The Jefferis Collection: A Pennsylvania Treasure

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Jefferis Collection: A Pennsylvania Treasure In February 1905, four men entered a small brick building on Miner Street in West Chester and began a month of careful labor. Using cotton and fine wood shavings, they individually wrapped 35,000 mineral speci­mens with their handwritten labels, carefully placed them into boxes, nailed the boxes shut and hauled box after box to the West Chester railroad station. Newspaper reporters kept the...
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The State Normal Schools: Teaching Teachers and Others

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on The State Normal Schools: Teaching Teachers and Others In view of their complex, if not complicated, information systems, computers and advanced technology seemingly snatched from the next century, Pennsylvania’s “modern” state universities evolved from what were originally called “normal” schools. During the last century, both educational and social traditions have changed drastically; in fact, nineteenth century...
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Chester County Welcomes Thee

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Chester County Welcomes Thee The history of Chester County constitutes a significant part of the history of Pennsylvania, both province and commonwealth, and of the history of the United States of America. At the beginning of our nation’s Bicentennial and on the threshold of our state’s and our county’s tricentennial celebrations, Chester County looks proudly upon its past accomplishments and with...
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Commemorating a Centennial by Revising a Vision

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Commemorating a Centennial by Revising a Vision The American museum was and is an idea. The European museum was a fact. Almost without exception the European museum was first a collection. With few exceptions most American museums were first an ideal,” Philadelphian Nathaniel Burt wrote in his 1977 history of the American museum, Palaces for People. Unlike their European counterparts, which were usually created to house the great...
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Lost and Found

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lost and Found Lost A century after its erection in 1870, and just one year after it was named to the National Register of Historic Places, Old Main, a landmark on the campus of what is today West Chester University of Pennsylvania in Chester County was demolished – despite protests by local, county, and state historical organizations, architects, even the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The...
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Principal’s Quarters, Keystone State Normal School, Kutztown, Pa.

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Principal’s Quarters, Keystone State Normal School, Kutztown, Pa. On a post card bearing an image entitled “Principal’s Quarters, Keystone State Normal School, Kutztown, Pa.,” and postmarked April 12, 1910, C. H. Yost inquired of Ella M. Kunkel, “Is the Normal crowded with new students this term? There are more here than there ever were.” Miss Kunkel’s address at West Chester and, especially, “W.C.S.N.S.,” suggests she was a student at what is today West...
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