Weather Reports During the U.S. Constitutional Convention

Resource Collections

Weather Reports During the U.S. Constitutional Convention

Contemporary reports of the weather during each day of the Convention in Philadelphia 1787

Cite as: Kieran Hazzard, Weather Reports During the U.S. Constitutional Convention, Quill Project at Pembroke College (Oxford, accessed 2024)

Details

The weather and temperature is often commented upon during the months of negotiations which took place in Philadelphia. With many historians pointing to the heat as one source of increasing discord. Others having looked at the available data have commented on the mildness of the summer.

It may be worth considering that the impact of temperature is subjective and the conditions in a claustrophobic situation indoors may have been different to external temperatures. Presented here are several sources detailing the weather on each day, to allow readers to make their own mind up about the effects of climate on any given session.

Collection associations (3)

U.S. Constitutional Convention 1787 (2019 Edition)
U.S. Constitutional Convention 1787 (2021 Edition)
The Convention

Resources (4)

Jacob Hiltzheimer: Diary, 1787 - (text)

Jacob Hiltzheimer was the owner of a livery stable in Philadelphia and a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly. He kept a diary which is now at the American Philosophical Society. James Hutson included in his Supplement the daily entries made by...

Peter Legaux: Meteorological Records, 1787 - (text)

Peter Legaux owned a farm and vineyard at Spring Mill, thirteen miles northwest of Philadelphia. Legaux kept detailed meteorological records between 1786 to 1827. His observations were included in the ‘Universal Asylum and Columbian Magazine’, from...

Thomas Morris: Diary, 1787 - (text)

Thomas Morris was a Philadelphia brewer who also kept a diary in which he entered the weather. Hutson found this in the Hagley Museum and Library, from which he extracted the daily weather reported by Morris.

William Samuel Johnson: Diary, 1787 - (text)

Johnson kept a succinct record of his attendance during the Constitutional Convention, and was the only delegate to record the weather each day.