Do you know what Pennsylvania’s Top 10 Endangered Artifacts are? The Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts does, and they are giving us the opportunity to help save them. The 10 artifacts truly showcase the rich and varied history of our state. I love that they represent diverse interests, ensuring that one is bound to capture your vote in this unique contest!

You might be an environmentalist or lover of nature, like my youngest daughter, who, born on Earth Day, views protecting the planet as her birthright. If so, check out the butterflies.

These two 18th-century specimens are the oldest known in the Americas.

Many in our community are no strangers to an ancestral history of religious persecution. They might be touched this Bible, which tells the story of one family’s flight from Switzerland to Germany and finally to Pennsylvania. It even relates an account of the “Saucon Incident” in which Mennonites faced unjust persecution for refusing to pledge allegiance to the revolutionary government on religious grounds.

My vote went to the wig of Thaddeus Stevens.

As the member of a racially diverse family, I am often at once angered and awed by the history of our country. This wig represents both the worst of that history, supporting slavery in our founding constitution, and the great strides we have made, as we finally ended that injustice with the help of Congressman Stevens, a devout abolitionist.

Check out PA’s Top 10 Endangered Artifacts. You have until November 1st to vote for, share on social media, or donate to the preservation of your favorite artifact. Learn something you didn’t know, and then, come back and tell us which got your vote!