Free-Thinking, 19th-Century Style

Posted by on Dec 2, 2013 in | Comments Off on Free-Thinking, 19th-Century Style Francis Ellingwood Abbot (1836–1903) was nothing if not determined. In 1872, as editor of The Index, the nation’s leading free-thought magazine, he began to muster the full force of his small army of subscribers against what was being called “the God-in-the-Constitution amendment.” A philosopher and theologian, he sought to reconstruct theology in accordance with scientific methodology. From the...
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The Swedes and Dutch in the Land of the Lenape

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Swedes and Dutch in the Land of the Lenape More than half a century before the Eng­lish and German migrations brought large numbers of people into William Penn’s colony on the Dela­ware, three distinct populations had entered into this ancient land of the Lenape. By 1630 Susquehannock invaders as well as Swedish and Dutch traders had established themselves in the Delaware Valley. Very little has been written about the Susquehannock...
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The Apotheosis of George Washington: America’s Cincinnatus and the Valley Forge Encampment

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Apotheosis of George Washington: America’s Cincinnatus and the Valley Forge Encampment In the early evening hours of December 19, 1777, the Continental Army, commanded by Gen. George Washington, marched into Valley Forge to encamp for the winter while the British occupied Philadelphia. Within days, six inches of snow blanketed the ground and the nearby Schuylkill River was frozen solid. Undernourished and poorly clothed, and with no immediate prospects for provisioning, many of...
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Lost and Found

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lost and Found Lost Strained by the weight of nearly a half-million pounds of snow during what has become known as the Winter of 1994, the century-old Mount Gretna Playhouse collapsed in February. The historic open-air theater was built in the Lebanon County summer resort in 1892 by carpenter John Cilley, a self­-taught engineer. Measuring one hundred feet in diameter and shaped like an umbrella, the...
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Explaining William Penn on the 350th Anniversary of His Birth: An Interview with Richard S. Dunn

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Explaining William Penn on the 350th Anniversary of His Birth: An Interview with Richard S. Dunn In his journal entry of December 29, 1667, noted seventeenth century English diarist Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) wrote that his young neighbor William Penn “has returned from Ireland a Quaker – or some very melancholy thing – that he cares for no company, nor comes into any.” For Pepys, who despised the noncon­formist Quakers, Penn’s reclusiveness was “a...
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Shorts

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Shorts The Friends of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission is offering an in-depth study tour of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania on Monday, October 16 [1995]. Sessions include an exploration of the museum’s extensive collections and the history of the Pennsylvania Railroad, in addition to a living history performance by Richard L. Pawling and lunch on the Strasburg Railroad...
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18th Century Drum at Fort Pitt Museum

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on 18th Century Drum at Fort Pitt Museum Discovered in New England in the 1970s, a rare mid-eighteenth-century French military drum has intrigued visitors to the Fort Pitt Museum in Point State Park, Pittsburgh, since being placed on exhibit in 2003. The drum, predating 1760, retains its distinctive decoration, including the royal crown of France, an oval containing three fleurs-de-lis, and branches bearing berries on a blue...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Vietnam Zippos: American Soldiers’ Engravings and Stories, 1965–1973 by Sherry Buchanan published by the University of Chicago Press, 2007; 180 pages, cloth, $25.00 For generations of Americans, it was an icon with the decidedly distinctive click. Invented by George G. Blaisdell, the first Zippo® lighter was manufactured by the Zippo Manufacturing Company, Bradford, Bradford County, seventy-five...
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Rediscovering the People’s Art: New Deal Murals in Pennsylvania’s Post Offices

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Rediscovering the People’s Art: New Deal Murals in Pennsylvania’s Post Offices On a February morning in 1937, artist George Warren Rickey (1907-2002) and a group of four men met at the post office in Selinsgrove, Snyder County. Armed with cloth-covered rolling pins, the men attached Rickey’s mural entitled Susquehanna Trail to one of the lobby’s end walls. After six hours, they transformed the entire blank white wall, from marble wainscoting to ceiling, into a...
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Laughing with Philadelphia Stooge Larry Fine

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Laughing with Philadelphia Stooge Larry Fine During the 1938 Independence Day weekend, hundreds of Philadelphians flocked to Atlantic City, lured by the sparkling beach and the frenetic boardwalk with its extravaganza of amusement rides, theaters, arcades, and Steel Pier, the showplace of the New Jersey shore. Many stood in line at Steel Pier waiting to see three men who had captured their hearts and imaginations — The Three Stooges. The...
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