Mailbox

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Mailbox For continuing research, as well as a forthcoming article in Pennsylvania Heritage, on Philadelphia’s historic Fairmount Water Works, information and ephemera relating to the Fairmount Park Aquarium are being collected. The attraction, one of the first aquariums in the United States, opened to the public in 1911 in the engine house, began deteriorating after World War II, and finally dosed...
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“From the Things We Know Best”: The Art of William W. Swallow

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on “From the Things We Know Best”: The Art of William W. Swallow Two passions absorbed William W. Swallow (1912-1962) his entire life: art and the teaching of art. During a career that spanned just three decades, Swallow created ceramic sculptures that transformed the people and life of agrarian Pennsylvania into timeless, time­-honored icons. Although he achieved national fame, he continued – with singular devotion – teaching high school students...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Keystone of Democracy: A History of Pennsylvania Workers Howard Harris, editor, Perry K. Blatz, associate editor Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1999 (361 pages; cloth, 24.95; paper, 16.95) “Our greatest debt is to past, current, and future generations of Pennsylvania workers. In telling their story in these pages, we honor their efforts to define and sustain the promise of...
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From Manayunk to the Metropolitan: Philadelphia’s Martino Family of Artists

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on From Manayunk to the Metropolitan: Philadelphia’s Martino Family of Artists Asked to name a leading Pennsylvania family of artists, many will invariably cite the Calder, the Wyeth, or the Peale dynasties. But there is another family of fine artists, also deeply rooted in Philadelphia and environs, that produced credible and talented artists. They are the two generations of the Martino family — seven brothers, two wives, and two daughters. The talented brothers were the...
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