Currents
Written by PA Heritage Staff in the Current and Coming category and the Winter 1989 issue Topics in this article:Important Pieces Acquired
The Heritage Center of Lancaster County recently received six significant pieces for its permanent collection, including five examples of documented nineteenth century furniture manufactured in the county and a rare firematic document.
A paint decorated mid-nineteenth century chest, bearing the label of a Petersburg, Lancaster County, craftsman is an extremely important addition to the center’s collection of regional furniture. The printed paper label affixed to the rear of the chest identifies the maker as Jacob M. Kauffman, and advertises his ability “to manufacture to order at his shop at Petersburg, all kinds of cabinetware.” Kauffman’s label also advertises his services as both an undertaker and printer. The exterior of the small walnut and pine chest is paint decorated with a faux grained finish.
A second paint decorated chest, augmenting the center’s collection of Lancaster County Amish decorative arts bears on its backboard the inscription, “made Mar … 1895/by E. Fisher.” The dovetailed chest, retaining its original red paint, features a decoupaged pansy, flanked by the initials “F.F.” over the date “1895” on its front. Chests of this type are typically attributed to the workshop of local Amish cabinetmaker Henry Lapp.
A chest of drawers, bearing the label of William Frick, a cabinetmaker who once maintained a shop on Lancaster’s North Queen.Street, is made of cherry with a mahogany veneer. The distinctive chest has paneled sides, high turned feet and is one of only two known labeled pieces of Lancaster County furniture which pre-date the Victorian era.
Made in Lititz about 1807, and attributed to Adolph Lichtenthaeler, the high chest of drawers recalls the elegant Federal style. Lichtenthaeler, a well-known Lititz cabinetmaker, is known to have made armchairs for the old Capitol in Harrisburg in 1821.
The early nineteenth century tall case clock, signed by Josiah Shufflebottom of Lancaster, is crafted of mahogany and mahogany veneer. The clock is fitted with an eight day movement and decorated with an unsigned painted dial.
The elaborately framed calligraphic certificate was originally presented in 1858 by the volunteers of the Friendship Fire Company of Lancaster to riflemaker and prominent citizen Henry E. Leman. The hand-drawn and lettered certificate, surrounded by an ornate ornamental frame, includes what is believed to be the earliest known photograph of a Lancaster volunteer fire company. The certificate, bearing an “Extract from the Minutes” of the Friendship Fire Company, was presented to Leman by the members as a gesture of thanks for his gift of a decorative ceremonial silver speaking trumpet, which had already been acquired by the Heritage Center of Lancaster County.
For additional information regarding the changing exhibits of the center, write: Heritage Center of Lancaster County, Box 997, Lancaster, PA 17603; or telephone (717) 299-6440.
Crocks, Jugs and Jars
Throughout the nineteenth century, a myriad of forms made of red clay or dense kaslin clay were available to consumers in central Pennsylvania, particularly in the broad Susquehanna Valley. Everyday household and utilitarian objects – such as plates, bowls, platters, porringers, jugs, jars and crocks – were common items manufactured in great quantities in the last century.
Redware, made from common low fire clays, was one of the first media used by American potters. It remained a household staple well into the third quarter of the nineteenth century, when stoneware replaced it as the most popular ceramic for utilitarian wares. Potters in small communities in central Pennsylvania turned out their share of both redware and stoneware pottery, much of which has become extremely popular with museum curators and antiques collectors.
The Packwood House Museum in Lewisburg will open a major exhibit entitled “Crocks, Jars and Jugs: Nineteenth Century Redware and Stoneware of Central Pennsylvania” on Saturday, February 4, 1989. On view will be examples by several well-known potters and pottery companies, including Cowden and Wilcox, Harrisburg; J .H. Dipple, Lewistown; Hyssong, Bloomsburg; and Sipe and Sons, Williamsport. The pieces have been selected from the Packwood House Museum’s extensive collection, as well as from private and public collections.
“Crocks, Jugs and Jars,” which continues through Sunday, April 16, examines the various glazing and decorative techniques used by both redware and stoneware potters.
For additional information, write: Packwood House Museum, 15 North Water St., Lewisburg, PA 17837; or telephone (717) 524-0323.
Gold!
Throughout history, gold – that legendary, precious metal – has fascinated mankind. Under its glittering, enchanting spell, man has pursued, worshipped and battled over gold. Its mysteries and power have been unearthed in a spectacular traveling exhibit, “Gold,” continuing at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, through Friday, January 6, 1989. Developed by Cite des Sciences et de l’Industrie, La Vilette, in Paris, the million dollar display follows the intriguing trail of gold-from its discovery to its industrial, artistic and economic applications.
“Gold” explores the important role it plays in international economy, industry and finance, and illustrates the way it is used in specific industries, such as aerospace technology, architecture, dentistry, electronics and medicine.
Visitors will be able to participate in the exhibit by panning – much like an early nineteenth century prospector – in a running sluice salted with several thousand dollars of gold flakes. “Gold” includes an authentic, full-scale reproduction of a gold mine shaft in which visitors will actually see how the metal is recovered from the earth’s crust. A smelting operation will demonstrate the melting and repouring of a twenty thousand dollar ingot of gold, and an alchemist’s laboratory, complete with old gold mining maps and tools, will reveal the rich history of gold and its many uses.
A touring exhibition, “Gold” will travel to eleven cities in the United States before its conclusion in 1991. The Franklin Institute is the exhibit’s only Pennsylvania destination.
To obtain additional information and related programming details, write: Franklin Institute, Twentieth St. and the Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19103; or phone (215) 448-1200.
Two Centuries of Flowers
Curtis’s Botanical Magazine has long served to introduce botanists, nurserymen, landscape architects and gardeners throughout the world to the great botanical explorations originating from England’s Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew and the Royal Horticultural Society, as well as from the country’s leading nurseries. In its day, the magazine faithfully reported the activities of such acclaimed plant hunters as Sir Joseph Banks of the Cook Expedition, David Nelson of HMS Bounty fame, David Douglas for whom the Douglas Fir is named, and the father-and-son team of William and Joseph Hooker, who together directed the activities of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew for more than eight decades.
Organized to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, one of the oldest horticultural publications in the world, an exhibition at the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh, is featuring more than seventy watercolors that have rarely been seen by the general public. From its founding in 1767, Curtis’s Botanical Magazine has demonstrated a strong commitment to both beauty and scientific accuracy, employing some of the most renowned botanical artists in the world to create master drawings for the engravings and lithographs that illustrate the journal. Until as recently as 1948, every color illustration in every copy of the magazine was painstakingly colored by hand!
“Flowers from the Royal Gardens of Kew: Two Centuries of Curtis’s Botanical Magazine” includes works that range in date from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, and have been selected from the Royal Botanic Gardens’s collection of more than ten thousand sheets. One of the key elements in the magazine’s remarkable longevity has been the attraction of seeing on its pages – often for the first time – scores of flowering plants capable of being cultivated in the reader’s own garden or greenhouse.
On view through Friday, December 16 [1989], “Flowers from the Royal Gardens of Kew,” will travel to the Smithsonian Institution, the New York Public Library, the Missouri Botanical Garden and the Chicago Botanic Garden. Visiting hours are: Monday through Friday, 8:30 A.M. to Noon, and 1 to 5 P.M. Admission is free. The Hunt Institute’s gallery is located on the fifth floor of the Hunt Library on the campus of CarnegieMellon University.
For additional information, write: Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890; or telephone (412) 268-2434.
Railroad Records
The State Archives, administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, is working on one of the most historically significant – and exciting – collections of materials ever amassed by a single company: the records and business papers of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR). In the spring of 1988, after four years of attempting to save the Pennsylvania Railroad Company records, the PHMC’s Division of Archives and Manuscripts, aided by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), began working on the more than five thousand cubic feet of PRR material.
The records of the Pennsylvania Railroad are especially important because it is a rarity to find the complete files of a company whose influence dominated the entire country. These business records are an integral segment of the Commonwealth’s, as well as the nation’s, industrial and transportation heritage.
Founded in 1846, the Pennsylvania Railroad grew to be the most successful and influential company in the United States during the second half of the nineteenth century. As it took over other railroads, the company became a major force behind the nation’s rampant industrial development. It was, perhaps, the greatest single contributor to economic growth in the United States during the mid-nineteenth century, and remained the country’s largest corporation until World War I.
The Pennsylvania Railroad pioneered the development of the modern corporate structure. In order to be self-sustaining, the company operated its own steel, oil and coal industries, and became the first railway in the country to invest in applied scientific research and in-house testing. In its hey-day, the PRR was the largest single employer in the United States and, as a result of its size and far-reaching influence, it evolved to be more powerful than any other business.
The records recently transferred to the Pennsylvania State Archives, located adjacent to The State Museum of Pennsylvania, in center-city Harrisburg, include mechanical drawings, photographs, presidential papers, files of the board of directors and chief engineer, financial records, legal case files, real estate records and papers of subsidiary companies. The collection also includes operational, technical, administrative and financial records, which are of great interest to many researchers, including those studying economics, business, technology, labor, industry and politics. The records are of interest, too, to local historians, modelers and railroad enthusiasts. Descriptions of the collection are being entered in the Research Libraries Network’s database to provide for immediate – and nationwide – access to the information.
Under the terms of the grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission must raise ten thousand dollars to receive the matching funds necessary to complete the project, and contributions from interested individuals and institutions are being sought. Tax deductible donations should be sent to: PRR Project/Friends of the PHMC, Division of Archives and Manuscripts, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, P.O. Box 1026, Harrisburg, PA 17108-1026. Individuals interested in volunteering to work with the railroad papers should telephone (717) 783-9873.
Crafts and Community
Contemporary crafts in Pennsylvania representing ethnic, occupational and regional traditions will be on exhibit at the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, Philadelphia, from Saturday, December 10, through Friday, February 24, 1989. “Crafts and Community: Traditional Craftsmanship in Contemporary Society” features twelve case studies, including Hmong needlework, Afro-Caribbean steel drum-making, Amish quilts and Ukrainian embroideries and egg decoration.
“Crafts and Community” will utilize artifacts, photographs and video documentaries to explore the meaning and role of traditional handmade objects and their makers. The exhibition is based on more than two years of intensive research by ten fieldworkers on traditional crafts throughout Pennsylvania. Consisting of about one hundred original artifacts, the exhibit features Ukrainian Easter eggs, painted by a wax resist technique; a Hmong “story cloth,” recounting daily life in Laos; a Pennsylvania German crib quilt; and an Afro-Caribbean steel drum. Among the seventy-five photographs to be shown are a mural size image of steel drum players in a festival setting and photographs of Robert Moore, a Cherokee craftsman, tanning hides and making intricate beadwork. The exhibit will focus on the craftsworker, the process of craftsmaking and the interaction between the craftsworker and community.
Video documentaries of craftspeople at work and crafts objects in use will be integrated into the exhibition. A catalogue, with essays by fieldworkers and a variety of color and black and white photographs, will accompany the exhibit. Crafts demonstrations, performances and workshops will also be conducted throughout the exhibition.
For more information, write: Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, 18 South Seventh St., Philadelphia, PA 19106; or telephone (215) 925-8090.
Chester County Farm Exhibit
What farming was like in Chester County during the first half of the nineteenth century has been thoroughly examined in a major permanent exhibition which opened recently at the historic Springton Manor Farm in Glenmoore. The special display of farming tools and machinery was developed by the Chester County Historical Society in cooperation with the Chester County Parks and Recreation Department. The exhibit, entitled “From the Earth to the Marketplace: Farming in Chester County, 1800-1850,” explores the truly golden years of agriculture in this section of southeastern Pennsylvania.
The exhibit, which illustrates how well county farmers adapted to changes in the marketplace – and led the state and nation in agricultural production – includes several significant “firsts.” This is the first time that the Chester County Historical Society’s collection of agricultural implements will be publicly exhibited. Most of the tools, which were used for cultivating, maintaining and harvesting crops, have never before been assembled for such a display. “From the Earth to the Marketplace” is the only exhibit in Chester County that has been devoted exclusively to agriculture.
The exhibit examines a variety of agricultural and related subjects. Visitors can see how farmers had to be versatile, possess a wide range of skills and master various trades to be successful. The relationship of the farmers to their market, the techniques of making the land produce and the farmers’ response to dramatically changing technology are addressed as well.
“From the Earth to the Marketplace: Farming in Chester County, 1800-1850,” has been installed in the historic farmstead’s Pennsylvania German bank barn. On view are early farm implements, including spades, hoes, milking stools, winnowing baskets and threshing devices. The largest piece of farm machinery is a single horse treadmill, built about 1830 when farmers began harnessing the power of horses. More than seventy pieces of farming tools and machinery – complemented by enlarged scenes of typical farm scenes – present a visual history of the diversity of Chester County’s farming in the early nineteenth century.
Springton Manor, the newest county park, includes an elegant manor house overlooking two hundred and sixty acres of fertile farmland that was one of eight proprietary manors granted by William Penn. The recently restored manor house was once the center of life on a busy, working farm. The historic farmstead is located north of Downingtown.
For additional information regarding visiting hours and traveling directions, write: Chester County Historical Society, 225 North High St., West Chester, PA 19380-2691; or telephone (215) 692-4800.
Rare Hebrew Manuscripts in Philadelphia
“A Visual Testimony: Judaica from the Vatican Library” will be on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from Saturday, January 28, through Sunday, April 2, 1989. The exhibition of fifty-seven rare manuscripts, many of which are illuminated, reveals the fascinating literary and artistic tradition which has linked the Jewish and Catholic faiths for centuries. The works comprising “A Visual Testimony” are generally unknown to the public and until now have been available only to scholars who travel to Rome.
The writings in the exhibition range in date from an eighth century Babylonia Sifra, considered to be the oldest manuscript of rabbinic literature in existence, to an eighteenth century collection of sermons by Pope Clement XI in Hebrew and Latin. Also included are Bibles and biblical commentaries, prayer books, mystical Jewish works from the Kabbalah, legal codes, medical texts, a Hebrew grammar in Italian and a “riddle book.” Works by great Jewish writers, such as the twelfth century Spanish philosopher Moses Maimonides, are represented, as are translations into Hebrew of classic Muslim and Christian texts. Many of these manuscripts are from the late Middle Ages, a period marked by intense scholarship and a free flow of ideas among Jewish, Christian and Muslim philosophers.
The atmosphere of intellectual exchange will be seen in the rich illustrations, some using gold, which decorate the books. In many cases, the style, decoration and even subject matter of Jewish art has been adapted from the contemporary non-Jewish manuscript traditions. Books from Gothic Spain and Germany are clearly indebted to the artistic styles prevailing in those countries, and Hebrew manuscript decorations from Renaissance Italy are visually linked to those made for Christian patrons.
Abra’ah Turim (“Four Columns”), a classic rabbinic commentary on Jewish law decorated with lush scenes of fifteenth century Italian Jewish life, is an example of the art of miniature at its finest. A Bible dated 1294 exemplifies the Hebrew art of micrography, miniature writing in the shape of flowers, animals and geometric patterns. Also unique to Hebrew writings is the decoration of the first word of a section of the text, rather than just the initial letter as in Latin manuscripts, due to the absence of capital letters in Hebrew scripts.
Hebraic manuscripts were found in papal collections as early as the fourteenth century. Pope Nicholas V (1447-1455) recognized their importance when he included them in the Vatican Library, which he established in 1450. At that time, the study of Hebrew was as central to any gentleman’s education as were Latin and Greek. In 1545, the appointment of Fabio Ranucci as the first known scriptor hebraicus (Hebrew specialist) marked the beginning of attempts to catalogue and number the manuscripts. The Vatican Library presently holds more than eight hundred Hebraic manuscripts.
For additional information, write: Philadelphia Museum of Art, Parkway at Twenty-Sixth St., Philadelphia, PA 19101; or telephone (215) 763-8100.
American Jewish History
A full season of exhibits will welcome visitors to the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia this winter.
“A Century of Ambivalence: The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union, 1881-1981,” an exhibition organized by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and the American Jewish Museum, New York, will be on view through Sunday, January 8, 1989. More than three hundred and fifty rare photographs offer insights into the complex and contradictory character of the alter heim, the “old home” in Russia, once the largest center of Jewish population in the world. Spanning a century of cataclysmic social change, “A Century of Ambivalence” is also the first major exhibit to chronicle Jewish life in the Soviet Union. Two smaller exhibitions presented concurrently will trace the experience of newly arrived Russian and Soviet Jewish immigrants to America through photographs, documents and political cartoon art.
The profound effect of the unprecedented waves of immigrants to the United States at the turn of the century is revealed in a showcase display, “Architects of Contemporary American Jewish Life: The Philadelphia Group.” Presented in cooperation with Congregation Mikveh Israel in anticipation of its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary in 1990, the exhibition celebrates six individuals associated with the congregation -Louis Edward Levy, Sabato Morais, Solomon Solis-Cohen, Moses Aaron Dropsie, Mayer Sulzberger and Cyrus Adlerwhose public lives took dramatic response to the massive influx of Jewish immigrants. “Architects of Contemporary American Jewish Life” continues through Friday, March 31 [1989].
“Contemporary Artifacts,” on view through Saturday, December 31 [1989], is the museum’s eighth annual invitational crafts exhibit. A popular highlight of the holiday season, the sales exhibition features the finest in contemporary Judaica by artists from throughout the United States.
To obtain additional information, write: National Museum of American Jewish History, 55 North Fifth St., Philadelphia, PA 19106; or telephone (215) 923-3811.
Eckley Restoration
Eckley, one of hundreds of small company mining towns or “patches” built in the anthracite region of northeastern Pennsylvania during the nineteenth century, is a living history museum of the daily and seasonal life of the hard coal miner and his family. In 1854, the mining firm of Sharpe, Leisenring and Company, later known as Sharpe, Weiss and Company, leased land from the Tench Coxe Estate of Philadelphia and began work on the Council Ridge Colliery and the Village of Eckley. The village, erected near the colliery where the coal was processed, provided housing for miners and their families; it was built essentially as a planned community, a common feature of large industrial enterprises a century ago.
Eckley’s stores, schools and churches supplied the economic, educational and religious needs of the villagers. By owning the settlement, the company had greater control over the lives of its workers. After 1875, when the Sharpe, Weiss and Company lease expired, the Coxe family either operated the colliery itself or leased it to other coal companies, a period during which many changes took place. To this Luzerne County village came a succession of immigrant groups seeking economic opportunities and religious or political freedom. English, Welsh and German miners were supplemented by Irish immigrants and then by southern and eastern Europeans. The influx of these various immigrants formed an ethnic mosaic typical of Pennsylvania’s anthracite region.
Strip mining, begun in 1890, gradually replaced “deep” (or underground) mining. Steam shovels stripped away the land around Eckley, as well as a part of the village itself. The work force at the colliery and the population of the village, which had numbered more than one thousand in 1870, declined.
Eckley’s first company doctor, George S. Wentz, arrived in 1855, one year after the patch town was established. Throughout the years, seven physicians maintained a practice in the town’s Doctor’s Office, located at the western end of the village. The type of practice maintained by a coal company doctor created unique situations not experienced by general practitioners or the day. The company doctor agreed to a system of “contract practice,” whereby a specific sum was deducted from each miner’s paycheck to cover the costs of medical expenses for treating the worker and his family. This system assured that the residents of such isolated company towns received prompt medical care. Since contract practice provided security and coverage, it proved to be an ideal situation for recent medical school graduates. Even experienced physicians did not have to enter the competitive “fee for service” market faced by general practitioners. For this reason, contract practice was discouraged by the American Medical Association and considered a trade, not a profession. In addition to his questionable position within the community, the company doctor faced many special medical problems caused by the hazardous working conditions in the mines. He treated mining accident victims and other villagers too ill to be cured by home remedies. Serious illnesses and injuries were treated in the nearby Drifton Hospital or by doctors in Freeland, some of whom paid regular visits to the villagers.
The Eckley Miners’ Village Associates, a volunteer group supporting the many activities of the complex, has recently announced a major campaign to assist in the restoration of the village’s Doctor’s Office. The project will not only raise money to aid in the restoration of the structure, but will also establish a permanent tribute to the many doctors who practiced in the anthracite region. In 1984, the Women’s Auxiliary to the Hazleton Branch of the Luzerne County Medical Society, adopted the Doctor’s Office restoration project and initiated funding for the planning stage, which included a historic structures report, a plan for furnishing and preparation of architectural drawings. The actual restoration, including structural changes, will cost approximately seventy thousand dollars.
The Doctor’s Office will be carefully restored to the period of about 1874. The restoration will focus on three rooms used by the doctor: the waiting room, consultation room and operating room. The interpretation will explain the unusual social and medical circumstances faced by the company doctor. A permanent exhibit documenting the history of medicine in the anthracite region will eventually accompany the restoration project.
To underwrite the restoration of the Doctor’s Office, the Women’s Auxiliary implemented the idea of memorial giving, by which contributions can be made as tributes to physicians who practiced in the area. Since the program was announced, contributions have been made in the memory of local doctors, as well as their wives. Contributions have been received from individuals throughout the Commonwealth and surrounding regions who claim ties to northeastern Pennsylvania and who wish to preserve the unique medical heritage of the anthracite region. The memorial giving program has since been turned over to the Eckley Miners’ Village Associates.
Individuals desiring to make a donation to the restoration of the Doctor’s Office may send a check to: Eckley Miners’ Village Associates, Box 236, R.R. 2, Weatherly, PA 18255. All gifts should be accompanied by information for whom the contribution is being made. Information regarding the opening a fund in the name of an individual is available by telephoning (717) 636-2070. All contributions are tax deductible.