Piecing Together Pandenarium: Archaeology at the Site of a Free Black Community in Western Pennsylvania

Posted by on Mar 22, 2021 in | Comments Off on Piecing Together Pandenarium: Archaeology at the Site of a Free Black Community in Western Pennsylvania In 1854 newly freed African American men, women and children hailing from a plantation in Ablemarle County, Virginia, arrived at a dusty country crossroads in northwestern Pennsylvania’s Mercer County. Estimates vary, but approximately 63 free people settled together on 100 acres of their own land. Local abolitionists prepared for the arrival by building houses along the hill, digging wells, and...
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History is Alive and Well in Beaver County

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on History is Alive and Well in Beaver County On June 6, 1824, the steamboat Ploughboy with the first contingent of Harmony Society members came around the bend in the river at Legionville; the skipper gave a cannon salute. After dropping anchor, the passengers disembarked and made camp. The following day, Father Rapp, leader of the Harmonists, wrote to the remaining members at New Harmony: “I consider this place the most healthful in...
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Lost and Found

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lost and Found Lost Described as “an influential organization of artists and citizens,” the Philadelphia Art Club was housed in a building designed in 1892 by architect Frank Miles Day (1861-1918). The building was the first significant commission for Day, who had just returned from studies in Europe, which explains his use of unusual expansive arches, delicate stone window lintels, ornamental...
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A Trio of Philadelphia Maritime Painters

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on A Trio of Philadelphia Maritime Painters Oceans and seas have long challenged civilization’s adventurous spirit. Sailors and their ships have struggled against billowing winds and sweeping tides, as well as fires, piracy, collisions, and warfare. All of this has been celebrated in story and song — and in works of art. Artists of the day captured both the beauty and the rigors of those wonderful ships in their coveted canvases. Three of...
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