Mailbox
Written by PA Heritage Staff in the Mailbox category and the Fall 1984 issue Topics in this article:To document the life and career of Henry Chapman Mercer, the Bucks County Historical Society is seeking persons who knew Mercer, were guests in his Fonthill residence in southeastern Pennsylvania, or can provide oral history on or photographs of the Moravian Tile Works operator or his tile installations. Persons with recollections or photographs are asked to contact Linda F. Dyke, Assistant Curator, Fonthill, c/o The Bucks County Historical Society, Pine St., Doylestown, PA 18901; the telephone number is (215) 348-9461.
The theme of Kutztown University’s fourteenth biennial history conference is “The Worker in History.” The conference committee welcomes proposals for papers on a wide range of relevant topics. The deadline for submissions of titles and abstracts for the April 18, 1985, conference is November 1. Correspondence should be directed to: Gordon J. Goldberg, Department of History, Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA 19530.
The Division of History of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission is collecting books, pamphlets, brochures, articles, essays and other compilations which describe the origin or outline the history of a sport or sports in Pennsylvania, list individual or team records, and portray important sports figures. Staff researchers are also interested in learning the whereabouts of established collections of sports photographs. Persons able to share such information are asked to write: Harold Myers, Associate Historian, PHMC, P.O. Box 1026, Harrisburg, PA 17108-1026; or telephone (717) 783-9868.
The Bethune Museum-Archives, Inc., is offering a special education kit, “Black Women in America: Contributors to Our Heritage.” Focusing on the lives of twenty Afro-American women, the kit includes posters, a teaching unit and a book of biographies, photographs, and an extensive bibliography. “Black Women in America” is available for purchase from the Bethune-Museum Archives, Inc., 1318 Vermont Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20003.
Pennsylvania-made wood-working planes, about 1785-1885, are currently the subject of study by the Department of Industry and Technology of the State Museum of Pennsylvania. Information regarding, or gifts of, planes made in Philadelphia during the late eighteenth century by important makers – Samuel Caruthers, William Martin, Amos Wheaton, R.
Wright, Thomas Napier and William Brooks – are especially sought. Information should be shared with James R. Mitchell, Curator of Industry and Technology, The State Museum of Pennsylvania, P.O. Box 1026, Harrisburg, PA 17108-1026.
Visual Productions, a film and audio-visual production company headquartered in Washington, D.C., is currently developing a film focusing on the birth and meteoric rise of the oil industry in northwestern Pennsylvania. The film will address the romance, folklore and legends of the early “boom years” in the vicinity of Oil Creek. Researchers are now seeking resources – photographs, artifacts, scholars and individuals with pertinent knowledge – to ensure the accuracy of technical matters. individuals able to assist in this project may write: Arnold L. Potosky, Research Coordinator, Visual Productions, 4200 Wisconsin Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20016.
