Pennsylvania is the birthplace of American Fly Fishing. The Association is dedicated to preserving the rich heritage of fly fishing in all of Pennsylvania and to educating the public about the rivers, streams, and lakes of Pennsylvania and the importance of the aquatic life within them. PFFMA meets its goals through collecting, preserving, and curating fly fishing artifacts and developing educational exhibits. This heritage is a rich and most important one. The earliest recorded fly tyer was Davis Hugh Davis, a Quaker and Philadelphia innkeeper in the 1770's. The modern fly rod owes its form and grace to Samuel Phillipe, the Pennsylvanian who was first to design and build a six strip cane fly rod so superior that by the mid- 1870's, six-strip split-cane manufacture was in common use for quality rod building in the United States. Gifford Pinchot, fly fished Pennsylvania’s Sawkill River and was a two term Pennsylvania governor . Prior to that, Pinchot was advisor to Theodore Roosevelt and was one of America's leading advocates of environmental conservation at the turn of the twentieth century. Exhibits for Charlie Fox, Vince Marinano, Lefty Kreh, Ed Jaworowski, Joe Humphreys, George Harvey are among the featured displays. These persons and others like them have had a prominent influence on the sport and its resources.