Remembering Lattimer by Paul A. Shackel

Posted by on Mar 6, 2020 in | Comments Off on Remembering Lattimer by Paul A. Shackel Remembering Lattimer Labor, Migration, and Race in Pennsylvania Anthracite Country by Paul A. Shackel University of Illinois Press, 176 pp., paper $28 Amid significant industrial growth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the United States actively pursued workers outside the country. From the 1850s to the 1920s people from across the world flooded American industrial areas, redefining...
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Trailheads

Posted by on Feb 25, 2020 in | Comments Off on Trailheads History never truly sleeps on the Pennsylvania Trails of History, but winter is generally a slower season with reduced schedules and fewer programs and events. Charter Day, the celebration of Pennsylvania’s founding (the second Sunday in March), is the traditional start to our spring season. As the weather warms, activity increases at the sites and museums. The landscape loses its dull winter...
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Looking Back at 2018

Posted by on Jan 14, 2020 in | Comments Off on Looking Back at 2018 This past year marked the centennials of the end of World War I and the start of the 1918 influenza pandemic. Of special significance to Pennsylvania was the 300th anniversary of the death of founder William Penn. What follows is a brief glimpse of 2018 on the Pennsylvania Trails of History, a few highlights among many.   William Penn’s Legacy To commemorate the 300th anniversary of...
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Worthy of Preservation? Considering the Future of Architecture in Historic Preservation

Posted by on Aug 22, 2017 in | 0 comments The roots of historic preservation run deep in this country, especially in Pennsylvania. Taking hold in the 19th century as a response to unchecked modern development, the field has grown into a multidisciplinary profession, but what galvanizes concerned citizens to oppose the demolition of historic properties for new construction remains much the same today as two centuries ago. After the U.S....
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Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter

Posted by on Jun 13, 2017 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter Topics in the Summer 2017 Newsletter: Third Annual Giving Circle Dinner The Giving Circle PHF-Held Endowment Funds Whiskey Still for Fort Pitt Museum Collection PHF Welcomes New Board Member PHF Receives Grant in Partnership with Eckley Miners’ Village Join the Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation  ...
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Leroy Horlacher, World War I Conscientious Objector

Posted by on Mar 13, 2017 in | Comments Off on Leroy Horlacher, World War I Conscientious Objector During World War I, by the time of the first national registration on June 5, 1917, approximately 6,000 American men applied as conscientious objectors. Leroy Horlacher (1894–1981) was one of them. Horlacher was born in Hazleton, Luzerne County, where he began working at an early age in the silk mills as a weaver. In 1915 he became a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, or the...
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Anthracite Mining and the Slavic Immigration

Posted by on Jun 6, 2016 in | Comments Off on Anthracite Mining and the Slavic Immigration Those unfamiliar with Pennsylvania’s ethnic geography might be surprised to see a 1918 postcard penned in Russian like this one sent from Hazleton, Luzerne County, which translates as, “Tomorrow we are moving to a different place. Here is the address…. Greetings and kisses.” Following earlier immigration waves of primarily Northern and Western Europeans, the United States experienced an...
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Jim Popso’s Lokie

Posted by on Apr 19, 2016 in | Comments Off on Jim Popso’s Lokie   James “Jim” Popso (1922-98) documented the Pennsylvania anthracite coal region of the 20th century in folk art assemblages he made from scrap wood, found objects, glue, household supplies and bargain paints. For more than 20 years until his death, he handcrafted scenes of collieries, breakers, mining machinery and patch towns, most of them supplemented with his models of real...
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Coal Patch, Take Two: The Preservation of Eckley Miners’ Village

Posted by on Apr 19, 2016 in | Comments Off on Coal Patch, Take Two: The Preservation of Eckley Miners’ Village “A ghost town surrounded by strip mines.” That was how Eckley was described in the 1960s, a far cry from its heyday in the late 1800s when the coal-mining “patch town” had boasted a population of 1,500. At Eckley’s peak, more than 350 men and boys were engaged in mining nearly 144,000 tons of anthracite coal a year from local seams. By the 1960s, however, mining...
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Julius Bloch: The Time Has Come

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Julius Bloch: The Time Has Come Early in his career, artist Julius Bloch (1888-1966) painted serene landscapes, but the force of his compassion for the human struggle soon over­powered his heart and his canvas. He felt compelled to portray instead the blacks, the working poor, the unemployed that made up the fabric of American life during the Great Depression. In 1932, he won­dered in his journal why such somber subjects...
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