President Joe Biden often speaks about his birthplace, Scranton. The Lackawanna Historical Society has taken on a new project, getting others to talk about the president’s time in the city.
“Since Joe Biden has come into the public venue, I think people have been very interested in his hometown story and his Scranton hometown story," said Mary Ann Moran-Savakinus, executive director of the Lackawanna Historical Society.
The society is working on an oral history of the 46th president along with the history of Scranton during his lifetime.
We know Joe Biden’s story. But do we actually?
There’s the greatest hits: Biden was born in South Scranton in 1942 into a working-class Irish family. He lived with his grandparents on North Washington Avenue, a home he has often visited as an elected official. He left in the early 50s when his dad took a job selling cars in Delaware.
Then there’s the lesser known facts: What was he like as a kid? What was Scranton like when he was a kid?
Moran-Savakinus said there’s not much written history of Biden’s early life in the city because it’s mostly shared memories — that’s what oral history is.
"It's not necessarily the history that you'd see in the history books," she said. "It's one person's memory of growing up in Scranton, and that's why we're trying to collect — the other memories of people who would be of the same era as Joe Biden.”
Tyler Brady is the project manager. He’s a Northeast Pennsylvania native studying for his doctorate in American History at the City University of New York. His master's degree from Columbia is in oral history.
Brady plans to focus on the history of migration in and out of Scranton, and how Biden formed community and decades-long friendships while living in the city.
"I want to figure out how it is that a kid from Scranton, through all of the economic and the sort of general difficulty made it to the White House," he said.
He wants to make it clear that Biden’s path to the highest office in the land was unique.
“That hometown values and just sort of like common morals really can be derived from even like the earliest times of your life," he said. "I'm just hoping to track the story of Biden through his life while maintaining Scranton’s presence within it.”
The historical society says a website will be created to provide an interactive visual and audial experience through Biden’s ancestral history, his time in Scranton, his life after leaving and his time in office as President. The society will maintain the archive and make it accessible to the public.
"It's a great way to interpret our local history with a national stage," said Moran-Savakinus.
If you have a story, photos or anything related to the President’s connections to Scranton, contact the Lackawanna Historical Society at 570-344-3841 or lackawannahistory@gmail.com.
