISTORY CHICKS
As a group, we toured a lot of places, but we also had sidequests off the official Field Trip itinerary. Here is a list of the places discussed in this episode. Are we planning your next trip to Philadelphia? Sure, why not! These are all places vetted by our group as worth your time.
Suffs: The Musical. If it’s coming near you, we both can’t recommend this enough, go! We can’t because they aren’t coming to Kansas City (we hope there is a “yet” in there) but you should go in your city!
Elfreth’s Alley. This is a link to the museum on the street- it’s very small ( the stairs weren’t big enough to fully fit our size 6 feet) and set up as a house would have been in the 1700s. It’s quite interesting, and it’s always enlightening to see how people lived in another era.
Once a month, there is a History Chicks Trivia game played over Zoom. It’s been going since March of 2020 through our private Facebook group The Lounge. While there is a core group of people who show up often and lead the quizzes, they are VERY welcoming of new trivia friends. We’ve both played, and the time is less about competition and more about people joining together to chat about history and meet other listeners of the podcast. All are welcome!
Mercer Museum and Castle! This is about an hour outside the city, in Bucks County, but if you click over to their website, you can see that it’s worth the trip.
None of these are paid advertising, they were all places recommended by our travelers!
Registration will be opening soon (in a few weeks, we’ll tell you at the start of an episode) for two of our three Field Trips for 2026: London, April 19-27, and Chicago in June! More information and registration will be at Like Minds Travel!
The History Chicks Podcast
Beckett Graham and Susan Vollenweider: Two women. Half the population. Several thousand years of history. About an hour.
