“Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair”

Posted by on Apr 12, 2016 in | Comments Off on “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair” Stephen Foster is widely considered to be America’s first great songwriter. He was born in Lawrenceville, Allegheny County, near Pittsburgh, on July 4, 1826. His first composition was published when he was 18 years old, and he would go on to write more than 250 songs, hymns and instrumental works during his lifetime, becoming the most important composer of popular music in 19th-century America....
read more

Bradford County: Sanctuary in the Meadows

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bradford County: Sanctuary in the Meadows It seemed as implausible as it was urgent: that French aristo­crats, the select inner circle closest to King Louis XVI, and perhaps even Marie Antionette herself, would flee the conti­nent and take refuge in the immense and isolated wilderness of what is now Bradford County. Implausible or not, a band of brave French exiles – the crown’s endangered courtiers and office­holders,...
read more

The ‘State’ of Allegheny

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on The ‘State’ of Allegheny One of the first centers of the organization of the Re­publican party and scene of its first national conven­tion in February, 1856, Allegheny County was strongly for Lincoln in the presidential election of 1860. As the vote count proceeded, one of the leaders kept sending telegrams to Lincoln’s home in Illinois, keeping him up on the news that “Allegheny gives a majority of …...
read more

Homeward Bound: An Interview with David McCullough

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Homeward Bound: An Interview with David McCullough David McCullough is a familiar name – and face. Known to millions as the author of bestselling books, including The Great Bridge, The Path Between the Seas, Truman, Mornings on Horseback, and Brave Companions, and as host of the popular PBS television series “Smithsonian World” and “The American Experience,” he is noted for his remarkable gift of writing richly...
read more

Currents

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Currents Hello, History! The former Chautauqua Lake Ice Company warehouse in Pittsburgh’s historic Strip District will come to life on Sunday, April 28 [1996], when it officially opens to the public as the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center. Renovated by the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, which has been protecting, preserving, and interpreting the history of the...
read more

Shorts

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Shorts “From Ft. Wagner to Verdun: African Americans in the U.S. Military, 1863-1918,” is on view at the Civil War Library and Museum in Philadelphia. The exhibition, continuing through August 30, 1998, showcases artifacts, objects, and documents chronicling the experience of African Americans in mili­tary service from the Civil War through World War I. The Civil War Library and Museum is...
read more

Letters to the Editor

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Letters to the Editor Green Thumbs Up! “Green Thumbs Up!” to Pennsylvania Heritage for the story on Pennsylvania gardens [“Old World Influences of Pennsylvania Gardens” by Myra K. Jacobsohn, Spring 2005]. ram most impressed by the gardens that the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission manages, particularly those at the Weiser Homestead. I drive by the property several times a year but...
read more

Camptown

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Camptown Stephen Collins Foster, son of Ger­man immigrants William Barclay and Eliza Tomlinson Foster, was born in Lawrenceville, near Pittsburgh, on July 4, 1826. As a child, he seemed to have more interest in music than in school. As a teen he was composing music, including “Oh! Susanna.” His first published song, “Open Thy Lattice Love,” was published in Philadelphia in 1844....
read more

The Stallion Register (1893-1907)

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Stallion Register (1893-1907) An Act to prevent deception and fraud by owners and agents who may have of control of any stallion kept for services, by proclaiming or publishing fraudulent or false pedi­grees or records, and to protect such owners or agents in the collection of fees for services of such stallions (Act 33) was passed by the state legisla­ture and signed into law on May 10, 1893, by Governor Robert E. Pattison....
read more

An Address for the Afterlife at Laurel Hill Cemetery

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on An Address for the Afterlife at Laurel Hill Cemetery It all began in 1836, when architect John Notman (1810–1865) laid out a series of meandering walkways and terraces on the east bank of the Schuylkill River above Fairmount Park. With his design for Laurel Hill Cemetery, the twenty-six-year-old native of Scotland created the first architecturally designed cemetery in the country. He also established the nation’s second garden-type cemetery,...
read more