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...
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The Year That Was

Posted by on May 8, 2015 in | Comments Off on The Year That Was 2014 was a good year on the Pennsylvania Trails of History, with more than half a million visitors to sites spread across the Commonwealth. Long-standing programs continued to draw crowds, and many sites branched out in new directions as well. Trying new things can present challenges, but our staff and volunteers are committed to expanding audiences and generating new resources to keep sites...
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Unlikely Capitalists: Harmonists as Textile Manufacturers

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Unlikely Capitalists: Harmonists as Textile Manufacturers At the end of the eighteenth century, George Rapp (1757-1847) planned to create a religious community in the wilderness as near to heaven on earth as was humanly possible. He succeeded to a large extent, but in the process achieved a different kind of success: he created one of the largest textile manufacturing enter­prises in the Pennsylvania of his time. While still in his native Württemburg,...
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Graphic Arts of Harmony Society

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Graphic Arts of Harmony Society You shall not make unto yourself any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in the heavens above or the earth beneath … (Exodus 20:4). How can you have art when you cannot have “graven images?” The Harmony Society (1785-1905) believed in the literal truth of the Bible and followed all of the injunctions carefully, including the third commandment quoted above....
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Harmony in the Wilderness: A Walk through Old Economy Village

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Harmony in the Wilderness: A Walk through Old Economy Village Imagine a band of religious zealots creating a community, furnishing households, and planting flowers on western Pennsylvania’s frontier with the absolute certainty that the second coming was imminent and that Jesus Christ would walk the garden paths and be made welcome in their homes. That’s what George Rapp (1757-1847) and his harmonist followers believed. Such was his confidence...
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Garden Temple at Old Economy Village

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Garden Temple at Old Economy Village One of the earliest gardens in the United States, the garden at Old Economy Village in Ambridge, Beaver County, symbolized the Garden of Eden for the Harmony Society, which occupied the complex from 1824 until it was dissolved in 1905. The nineteenth-century Christian community, best known for its piety and industrial prosperity, was founded by George Rapp (1757-1847) who believed that the...
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Extreme Makeover: History Edition

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Extreme Makeover: History Edition Extreme might be a hyperbole but the current restoration of the interior of the Rapp House at Old Economy Village in Ambridge, Beaver County, is a significant undertaking nevertheless. The project will provide a substantive update to the initial restoration work in the 1960s. Old Economy Village presents the remarkable story of the Harmony Society, a Christian communal group with roots in what...
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A Century of Wine: Viniculture of the Harmony Society

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on A Century of Wine: Viniculture of the Harmony Society The Harmony Society was a religious communal group that immigrated to the United States in 1805 from Württemberg, Germany. Members established their first home just north of Pittsburgh in the small community of Harmony, Butler County, near Zelienople. After ten years the Harmonists moved to the Indiana Territory and established their second community which they also called Harmony, now known as...
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