There’s been a lot of talk about the end of the world this year. Harold Camping predicted that the rapture would come on May 21, but now that we’ve dodged that bullet, we’ve been warned to be ready for October. And, of course, 2012 is just after that. The end of the world, it seems, is just around the corner.

Rest assured, this isn’t the first time that the world was supposed to end, and it probably won’t be the last. The great American tradition of predicting the end actually began here in Philadelphia with Johannes Kelpius and the Society of the Woman in the Wilderness.

Johannes Kelpius, as depicted in America's first portrait, held at the Historical Society

The group of forty devotees first came together in Germany around 1690 and expected the millennium to begin in 1694. They set sail for Philadelphia and, after a perilous journey (Kelpius believed the Flying Dutchman passed their ship), settled in the woods along the Wissahickon River to wait for the return of Jesus. Though they never saw Jesus, they did have an encounter with an angel in their time and those in Germantown believed that Kelpius possessed the legendary Philosopher’s Stone, now supposedly lost in the Wissahickon.

Aside from their mysticism, they left a more tangible impact on those they met and helped their Germantown neighbors with education, medicine, and more, including the first hymnal written in America.

But, again, there is no shortage of doomsayers. The Historical Society’s That’s History program on WHYY addressed another group, the Millerites, earlier this summer. You can listen to that show here and prepare yourself for the next big prediction. For more That’s History, tune into WHYY FM at 6:00 on Spetember 13th, and every other Tuesday after that. And, of course, be sure to keep up on your PhilaPlace while there’s still time!