Pennsylvania Polymath: Samuel Stehman Haldeman

Posted by on Jun 8, 2020 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Polymath: Samuel Stehman Haldeman Samuel Stehman Haldeman was a pioneer in American science with an uncompromising empirical bent who made definitive contributions in geology, metallurgy, zoology and the scientific study of language. His groundbreaking lifework touched nearly seven decades of science and included identification of one of the oldest fossils in Pennsylvania, elucidation of a plan for an anthracite coal furnace for...
read more

Natural History Trails

Posted by on Oct 30, 2019 in | Comments Off on Natural History Trails Charles Willson Peale’s Philadelphia Museum, although relatively short-lived, influenced the development of similar projects elsewhere. In 1827, the year Peale died, the Harmony Society at Economy in Pennsylvania opened one of the first natural history museums west of the Alleghenies. Like Peale’s museum, the Harmonist effort was largely exhausted by the middle of the 19th century, and its...
read more

Thomas Say: Pennsylvania Entomologist

Posted by on Apr 19, 2016 in | Comments Off on Thomas Say: Pennsylvania Entomologist Thomas Say was a keen observer of living things. In a scientific era that cherished primacy in classification and description, Say was renowned for his work. He named approximately 1,500 North American insects and scores of other species. This accomplishment alone could justify scientist Benjamin Silliman’s assertion that Say “has done more to make known the zoology of this country,...
read more

Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Apr 19, 2016 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter There are more than 90,500 districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In Pennsylvania alone there are more than 3,300 listed properties. The National Register was created as part of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), now in effect for 50 years and enacted on the assumption that preservation of “irreplaceable heritage...
read more

The Craighead Family

Posted by on Jun 19, 2015 in | Comments Off on The Craighead Family The Craighead family’s love of the outdoors was fostered at their summer home on the Yellow Breeches Creek outside of Boiling Springs, Cumberland County. Frank “Rattlesnake” Craighead (1890–1982), his brother Eugene (1893–1959) and the family’s next generation of naturalists discovered the wonders of nature in the nearby fields, streams, meadows and mountains. Frank earned his nickname by...
read more