Made Free and Thrown Open to the Public by Bernadette A. Lear

Posted by Marilyn Harhai on May 13, 2022 in | Comments Off on Made Free and Thrown Open to the Public by Bernadette A. Lear Made Free and Thrown Open to the Public Community Libraries in Pennsylvania from the Colonial Era through World War II by Bernadette A. Lear University of Pittsburgh Press, 368 pp., hardcover $60 Most people are familiar with public libraries and may know about current challenges they face, such as censorship, neutrality and equity, and their role in response to national crises. Those topics...
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From the PHMC Chair

Posted by Nancy Moses on Aug 22, 2017 in | 0 comments “There’s a new term in today’s newspaper,” my husband said. “The term is ‘fabricated lies.’” My husband, an especially avid news consumer, is our inhouse pundit. He regularly reports out on such things. The “fabricated lies” to which he is referring is only the latest in a string of confusing terms that have become so common we hardly notice them. False news. Fake science. It’s become...
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Delaware County: Where Pennsylvania Began

Posted by Nancy Webster on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Delaware County: Where Pennsylvania Began Delaware County is part of the densely populated belt around Philadelphia, stretching from the city’s western boundary to the circular Delaware state line. Covering approx­imately 185 square miles, it is the third smallest Pennsylvania county yet the fourth largest in population. Its southern boundary is formed by the Delaware River, from which the county takes its name. The site of early...
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Clinton County: Still Part of Penn’s Woods

Posted by Rebecca Gross on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Clinton County: Still Part of Penn’s Woods Clinton County, one of the sixth-class counties of Pennsyl­vania, occupies 900 square miles of river valley and mountain land near the geographical center of the state. Nearly two-thirds of the area re­mains forested, al though most of the trees are second growth after a near denuding of the land by a booming lumber industry in the second half of the last century. It was in the wood­lands of...
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Crawford County: Welcoming the 21st Century

Posted by Anne Stewart on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Crawford County: Welcoming the 21st Century We passed over some good land since we eft Venango, and through several extensive and very rich meadows, one of which, I believe, was nearly four miles in length, and consid­erably wide in some places. Twenty-one year old George Washington, who would in time become a major landholder and land specula­tor, described Crawford County in 1753 as he carried a dispatch demanding the com­mander of the...
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The ‘State’ of Allegheny

Posted by George Swetnam on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on The ‘State’ of Allegheny One of the first centers of the organization of the Re­publican party and scene of its first national conven­tion in February, 1856, Allegheny County was strongly for Lincoln in the presidential election of 1860. As the vote count proceeded, one of the leaders kept sending telegrams to Lincoln’s home in Illinois, keeping him up on the news that “Allegheny gives a majority of …...
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A Step Back In Time: Graeme Park, Colonial Country Estate

Posted by Sharon Silverman on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on A Step Back In Time: Graeme Park, Colonial Country Estate Some call it a time capsule from the eighteenth century, others, a place hallmarked by beauty and tranquility, ambition and greed, deceit and scan­dal, joy and happiness, sadness and sorrow – all of which have left an indelible spiritual imprint. But mostly, Graeme Park, a country estate less than twenty miles north of Philadelphia in Horsham, Montgomery County, is a place of pure paradox....
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History and Community: Pennsylvania’s First Lady Makes The Connection, An Interview with Michele M. Ridge

Posted by Brent Glass on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on History and Community: Pennsylvania’s First Lady Makes The Connection, An Interview with Michele M. Ridge When flood waters threatened the Governor’s Residence in Harrisburg in January 1996, Michele M. Ridge quickly transformed herself from First Lady to First Curator of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Within hours, she assembled a team of National Guardsmen, weekend staff at the resi­dence, and specialists of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission to move endangered works of art,...
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