Mailbox
Written by PA Heritage Staff in the Mailbox category and the Spring 1994 issue Topics in this article: Beaver Springs, Delaware, George H. Earle III, Hagley Museum and Library, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Snyder County, Thompsontown, William Hamilton, WoodlandsFor its fall conference, the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society (CHBTS) of the Hagley Museum and Library is issuing a call for papers. The theme of this year’s conference is “Significant Locales: Business, Labor, and Industry in the Mid-Atlantic Region.” Proposals are being sought for papers dealing with aspects of business, labor, and industrial development (or decline) since 1850 that derive from research on Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, or New Jersey. “Significant Locales” will be held on Friday, October 28, 1994. Interested individuals are asked to submit a one-page abstract, accompanied by a brief vita, by Friday, April 1 [1994], to: Philip Scranton, Director, CHBTS, Hagley Museum and Library, P. O. Box 3630, Wilmington, DE 19807.
The Beaver Springs Girls Band – also known as The Ladies Band and the Central Pennsylvania Ladies Band – was founded in 1918 by Palmer Mitchell, a music teacher, director, composer, and leading figure in Pennsylvania’s music circles. The band, based in Beaver Springs (formerly Adamsburg), Snyder County, performed at patriotic events, ceremonies, festivals, parades, homecomings and, in 1935, the inauguration of Gov. George H. Earle III. It may have been the first uniformed, all-women band in the country. Upon Mitchell’s death in 1948, the band was conducted by his son Eugene until it was dissolved in 1956. The band is the subject of a forthcoming article in Pennsylvania Heritage, and information about members, concerts, and music is being compiled for study. Especially sought for research and possible article illustrations are programs, photographs, sheet music, uniform receipts, newspaper articles, postcards, and related ephemera. Individuals and organizations able to assist in this research or lend artifacts and objects to be photographed should direct correspondence to: Gail M. Getz, The Stone Cottage, Box 270, R. R. 1, Thompsontown, PA 17094-9750; or telephone (717) 535-5205.
Diary descriptions and letters containing mention of The Woodlands, an eighteenth century plantation in Philadelphia built by William Hamilton, are being sought for research and study. In addition to descriptions of the estate’s gardens and structures during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, stereographic views, diagrams and sketches, drawings, and photographs made after the property’s conversion to a picturesque rural cemetery in the second half of the nineteenth century would be especially helpful. Information is being collected by: Tim Long, 4237 Osage St., Philadelphia, PA 19104; telephone (215)387-6942.
The name of J.M. Bellows was recently discovered stamped on the top of the pedestal of an Empire period table that had been dismantled for cleaning. Bellows may have worked in the same city as two firms whose names appear in advertisements on a newspaper fragment dated 1852 that was also found in the table. Judging from information contained in this fragment, the firms of McRenzie and Reed (“of 20 and 22 Main Street”) and Taylor and C. … , may have been located.in Pennsylvania. Individuals and institutions able to provide information about J.M. Bellows or the two firms are encouraged to write: Anthony Bellov, 421 East Sixty-First St., New York, New York 10021.
