Bookshelf
Written by PA Heritage Staff in the Bookshelf category and the Summer 1992 issue Topics in this article:The Battle for Homestead, 1880-1892: Politics, Culture, and Steel
by Paul Krause
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992 (548 pages, paper, $19.95)
The Battle for Homestead – as its subtitle suggests – examines the politics, culture, and morality of steelmaking in late nineteenth century America by tracing the circuitous path that led businessmen, engineers, entrepreneurs, politicians, and workers to the site of the world’s largest and most “progressive” steel mill and of the country’s most infamous debate about steel and labor: Homestead, Pennsylvania. Homestead attracted national attention well before Andrew Carnegie’s chief of operations, Henry Clay Frick, a notorious opponent of unions, inaugurated the June 29, 1892, lockout of thirty-eight hundred men at the Homestead Steel Works located six miles upstream from Pittsburgh (see “‘The Public is Entitled to Know’: Fighting for the Public Memory of Henry Clay Frick” by Brent D. Glass in the winter 1992 edition of Pennsylvania Heritage). The dramatic events of this lockout – in particular, the pitched battle between the steelworkers and the three hundred Pinkerton Detective Agency guards summoned by Frick – are among the most familiar in American history. For many, the story of the lockout is as famous for the violent events that punctuated it as for the way it ended – with a resounding defeat for unionism in the steel industry. In The Battle for Homestead, 1880-1892: Politics, Culture, and Steel, the author goes far beyond recounting the events which have been characterized as the most “savage and significant chapter” in the history of American labor, and discusses relevant topics, including labor reform in Pittsburgh between 1867 and 1881, the capitalists who financed the nation’s great steel companies, the dual personalities of Andrew Carnegie as robber baron and philanthropist, and the legacies of Homestead in the century following the 1892 strike.
Severin Roesen
by Judith Hansen O’Toole
The Greater Williamsport Community Arts Council, 1992 (139 pages, cloth, $55.00)
Severin Roesen was a prolific painter whose influence on the American still life tradition during the second half of the nineteenth century was far-reaching. His work is representative of the European tenets brought to the United States by fellow German artists who fled to this country in the mid-nineteenth century. The quality of Roesen’s work has caused him to be represented in virtually every discussion of American still life painting, and his works are in a number of prestigious collections, both public and private. Severin Roesen outlines the little known biographical information on this elusive, somewhat itinerant, painter who was active in this country from 1848, when he arrived in New York City, until 1872, when he mysteriously disappeared – without a trace – from Williamsport, Lycoming County, where he had been living since 1860. Roesen’s exact birthdate remains unknown, but the year of his birth has been established as 1815 or 1816 through census records, which document his age as forty-four in 1860 while he was living in Huntingdon, Huntingdon County. Records of the American Art Union in New York provide evidence of his participation in exhibitions and sales from 1848 to 1852, when the Art Union closed. City directories for New York list his address until 1858; only the names of his wife and children appear in subsequent editions. Severin Roesen is known to have visited many communities in Pennsylvania before settling in Williamsport, where he worked for twelve years – the longest period that he would work in any American city. He enjoyed the patronage of the booming lumber town’s residents, often living by the barter system, and offering classes to aspiring local artists. Roesen’s paintings of lush floral still lifes can be best analyzed in the context of the Dutch tradition, with regard to the tastes of Victorian America. His ebullient and lavish compositions parallel the sentiments expressed by the grand landscapes of the concurrent Hudson River Valley artists, which celebrate the splendor of the country’s natural resources as a source of national pride. As a teacher, Roesen had a tremendous impact on American painters who turned to the still life tradition in significant numbers late in the century. Although Severin Roesen is not a catalogue raisonne, it is a checklist of more than two hundred and fifty known works by the artist, many of which are illustrated by stunning full-color plates.
A History of Adams County, Pennsylvania, 1700-1990
by Robert L. Bloom
Adams County Historical Society, 1992 (489 pages, cloth, $55.00)
Although the history of Adams County has been previously researched and interpreted by historians and writers, not one major study has been published in the last century. (The last general book to appear was History of Adams County edited by H. C. Bradsby in 1886.) This book is a survey of Adams County’s history, from the opening of the eighteenth century through 1990. The author opens A History of Adams County, Pennsylvania, 1700-1990, with a chapter entitled “Creating a County, 1700-1800,” in which he contends that the county can claim “a tangible and surviving record of prehistoric life” by citing the state geologist’s report in 1937 of the discovery of a dinosaur’s footprints in the region. The reader soon learns that this is no ordinary county history. What the author provides is an insightful, in-depth, and, at times, exhaustive foray into nearly three centuries of Adams County’s heritage and culture. In addition to his painstakingly researched conclusions, the author is reflective and contemplative, eager to place this local history in a context that can be appreciated by many. A History of Adams County is well-organized, recalling the style of traditional county histories with sections devoted to the professions, industry, politics, urban life, leisure time, and education, among many others. The book features a number of early photographs, charts, population tables, a select bibliography, and an index.
Mary Grew, Abolitionist and Feminist (1813-1896)
by Ira V. Brown
Susquehanna University Press, 1991 (214 pages, cloth, $35.00)
This is the first full-length biography of Mary Grew (1813-1896), an American abolitionist and feminist. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, she settled in Philadelphia in 1834, where she resided until her death. Despite considerable illness, she worked steadily in the antislavery campaign from 1834 to 1865, in the Black suffrage campaign from 1865 to 1870, and in the women’s rights movement from 1848 to 1892, her eightieth year. Mary Grew was corresponding secretary of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society from 1836 until 1870, authoring its annual reports and working with Lucretia Mott and Sarah Pugh. She took part in the three Anti-Slavery Conventions of American Women held in 1837, 1838, and 1839. She was one of eight women delegates denied seats in the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention that met in London in 1840 and from which Elizabeth Cady Stanton dated the inception of the women’s rights movement. Also active in the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, Grew served as a member of its executive committee from 1844 to 1865, and for several years edited its newspaper, the Pennsylvania Freeman. Beginning in 1848 she labored for married women’s property legislation. When the Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association, an affiliate of Lucy Stone’s American Woman Suffrage Association, was organized in 1869, Grew was chosen its president, a position she held until 1892. Mary Grew, Abolitionist and Feminist (1813-1896) is based chiefly on primary sources and to a great extent the subject is allowed to tell her own story in her own words, as she was a gifted writer and an able public speaker. The author used Crew’s letters, the minute books and correspondence of the Philadelphia Female AntiSlavery Society and the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, in addition to the Pennsylvania Freeman, National Anti-Slavery Standard, and Woman’s Journal to portray the life and contributions of this remarkable Pennsylvanian.
Architecture of the Pennsylvania Dutch Country, 1700-1900
by Henry J. Kauffman
Olde Springfield Shoppe, 1992 (153 pages, paper, $15.95)
Including samples of rural building styles – represented by smokehouses, barns, spring houses, bake ovens, ice houses, and, of course, residences – Architecture of the Pennsylvania Dutch Country, 1700-1900, is a survey of the domestic architecture of a region that has become commonly (and mistakenly) dubbed “Pennsylvania Dutch.” For this study, “Pennsylvania Dutch Country” refers to the Commonwealth’s southeastern counties where the “Dutch” (so called by the English) influence was the strongest and where it remains an integral part of the area’s culture to this day. This book focuses only on the products of three ethnic groups in Pennsylvania: the German, the Swiss, and the English. Building styles are discussed in chapters entitled “Architecture of the Dutch Country, 1700-1750,” “Georgian Style, 1750-1800,” “PostGeorgian Style, 1800-1850,” “Victorian Style, 1850-1900,” “Outbuildings,” and “Other Buildings.” illustrations of landmarks throughout southeastern Pennsylvania – of which a dozen appear in color – include, among others, Rock Ford-Kauffman Mansion, Ephrata Cloister, and the Hans Herr House, Lancaster County; the Peter Wentz Farmstead, Montgomery County; Tulpehocken Manor, Lebanon County; and the Golden Plough Tavern, York County.
Susquehanna Heartland
by Ruth Hoover Seitz
RB Books, 1992 (120 pages, cloth, $24.95)
The Susquehanna River is a great river. Its main artery lazily meanders through central Pennsylvania, from Northumberland County, and through northern Maryland to Havre de Grace, where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay. This great waterway – the Keystone State’s longest river – forged its course during the past two hundred million years. The author’s succinct narratives provide historical background for Blair Seitz’s striking photographs of the Susquehanna River and the portraits of the people who live and work on and near its banks. Susquehanna Heartland is a cornucopia of dazzling pictures which capture not only the heart of the river valley, but also its pulse. This book puts the Susquehanna River within easy reach of the reader who will be enchanted by the soft photographs of interiors, glimmering in hues of rose gold, and delighted by breathtaking images of the great outdoors, particularly the river at sunset. The photographer portrays the landmarks that hallmark the Susquehanna River Valley: the Millersburg Ferry, John Harris Mansion, Wright’s Ferry Mansion, and Pennsylvania’s State Capitol. Above all, Susquehanna Heartland – through more than one hundred and seventy photographs – is a moving tribute to one of the Commonwealth’s most beautiful and historic regions.
Battling the Indians, Panthers, and Nittany Lions
by E. Lee North
Daring Books, 1991 (287 pages, cloth, $34.95)
Most small college football teams have only dreamed of playing in the big leagues with the giants of the game. However, Washington and Jefferson College of Washington, Pennsylvania, not only dreamed, but overcame great odds to become a serious contender against such formidable rivals as the University of Pittsburgh, the Pennsylvania State University, and West Virginia University. The little western Pennsylvania school consistently trimmed the University of Pittsburgh and West Virginia University in its early decades of football. In 1922, Washington and Jefferson College’s fabled team, the Red and Black, played in the Rose Bowl. Between 1910 and 1930, the team played – and trounced! – a number of college teams, including those of Yale University, Lafayette College, and Syracuse University (see “Pennsylvania Gridiron: Washington & Jefferson College’s First Century of Football” by E. Lee North in the fall 1990 edition of Pennsylvania Heritage). Subtitled The Story of Washington & Jefferson College’s Century of Football, 1890-1990, this book is more than a celebration of the school’s centennial year in football; it is an insightful and sensitive portrayal of the individuals – college leaders, coaches, and players-who understood the sacred tradition of fair play. Battling the Indians, Panthers, and Nittany Lions includes numerous vintage photographs, many of which depict the excitement and drama of the game.