Pennsylvania, located in the northeastern region of the United States, is known for its rich history, diverse culture, and contributions to American industry. The state's capital is Harrisburg and the largest city is Philadelphia. Pennsylvania was one of the original thirteen colonies and was the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. The state has played an important role in American history, from the Revolutionary War to the Industrial Revolution and beyond.
Pennsylvania is home to many notable landmarks and historical sites, such as the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and Gettysburg National Military Park. The state is also known for its contributions to American industry, particularly in the fields of steel production, coal mining, and textile manufacturing. Some of the most famous companies that have their roots in Pennsylvania include Hershey's, W.R. Grace and DuPont.
Trivia questions about Pennsylvania can include questions about its history, geography, culture, and famous residents. This article will test your knowledge of the state's past and present, from its role in the American Revolution to its contributions to American industry. Get ready to learn more about Pennsylvania and see how well you fare against these challenging trivia questions. Whether you're a resident of the state or just a curious trivia buff, this article is sure to be an engaging and informative read.
69 Pennsylvania Trivia Questions Ranked From Easiest to Hardest (Updated for 2024)
- Located in southeastern Pennsylvania, what amusement park was founded in 1906 to entertain workers at a chocolate company in the area?
Answer: Hersheypark
- While she would ultimately earn her nickname of “Moses” for helping other slaves escape via the Underground Railroad, what woman recalled the first time she made it to free state Pennsylvania with “There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven?”
Answer: Harriet Tubman
- What is the name of the "well stimulation technique" in which rock is fractured by a pressurized liquid to create cracks in deep-rock formations through which natural gas or petroleum can escape? This process led to an industrial boom across parts of the Dakotas and Pennsylvania in the 2000s in the U.S.
Answer: Fracking
- What art museum, in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, collects contemporary art and video work, and was founded by industrialist Andrew in 1895?
Answer: Carnegie Museum of Art
- Perhaps not surprisingly given it is home to The Hersey Company, which US state produces the most chocolate? According to the US Census Bureau it produces roughly half of the chocolate made in the country.
Answer: Pennsylvania
- The Monongahela Incline, which takes passengers from Station Square to high-up Grandview Avenue, is both the oldest and steepest funicular railway in the United States. In what city can you ride it?
Answer: Pittsburgh
- What is required when crossing into New Jersey from Pennsylvania on I-78?
Answer: Bridge Permit
- Bill Murray has coffee at Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania's fictional Tip Top Cafe over and over in what 1993 comedy?
Answer: Groundhog Day
- What city in Palestine is both the Biblical birthplace of Jesus and the namesake of a city in eastern Pennsylvania?
Answer: Bethlehem
- The American version of the show "The Office" premiered on NBC in 2005. The show takes place in which Pennsylvania city?
Answer: Scranton
- While the name will remind you of Pennsylvania, which city that's home to the National Cornbread Festival is actually located in Marion County, Tennessee?
Answer: South Pittsburg
- In 1849, Henry Box Brown escaped slavery by encasing himself in a box and shipping himself north from Richmond out of Virginia to an abolitionist in what Northern city? He became a lecturer against slavery, moving to England in 1850 over fears he would be re-enslaved.
Answer: Philadelphia
- The intersection of 33rd and Chestnut in West Philadelphia is the informal boundary between the University of Pennsylvania and what other university just north of it?
Answer: Drexel University
- This indigenous nation was renamed the "Delaware" by English colonists, but their territory also extended beyond Delaware, including present day New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, New York City, Long Island and the Lower Hudson Valley. What is their name?
Answer: Lenni Lenape
- Founded as a store named "Free People" by three students in an entrepreneurship class at the University of Pennsylvania in 1970, what is the retailer that primarily targets "hipster subculture" for teens and young adults? This company received the National Preservation Honor Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation for their office in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.
Answer: Urban Outfitters
- Hershey's is, of course, located in Hershey, Pennsylvania, but one of its most iconic products, a peppermint patty coated in dark chocolate, was invented in what town 36 miles away?
Answer: York
- Shot partly in Pennsylvania and partly in New Zealand, what "skeletal" 2009 Peter Jackson film got Stanley Tucci a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for playing a serial killer?
Answer: The Lovely Bones
- What two-word beer brand, now manufactured by Anheuser-Busch, was started by the Latrobe Brewing Company of Western Pennsylvania in 1939? In a green bottle or can, with a horse on the label, it claims to be “Extra Pale.”
Answer: Rolling Rock
- What is the name of the sedimentary rock formation that is the source of the fracking that has taken off in Pennsylvania, New York, and West Virginia?
Answer: Marcellus
- What “V” investment advisor, based in Malvern, Pennsylvania, was founded in 1975 by John C. Bogle. It is an English word meaning a group of people leading the way in new developments and ideas.
Answer: Vanguard
- With alumni including Elon Musk and Sundar Pichai, what is the name of the University of Pennsylvania's renowned business school?
Answer: Wharton School
- What school on Pittsburgh's Woodland Road, originally founded as the Pennsylvania Female College in 1869, first began admitting male students in 2016?
Answer: Chatham University
- Where did all of the following famous animals live? Bo & Sunny, Barney, and Socks.
Answer: The White House
- What Pennsylvania-based company is known around the United States for its traditional German-style pretzels?
Answer: Snyder's of Hanover
- What dialect, primarily spoken by Mennonites and Amish, is spoken by over 300,000 people and is named as a combination of where it was developed and the language it is a dialect of?
Answer: Pennsylvania German
- It's probably not surprisingly to hear that the state in the U.S. that produces the most natural gas is Texas, but which state produces the second-most (more than 2x 3rd place)?
Answer: Pennsylvania
- In 1859 the first successful drilling of an oil well was near Oil Creek in the city of Titusville. In what U.S. state did this event occur?
Answer: Pennsylvania
- The city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, sits at the confluence of three rivers: the Ohio, the Monongahela, and what third one?
Answer: Allegheny River
- Bird-in-Hand is a strangely named town located in picturesque Lancaster County, in what U.S. state?
Answer: Pennsylvania
- Despite its name, the house known as Kentuck Knob is located in Pennsylvania, and is one of many designed by what architect famous for the Prairie Style?
Answer: Frank Lloyd Wright
- Standing for "Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority," SEPTA is the common name for the mass-transit system that serves what East Coast city?
Answer: Philadelphia
- What is the boozy two-word name for the 1794 uprising in western Pennsylvania by citizens who refused to pay a federal liquor tax to raise money for the national debt?
Answer: Whiskey Rebellion
- Which civil rights organization that advocates for the disabled community was founded in Pennsylvania in 1973 with the slogan, “Nothing About Us Without Us?”
Answer: Disabled in Action
- The history of the petroleum industry in the U.S. starts with a man named David Beaty who discovered what in his home in Pennsylvania in 1875?
Answer: Crude oil
- Which town in Kent County shares its name with a state out West, but was actually named for a valley in Pennsylvania?
Answer: Wyoming
- Which American grocery store chain with a big bird name has stores in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, and Maryland?
Answer: Giant Eagle
- Historically, an "operating theater" was an operating room with seating for an audience of other medical professionals and students. The oldest surviving operating theater is located in a hospital in what northeastern US state?
Answer: Pennsylvania
- A historic rivalry between the high school athletics teams in towns named Lancaster and York in what U.S. state is known as the "War of the Roses?"
Answer: Pennsylvania
- Dating back to 1877, the advertising mascot of the namesake brand of what PepsiCo subsidiary has been a figure inspired by drawings of Pennsylvania founder William Penn?
Answer: Quaker Oats
- Who drilled the first commercial oil well in the U.S.? He struck black gold on August 28, 1859, near Titusville, Pennsylvania.
Answer: Edwin Drake
- Coming in at the #3 biggest mall in America, you can shop the 2.9 million square feet of the King of Prussia mall if you happen to be in what state? (Hint: Food court cheesesteak optional)
Answer: Pennsylvania
- A house on Denver's Pennsylvania St. was once home to what "Unsinkable" heroine, famous for assisting other survivors during the sinking of the Titanic?
Answer: Molly Brown
- Swanfest, the music festival headlined by Dance Gavin Dance, was held in the eastern U.S. for the first time on October 1, 2023, in what city?
Answer: Philadelphia
- The Wildcats are what the students and alumni call themselves at what "V" institution that's the oldest Catholic university in Pennsylvania and is the home of their current mascot Will D. Cat?
Answer: Villanova University
- Located in Southwest Pennsylvania, Fallingwater is one of the more well-known homes designed by what famous architect who’s also responsible for designing The Guggenheim Museum in New York City?
Answer: Frank Lloyd Wright
- The town of Johnstown in western Pennsylvania is most notable in U.S. history for being the site of what type of disaster in 1889, which killed nearly 2,000?
Answer: Flood
- Leaving everything to chance, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia have instituted what sort of a system to let consumers and retailers have a chance at getting a bottle of the prized, rare Pappy Van Winkle bourbon?
Answer: Lottery
- According to the Department of Energy, in 2021 Alaska ranks third in natural gas withdrawals, behind Texas and what Rust Belt state that churns out Rolling Rock beer?
Answer: Pennsylvania
- The Arboretum at the University of Pennsylvania, located in Philadelphia’s Chestnut Hill neighborhood, bears what name, also the last name of the first African American “Saturday Night Live” cast member, who joined during their inaugural 1975-76 season?
Answer: Morris Arboretum
- What was the name of the newspaper founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1728?
Answer: Pennsylvania Gazette
- What bestselling 2006 graphic memoir by Alison Bechdel details her experiences as a child in Pennsylvania with her closeted father, as well as coming to understand her own sexuality?
Answer: Fun Home
- Which medical center in City Center is not only top-ranked but also a National Historic Landmark (it's home to America’s first surgical amphitheater)?
Answer: Pennsylvania Hospital
- Older even than that of Harvard, a 2015 Lancet article claims that America's oldest medical school was founded in 1765 at the College of Philadelphia, which eventually became what Ivy League institution?
Answer: University of Pennsylvania
- Although well-known for founding the colony of Pennsylvania and leading both the planning and development of Philadelphia, William Penn was in fact born in what city?
Answer: London
- Which brand has been supplying amateur and pro cooks alike with bonded cookware since the ‘70s when it was started by a metallurgist in Pennsylvania who originally just wanted to make a nice pan for himself?
Answer: All-Clad
- Although some scenes were shot in Virginia and the Bahamas, most of what 1991 "Big Five" Oscar Winner (i.e. it won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay) was filmed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania?
Answer: The Silence of the Lambs
- From 1831-1833, George M. Dallas, the man who the city is named after, served as a U.S. Senator representing which state, his birthplace?
Answer: Pennsylvania
- Called a "giant brain" by the media, ENIAC was a pioneering computer that debuted in 1946 after being built in secret at what southernmost Ivy League university?
Answer: University of Pennsylvania
- In addition to claiming the nation's oldest hospital, which Ivy League University is home to the Perelman School of Medicine, the oldest medical school in the U.S.?
Answer: The University of Pennsylvania
- What is the name of the "Island" which had a famous nuclear accident with a radiation leak in Pennsylvania in 1979?
Answer: Three Mile Island
- As of July 2018, what US state has the highest gas tax at 58.7 cents per gallon?
Answer: Pennsylvania
- What 15th president is the only president to ever be from Pennsylvania?
Answer: James Buchanan
- What 2009 Philipp Meyer novel, set in a fictional southwestern Pennsylvania town, has a title that refers to the declining fortunes of steel towns in the U.S.?
Answer: American Rust
- Cheyney University and Lincoln University are both in Pennsylvania and both claim the distinction of being the nation's first what?
Answer: HBCU
- Killing a man in self-defense and starting a career in social work are among the many plot points for Llanview, Pennsylvania resident Rachel Gannon, a character on what long-running soap opera?
Answer: One Life to Live
- Even though the kiddos traveled all around the country to compete, and the show had a few spin-offs in other parts of the U.S., what state did the original “Dance Moms” cast hail from (i.e., the location of Abby Lee Miller’s studio)?
Answer: Pennsylvania
- The border between Pennsylvania and Delaware is based upon a 12-mile circle drawn from a courthouse in what Delaware city?
Answer: New Castle
- Simon Cameron received quite the plum position as Secretary of War after delivering Lincoln the delegation of what key state at the Republican National Convention?
Answer: Pennsylvania
- Bill Mazeroski hit a walk-off home run in Game 7 to clinch the Pittsburgh Pirates’ World Series victory over the New York Yankees in what year? In that same year, the Pennsylvania Republican Party voted to nominate Richard Nixon for president in a losing campaign.
Answer: 1960
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About the Author
Eli Robinson is the Chief Trivia Officer at Water Cooler Trivia. He was once in a Bruce Springsteen cover band called F Street Band.
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