Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Nov 5, 2019 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter Forty some years ago, when I was in elementary school, I took a field trip with my science class to The State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg to see the dioramas of Pennsylvania’s wildlife in Mammal Hall. Walking around the dark, circular gallery, I peered through windows into the fascinating, realistic habitats of 13 mammals, from the common to the locally extinct, and was transported to...
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2017 Trails

Posted by on Oct 25, 2019 in | Comments Off on 2017 Trails Another year has passed on the Pennsylvania Trails of History. Exhibits, special events, thousands of visiting schoolchildren, more than a few beer and wine festivals, and several battle reenactments are now recorded in the books. As a way of wrapping up the year, we look back at a few milestones along the way. But before we turn our attention to the World War I centennial and an overview of...
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Into the Dark World of Catching Crooks, Culprits and Convicts: An Interview with Robert K. Wittman

Posted by on Mar 13, 2017 in | Comments Off on Into the Dark World of Catching Crooks, Culprits and Convicts: An Interview with Robert K. Wittman by Michael J. O’Malley III Robert King “Bob” Wittman in no way resembles the highly romanticized portrayals of FBI agents made famous over the decades by movie studios and television series. He is not the heavy-hitting, gang-busting, chain-smoking G-man, replete with fedora rakishly angled atop his head. Instead, he embodies the old-school preppy style – looking as though...
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Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter

Posted by on Mar 13, 2017 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter Topics in the Spring 2017 Newsletter: PHF Board Meets at Pennsbury Manor The Giving Circle PHF Welcomes Three New Board Members Historical Marker Scavenger Hunt at Pennsylvania Farm Show Join the Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation  ...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Dec 13, 2016 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter America is experiencing a beer renaissance that began three decades ago, and Pennsylvania has been at its forefront from the start. New craft breweries have flooded the market with an amazing variety of styles, diversifying the taste buds of beer drinkers nationwide. The Brewers Association (BA) defines a craft brewer as independent, small (6 million barrels or less a year) and traditional...
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Craft Brewing: Another Revolution in Pennsylvania

Posted by on Dec 13, 2016 in | Comments Off on Craft Brewing: Another Revolution in Pennsylvania The history of brewing beer in Pennsylvania has seen heights of success and pits of disaster. The commonwealth grew from colonial home-brewing roots to become a recognized industrial center, home to some of the most notable brewers in America before the disaster of Prohibition. After bouncing back with Repeal, Pennsylvania clung to its established favorites longer than any other state, savoring...
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William Penn’s Side Chair

Posted by on Dec 13, 2016 in | Comments Off on William Penn’s Side Chair Pennsylvania founder and first proprietor William Penn lived in his colony for a total of only four years during two trips of two years each, 1682-84 and 1699-1701. Even before his first visit he had engaged his agent to purchase from the Lenapes land along the Delaware River that would become Pennsbury Manor, intended to be his permanent summer home in America. As fate would have it, however,...
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Preservation Trails

Posted by on Apr 19, 2016 in | Comments Off on Preservation Trails As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act, it’s natural to look back on the work undertaken by PHMC staff through the years. As an agency, PHMC has helped to shape the history profession and Pennsylvania’s landscape through a wide range of preservation projects at Pennsylvania Trails of History sites, as well as through its role as the State...
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The Philadelphia Country House by Mark Reinberger and Elizabeth McLean

Posted by on Apr 19, 2016 in | Comments Off on The Philadelphia Country House by Mark Reinberger and Elizabeth McLean The Philadelphia Country House: Architecture and Landscape in Colonial America by Mark Reinberger and Elizabeth McLean Johns Hopkins University Press, 464 pp., cloth $69.95 Architectural historian Reinberger and garden specialist McLean’s Philadelphia Country House is the most complete study ever of the city’s colonial rural residences. It is likely to remain the definitive word on...
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From the Executive Director

Posted by on Apr 19, 2016 in | Comments Off on From the Executive Director For many of us, spring is the traditional season to think about nature and the great outdoors, but here at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), we think about it all year long. It’s hard to separate Pennsylvania’s history from its natural history; in fact, PHMC is officially charged with “the conservation of Pennsylvania’s historic and natural...
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