Executive Director’s Message

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Executive Director’s Message It is with great pride that I introduce this twentieth anniversary issue of Pennsylvania Heritage. The changes and improvements in both content and design of the magazine have been remarkable. We have been able to move from what had been essentially a newsletter format with features about the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) to a handsome, richly illustrated magazine with a...
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Executive Director’s Message

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Executive Director’s Message “Pennsylvania Memories Last a Lifetime.” A new tourism marketing campaign offers many opportunities and a new approach to call attention to the Keystone State’s rich and varied histori­cal and cultural assets. Pennsylvania’s amazing array of memorable places gives travelers a deeper appreciation of our national heritage while providing an enjoyable family experience. An...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf The Lincoln Highway by Brian A. Butko Stackpole Books, 1996 (321 pages, paper, $16.95) Established in 1913, the Lincoln Highway became the first automobile roadway to cross the United States. It stretched east from New York’s Tunes Square to San Francisco at a time when rural roads were little more than rutty wagon paths. The Lincoln Highway Association was organized “to procure the...
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Executive Director’s Message

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Executive Director’s Message Pennsylvania’s archaeological and architectural heritage offer an extraordinary meld of buildings, sites, structures, districts, neighborhoods, villages, and landscapes representing every period of our prehistory and history. Public and private efforts to protect this legacy date to the nineteenth century at places such as Independence Hall, the Gettysburg Battlefield, Valley Forge, and...
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Executive Director’s Message

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Executive Director’s Message State historical markers, one of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s oldest and most popular programs, are in the spotlight again this year with two exciting initiatives. First, the Commission just published the sixth edition of our perennially popular Guide to the State Historical Markers of Pennsylvania. The guidebook, totaling four hundred and fifty pages, locates more...
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Lost and Found

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lost and Found Lost Completed in 1910, the Community Inn in Hershey, Dauphin County, originally housed the Hershey Store Company and the Hershey Inn. In 1920 the store moved out, and in 1936 Hershey architect D. Paul Witmer redesigned the structure, adding two floors. The newly named Community Inn provided tourist accommodations, a grill, and a very popular oyster bar. Refurbished in 1958, it was renamed the...
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Executive Director’s Message

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Executive Director’s Message What will be the future of the past? Understanding history is most useful as a way to understanding our present circumstances and as a guide to new opportunities and challenges that lie ahead of us. In this, my final column as executive director of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), I am identifying four major trends that will shape the role of archives, museums, historic...
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Bringing German Culture to Life at the Landis Valley Museum

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bringing German Culture to Life at the Landis Valley Museum Not far from a paved Lancaster County road and the distant buzz of afternoon traffic, Pennsylvania’s centuries-old German culture is alive and well. At the Landis Valley Museum on Kissel Hill Road, in Lancaster, one of the popular stops along the Pennsylvania Trails of History administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), members of the Pennsylvania Conservation Corps...
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Pennsylvania Heritage Society Newsletter

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Heritage Society Newsletter Topics in the Spring 2011 Newsletter: Signature Series Pennsylvania Heritage Society Awarded IMLS Grant Welcome New PHS Staff Calendar for April – June 2011 Penn National Insurance Supports State Museum Field Trips April – June 2011 Pennsylvania Civil War 150 Road Show Schedule A Face-lift for the State Archives Welcome New State Museum Affiliate Members Welcome New PHS Members Save...
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On the Road in Search of William Penn’s Holy Experiment

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on On the Road in Search of William Penn’s Holy Experiment When we think of historic sites in Pennsylvania, places such as the hallowed ground at Gettysburg, Philadelphia’s stately Independence Hall, or Fort Pitt in Pittsburgh, immediately come to mind. These places are normally associated with great military engagements or important political events. Yet when William Penn (1644–1718) ruminated about the things that would make Pennsylvania unique, he...
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