Clayton-Frick Art Museum

Posted by on Apr 17, 2026 in | Comments Off on Clayton-Frick Art Museum   In 1882, Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919), the wealthy industrialist famed for his patronage of the arts and violent opposition to organized labor, purchased an Italianate-style house on Pittsburgh’s “Millionaire’s Row.” He christened the property “Clayton” and hired prominent Pittsburgh architect Frederick J. Osterling (1865–1934) to expand the building, converting it into a grand French...
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Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring by Brad Gooch

Posted by on Oct 21, 2024 in | Comments Off on Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring by Brad Gooch Radiant The Life and Line of Keith Haring by Brad Gooch HarperCollins, 512 pp., hardcover $40 Pennsylvania-born artist Keith Haring (1958–90) produced one of the most recognizable visual styles in 20th-century art. His distinctive drawings of barking dogs, grinning hearts and crawling babies were ubiquitous in the art world and graffiti culture of the 1970s and 1980s and today remain iconic...
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The Barnes Then and Now, edited by Martha Lucy

Posted by on Mar 29, 2024 in | Comments Off on The Barnes Then and Now, edited by Martha Lucy The Barnes Then and Now Dialogues on Education, Installation, and Social Justice edited by Martha Lucy The Barnes Foundation, 304 pp., paperback $60 This volume offers a fresh, nuanced and substantial take on the history and current life of the storied collection of Dr. Albert C. Barnes and the broader legacy of Barnes himself. In The Barnes Then and Now, Barnes’ collecting and educational...
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The Plastic Club: Advancing Women Artists for 125 Years

Posted by on Dec 15, 2022 in | Comments Off on The Plastic Club: Advancing Women Artists for 125 Years In 1898 The History of the Woman’s Club Movement in America noted an unusual development in Pennsylvania. “There are in America many clubs for the furtherance of art interests — painters’ clubs, sculptors’ clubs, illustrators’ clubs — from which women are excluded. Philadelphia possesses an art club that excludes men. The Plastic Club, formed in the spring of 1897, has on its list of one hundred...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Dec 15, 2022 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter As Pennsylvania Heritage moves into its 49th year of publication with this issue, we present three features about Keystone State phenomena that are marked by longevity and progression through the years. One of the highlights of the first wave of the movement for women’s rights in Pennsylvania was the 1897 founding of the Plastic Club for women artists in Philadelphia. At the time, most women who...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Mar 9, 2020 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter Football, fine art, and festivals. Throughout the years, Pennsylvanians have received national acclaim in all three fields. Each has become a vital part of our shared heritage, engaging residents and representing the commonwealth’s rich and diverse culture. In this edition, you’ll find three outstanding features on prominent examples of these activities in the Keystone State. Football has been...
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Sol Mednick’s Photography

Posted by on Jan 14, 2020 in | Comments Off on Sol Mednick’s Photography In the mid-1950s, photographer Sol Mednick (1916–70) created this untitled gelatin silver print. Although no documentation has been found that describes the process by which the artist composed this mysterious, abstract image, it is clear that the camera was not the only tool used to achieve the strange effects in its composition. During the darkroom printing process Mednick apparently exposed...
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Sydney Ware, Eastern State Penitentiary Artist

Posted by on Dec 17, 2019 in | Comments Off on Sydney Ware, Eastern State Penitentiary Artist Built in the 1820s as part of a new type of prison system, Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia was founded on the belief that prisoners could be rehabilitated during incarceration through separate confinement and industrious labor. During the penitentiary’s span of operation, 1829–1971, numerous records were compiled about the inmates and maintained at the prison, including statistics on...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Dec 17, 2019 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter Welcome to the first issue of the 45th volume of Pennsylvania Heritage. Since the publication of the premiere edition of December 1974, more than 750 features on Pennsylvania history, culture and natural history by leading authors in their fields, as well as hundreds of columns and news items, have been printed in our quarterly magazine. In this anniversary edition we continue our tradition of...
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Harriet Lane Johnston: The Legacy of a White House Hostess

Posted by on Oct 29, 2019 in | Comments Off on Harriet Lane Johnston: The Legacy of a White House Hostess On the cool, overcast day of May 9, 2017, a dozen nurses from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center arrived by bus at Green Mount Cemetery, a leafy 19th-century oasis in center city Baltimore. They carried a generous bouquet of flowers to decorate the grave of Harriet Lane Johnston, niece of James Buchanan (1791–1868), Pennsylvania’s only U.S. president. “Without Harriet Lane, we don’t know what...
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