A Gift from the Grave

Posted by on May 11, 2015 in | Comments Off on A Gift from the Grave Barbara Barksdale lowers her head and chuckles at the brief mention of her nickname. The lay historian from Steelton, Dauphin County, knows that she’s earned her humorous handle. She’s even incorporated it into her email address. “They call me the cemetery lady,” she says with just a hint of pride. For more than two decades, Barksdale has tended to the needs of the historic Midland Cemetery in...
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Dauphin County: Chocolates, Coal, and a Capital

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Dauphin County: Chocolates, Coal, and a Capital Dauphin County celebrates its two hundredth anniver­sary this year. The events and themes that are the history of the county reflect the experience of Pennsylvania and the United States. Dauphin County has never been a homogeneous commu­nity; indeed, it is difficult to consider it as a single commu­nity. From the beginning it has comprised individuals of diverse ethnic, national and religious...
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A Salute to the Bicentennial of the Keystone State

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on A Salute to the Bicentennial of the Keystone State The current Bicentennial celebration commemorates not the birth of the United States, but the proclama­tion of thirteen British-American colonies that were “free and independent states” as of July 4, 17.76. When they formed a loose compact in 1761, their articles of confederation declared that “each state retains its sover­eignty, freedom and independence.” The...
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Steel on the Susquehanna

Posted by on Nov 27, 2013 in | Comments Off on Steel on the Susquehanna Endless miles of steel track emerge from the gaping jaws of the roaring rail mill. Oper­ators in the cab above the line manipulate levers, as if pains­takingly choreographed, while red-hot rails shoot off the line, destined for the railroads of the world. What makes this scene unusual, is that it is occurs today. Far from the rusting hulks of the giant steel works of Pittsburgh, the Beth­lehem...
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Becoming a Journeyman Machinist

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Becoming a Journeyman Machinist I graduated from a four-year vocational machine shop program at Liberty High School in Bethlehem in June 1923, just before my seventeenth birthday on June 14. My father had been deceased since 1918, my mother was very ill, and it was necessary that I go to work. At that time, the Bethlehem Steel Company and the Bethlehem School District had formed an agreement providing that a graduate of this...
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Out and About

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Out and About Soul Soldiers The Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center recently unveiled the most comprehensive exhibition ever to explore the issues of the Vietnam War from an African American perspective. “Soul Soldiers: African Americans and the Vietnam Era” tells the story of the Vietnam War’s impact on African American life and culture by examining both the war and the civil rights...
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Photograph of Aviator Hubert Fountleroy Julian

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Photograph of Aviator Hubert Fountleroy Julian The Pennsylvania State Archives holds Manuscript Group 281, the Samuel W. Kuhnert Papers (1897-1976), which contains thirty cubic feet of materials, including more than six thousand photographic prints and negatives depicting the early years of aviation in central Pennsylvania. Born in Steelton, Dauphin County, Samuel W. Kuhnert (1890-1978) grew up on a farm near Halifax, Pennsylvania, and...
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