From the Executive Director

Posted by on Mar 19, 2021 in | Comments Off on From the Executive Director Over the past year, PHMC has been working on its new strategic plan. We have been thinking about what we are and what we need to be — for the Pennsylvanians we serve and as champions of history. Our mission is to discover, protect and share Pennsylvania’s past. We hope to inspire others to value and use our shared history in ways that are meaningful to them. In short, we see a future where...
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Trailheads

Posted by on Feb 10, 2021 in | Comments Off on Trailheads What is there left to say about 2020? In previous issues, we’ve chronicled the response of PHMC’s Trails of History sites to the COVID-19 pandemic. As of early October, it looked unlikely that sites would reopen by the end of the year. The uncertainty surrounding reopening sites and welcoming visitors in person has caused a great deal of frustration on all fronts. Nevertheless, our staff and...
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From the Executive Director

Posted by on Feb 5, 2021 in | Comments Off on From the Executive Director Although PHMC does not actively install historical monuments across the commonwealth, our Pennsylvania Historical Markers serve a similar purpose. Begun in 1914 and “updated” in 1946 with the advent of the blue-and-yellow, pole-mounted roadside plates, the markers represent an extraordinary public historiography (see “A Century of Marking History,” Fall 2014). They teach us not only about what...
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From the Executive Director

Posted by on Dec 23, 2020 in | Comments Off on From the Executive Director Our country is experiencing significant growing pains right now. The challenge we thought we had been facing solely with the COVID-19 pandemic has been compounded by an economic downturn, civil unrest, and an overdue conversation about race. History, which had taken a back seat to a STEM-focused world, now finds itself at the center of these conversations. History offers lessons about the past...
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From the Executive Director

Posted by on Oct 8, 2020 in | Comments Off on From the Executive Director Places can change you. Ordinarily, I write about Pennsylvania history here. But I recently returned from a trip to Montgomery, Alabama, and I came home a different person. Montgomery was not on my radar as a destination. Having little time to prepare for my trip (and consequently few expectations) left me wide open to surprise and to change. The city is home to two of our nation’s most...
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Trailheads

Posted by on Jun 8, 2020 in | Comments Off on Trailheads With more than 20 sites and museums on PHMC’s Pennsylvania Trails of History, each year is full of events, tours, programs and visits. Historical milestones are commemorated — such as the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings during World War II or the centennial of Pennsylvania’s ratification of the 19th Amendment — and “everyday” history is remembered in artifact exhibits, cooking...
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