News

PHA to Hold Annual Meeting

The Pennsylvania Historical Association will hold its annual meeting October 10 and 11 [1975] at St. Francis College, Loretto. Approximately 1,400 persons belong to the association.

Donald H. Kent, PHA president, will speak on “Some Myths of Pennsylvania History” at the opening luncheon at the Friendship and Cottage Inn, Ebensburg. John F. Coleman, chairman of the Local Arrangements Committee, will preside.

Two sessions will occur on Friday afternoon, October 10 [1975]: “The Teaching of History” and “Terence V. Powderly: Pennsylvania Labor Leader.” James A. Kehl will moderate the first, a panel discussion, and Roland Baumann will chair the second session; Hugh Cleland will serve as commentator for the latter. Panel members will include Donald Crownover, Philip Stebbins, two representatives from the Cook Forest Chapter, Pennsylvania Federation of Junior Histori­ans, North Clarion High School and two college students.

During Session II, Vincent J. Falzone and Delber L. McKee will present papers. Their topics will be “Terence V. Powderly and Pennsylvania Political Affairs” and “‘The Chinese Must Go!’ Commissioner General Powderly and Chinese Immigration, 1897-1902.”

The Cambria County Historical Society will host a recep­tion at 4:30 p.m. at the society’s headquarters in Ebensburg.

E. McClung Fleming will speak on “Early Symbols of America: The Search for Identity” at the dinner meeting. Norman D. Wilkinson will preside.

Morning sessions on Saturday, October 11 [1975], will follow a Phi Alpha Theta breakfast and the annual business meeting. Three sessions will highlight the morning: “Wartime Politics and Commerce,” “Nineteenth Century Railroading” and “Two Episodes in Cambria County History.”

Jacob E. Cooke will chair the first session. Three papers will be presented: Milton W. Hamilton on “Sir William Johnson and the Indian Uprising of 1763,” Randolph S. Klein on “The Shippen Family Kinship Network and the American Revolution” and Eugene Slaski on “Thomas Will­ing: Reluctant Revolutionary.”

Two papers will be presented at the second session, to be chaired by James Sperry. Darwin H. Stapleton will present “Promotion, Finance and Engineering: Moncure Robinson and Early Anthracite Railroads” and Ronald M. Benson, ‘”Our Corner Stone is Temperance’: Industrial Discipline and the Railroad Brotherhoods.”

The third session will be a slide presentation on the Johnstown Flood and the Allegheny Portage Railroad.

Ralph Hazeltine’s topic for a speech at the luncheon will be “The Early Years of Franz Kline.” William W. Hummel will preside.

A tour of the Lemon House and Incline Plane Six of the Allegheny Portage Railroad will highlight Saturday after­noon.

Members of the Program Committee are Harold W. Aurand, chairman; William W. Hummel, William T. Parsons, W. Raymond Smith and James Sperry.

Mercyhurst Archives

Seventy-five accessions are listed in the Mercyhurst College Archives Catalog of Manuscripts. Persons desiring the catalog should contact Stuart Campbell, Mercyhurst College, Erie.

Ralph Hazeltine Honored

Albright College, Reading, conferred an honorary doctor of literature degree at its 1975 commencement to Ralph L. Hazeltine, executive director emeritus of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, Wilkes-Barre. A native of Trucksville, Pennsylvania, Hazeltine attended Kingston Township public schools and was graduated from Wyoming Seminary.

Hazeltine is the author of more than thirty major papers and books on the history of the Wyoming Valley and its institutions and about the operation of historical societies, museums and archives.

Hazeltine, a former member of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, is treasurer of the Pennsylvania Federation of Historical Societies as well as past president and executive board member of the Federation and former council member of the Pennsylvania Historical Association.

California State College

California State College will be observing its 100th year as an institution of higher learning in Pennsylvania. The College held its second annual history forum in April [1975].

Editor Attends Seminar

Betty L. Seanor, editor of Pennsylvania Heritage, partici­pated in a week-long seminar for editors of historical publications. Ms. Seanor was one of thirty persons who partici­pated in the workshop under a fellowship. The event was sponsored by the American Association for State and Local History, held June 21-27 [1975] at Vanderbilt University, Nash­ville, Tennessee.

Historic Preservation Officer Cites Program

Gov. Milton J. Shapp has signed an executive order that requires the Office of Historic Preservation of the Pennsyl­vania Historical and Museum Commission to pass on the demolition of a state building as a step in preventing the de­struction of a structure with historic or architectural significance.

The Governor took this action when he signed the proclamation for May 12-18 [1975] as Historic Preservation Week and concurrently directed the Office of Historic Preservation of the PHMC to formulate a plan that “will assist government agencies and private citizens in implementing the Commonwealth’s policy to protect, and enhance our irreplaceable resources.”

William J. Wewer, PHMC executive director, is the state historic preservation officer. Wewer noted that the Office of Historic Preservation of the PHMC has a five-point program to accomplish the Governor’s executive order, which is:

1. Registering structures historically or architecturally significant on the National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C., and in the Pennsylvania Inventory of Historic Places;
2. Advising and guiding individuals and organizations regarding historic preservation and its funding;
3. Reviewing applications for federal preservation grants made on a matching basis up to fifty percent for acquisition and/or restoration of a historic property;
4. Working for legislation at the state level as an effective tool in historic preservation; and
5. Working with other governmental agencies to review the impact of projects, such as highways, on the Commonwealth’s historic resources.

The Register’s Significance

The National Register of Historic Places is a catalog of historically and architecturally significant sites and structures which reflect our history at local, state and national levels.

The Register identifies them as national historic resources worthy of preserving. Entry on the Register does provide a measure of protection in the planning of federally funded, licensed or approved projects and assures consideration of historic values.

According to Wewer, registration is important for many reasons but the most basic is that “you cannot preserve something unless and until you know what you have. You are in a sense inventorying your historic and architectural treasures from the past.”

Entry on the Register is also a prerequisite to obtaining federal matching grants of up to fifty percent for acquisition and/or restoration of a historic property. A building’s entry on the Register, Wewer added, stimulates public interest in the structure and generates pride within its neighborhood.

The Office of Historic Preservation is emphasizing getting communities to move on having appropriate areas within their boundaries designated as historic districts. This is to save entire districts or communities of “our remaining rich historical and cultural heritage in Pennsylvania,” Wewer noted. He added that communities take the initiative in passing ordinances and then having districts certified by the PHMC as being historically significant. Wewer noted that this feature enables “a community to act at the local level to preserve its historic and cultural heritage.” The state currently has twenty-one districts that have been certified under the preservation program.

Inquiries pertaining to historic preservation programs and activities should be directed to Office of Historic Preservation, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, P.O. Box 1026, Harrisburg 17120.

Governor’s School for the Arts Held

Two hundred fifty-seven students participated in the third Governor’s School for the Arts this past summer.

The students, selected from approximately 2,000 appli­cants, attended the school, held July 11-August 16 [1975] at Buck­nell University, Lewisburg. The students participating had received scholarships from the intermediate units.

The state program was sponsored jointly by the Department of Education, Bureau of Curriculum Services and the Bureau of Special and Compensatory Services, as well as the twenty-nine intermediate units.

The school consisted of six basic areas of instruction: art, theatre, music, dance, photographic arts and creative writing. In addition, related arts permeated the program.

The school was open to applicants enrolled in the tenth or eleventh grades of public or parochial schools. Arthur Gatty is director of the school.

Old Line Museum

The Old Line Museum at Antique Junction, Delta, Pennsylvania, was opened May 4, 1975. Over 300 Welshmen and visitors were present. Delta, Pa. and Cardiff, Maryland, were settled by Welsh farmers in the early 1700’s.

Consultant Assumes Duties

Roland M. Baumann will be the consultant for the archival and historical work involved in the major project entitled “Records of Pennsylvania’s Supreme Executive Council, 1775-1790: Microfilm and Guide.” The project is under the direction of Harry E. Whipkey, director of the Commission’s Bureau of Archives and History.

The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded the Commission a federal grant of $67,335 for the project.

Baumann, who received his doctorate in history from The Pennsylvania State University, is a specialist in revolutionary and early national history. A former assistant professor of history at Bowling Green State University, he has published book reviews and articles in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Pennsylvania History and The William and Mary Quarterly. He is currently working on a study dealing with the origins of the Democratic-Republican movement in Philadelphia.

Specifically, the project for which Baumann is consultant is to encompass records of the Committee of Safety, 1775-76; Council of Safety, 1776-77; (Second) Council of Safety, 1777; Secretary of the Supreme Executive Council, 1777-1790; the Navy Board, 1777; the Board of War, 1777; and the Council of Censors, 1784. Total volume of manuscript materials involved is forty-three cubic feet or approximately 60,000 pages.

Commission Publications

Three more books and a reprint have been published by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and may be ordered by mail. A Delaware Indian Symposium, edited by Herbert C. Kraft, the fourth volume in the Anthropological Series, presents articles on history, prehistory, and linguistics which derive from a 1972 symposium at Seton Hall University. The 160-page book is $4.50, cloth, and $3.00, paper.

The Disruption of the Pennsylvania Democracy, 1848-1860, by John F. Coleman, explores the revolution in the State politics of the pre-Civil War decade and is the seventh political history published by the Commission. It has 190 pages and is $5.50.

Pleasure and Business in Western Pennsylvania: The Journal of Joshua Gilpin, 1809, edited by Joseph E. Walker, narrates a journey from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and to Indiana County and back and has much to say about people, land, and business. The book has 156 pages and is $6.00.

The Commission’s best-seller, Indians in Pennsylvania, by Paul A. W. Wallace, has been printed for the fifth time and sells for $3.00 in cloth and $1.75 in paper. It has 194 pages.

New cooperative publications available from the Commission are The African Dream: Martin R. Delany and the Emergence of Pan-African Thought, by Cyril E. Griffith, published by The Pennsylvania State University Press, $9.50, and Thomas McKean: Forgotten Leader of the Revolution, by John M. Coleman, published by the American Faculty Press, $16.95.

Orders, with payment, should be sent to the Commission, Division of History, Box 1026, Harrisburg 17120. Orders,from Pennsylvania must include six percent sales tax.

Commission Marks Date

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission marked its thirtieth anniversary. On June 6, 1945, the PHMC was authorized to perform the duties vested in and imposed upon the Pennsylvania Historical Commission and to serve as “the official agency of the Commonwealth for the conservation of Pennsylvania’s historic heritage.”

The Commission traces its history to November 26, 1913, when the PHC was established. Functions now included as Commission activities go back even further. The State Archives was formally established in 1903, and the State Museum, in 1905.

Today, the PHMC administers a network of approximately sixty museums and historic properties that serve every region of the State.

Slippery Rock Sesquicentennial

This year Slippery Rock borough, located in northern Butler County on the old Venango Trail, is celebrating its Sesquicentennial.

The logo chosen for the sesquicentennial depicts early Indian heritage as well as the role education has played in the community.

Meadowcroft Village

Meadowcroft Village was developed by Albert and Delvin Miller on a portion of their old home farm, three miles west of Avella in Washington County. The farm was originally settled by George Miller, Sr. in 1795; the original patent, dating back to the 1780’s, was a Virginia land grant.

Hanna’s Town

Hanna’s Town Courthouse-Tavern, four miles north of Greensburg off Route 119, is open for guided tours from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Costumed hostesses describe the historical background and use of the furnishings in the Courthouse-Tavern and explain the information gleaned from digging the site.