PHMC Highlights
Written by PA Heritage Staff in the PHMC Highlights category and the Fall 2005 issue Topics in this article: Allen Weinstein, American Civil War, American Revolution, Association of Railway Museums, Battle of Lake Erie, Drake Well Museum and Park, Eckley Miners' Village, George Washington, Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts, Kenneth C. Wolensky, Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum, National Canal Museum, North American Railway Foundation, Oliver Hazard Perry, Pennsbury Manor, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Pennsylvania State Archives, Pittsburgh, Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, Richard Harris, Samantha Eggar, Sean Connery, Somerset Historical Center, State Museum of Pennsylvania, Strasburg, The Molly Maguires (film), U.S. Brig Niagara, Washington Crossing Historic Park, William Penn, World War IThe Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, Strasburg, will host “Railway Heritage in the Heart of Pennsylvania Dutch Country,” the forty-fifth annual conference of the Association of Railway Museums from Wednesday through Sunday, October 5-9. Conference topics include steel car preservation, oral history programs, historical writing, and linking railroading and the public school curriculum. The museum, which is observing its thirtieth anniversary this year, recently received a grant of $31,500 from the North American Railway Foundation to fund a project that will -allow railroad scholars, researchers, archival managers, students, and the general public to access, free of charge, an online catalogue of its vast library and archival holdings. For information: www.rrmuseumpa.org or (717)687-8628.
Kenneth C. Wolensky, a historian with the PHMC’s Bureau for Historic Preservation and a regular contributor to Pennsylvania Heritage, will give an illustrated lecture on his recent work, Voices of the Knox Mine Disaster, on Thursday, November 17, at the National Canal Museum in Easton. The disaster occurred in January 1959, when the Susquehanna River broke through the roof of an anthracite mine at Port Griffith, Luzerne County, killing twelve miners. The PHMC published Voices earlier this year. For more information: www.canals.org or (610) 559-6613.
A workshop for members of historical architectural review boards, local historical commissions, and municipal officials to discuss historic preservation initiatives will be held at the Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts, Bethlehem, on Saturday, November 12. Organized by the PHMC’s Bureau for Historic Preservation, the workshop will address the standards for the treatment of historic properties, legal aspects of historic preservation, and development of preservation programs at the municipal level. For information: (717) 787-0771.
The U.S. Coast Guard has recently issued a certificate of inspection for the U.S. Brig Niagara to operate as a sailing school vessel. The Niagara has visited a number of Great Lakes ports and the Atlantic Seaboard, giving thousands of visitors an opportunity to tour the replica of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s relief flagship that won the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. The certification allows the PHMC to develop formal educational programs for the ship, offering participants an in-depth introduction to the square rig under sail. For information: (814)452-2744.
An exhibit based on the oral history narratives about the traditions and lives of refugee and immigrant women who have made Pennsylvania their home has been mounted by The State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg. “Our Voices: Refugee and Immigrant Women Tell Their Stories” features stories and portraits of extraordinary individuals who emigrated from a number of countries, including China, Uganda, Bosnia, India, and Finland. “Our Voices” continues through Saturday, December 31. For information: www.statemuseumpa.org or (717)787-4980.
In conjunction with the National Archives and Records Administration, Mid Atlantic Branch, the Pennsylvania Federation of Museums and Historical Organizations, the Keystone Chapter of the Association for Information and Image Management, and the Pennsylvania State Records Advisory Board, the PHMC will present an archives and records management seminar on Thursday, October 6, at Grantville. Keynote speaker is Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States. For information: (717) 787-8953.
The Pennsylvania Historical Association will hold its seventy-fourth annual meeting in Pittsburgh from Thursday through Saturday, October 20-22. The theme of this year’s event is “Imperialism: Local and Global.” The association is supported, in part, by the PHMC.
Archives Week will be sponsored by the Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg, Sunday through Saturday, October 9-15. The annual event features workshops, tours, and informational seminars. For information: (717) 787-8953.
The fifty-third annual reenactment of George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River will be conducted by Washington Crossing Historic Park, Washington Crossing, on Sunday, December 25. General Washington and his troops crossed the river on Christmas night 1776 to launch a surprise attack on enemy forces at Trenton, New Jersey. Admission to the event is free.
Landis Valley Museum, Lancaster, will host its forty-sixth annual Harvest Days, a celebration of Pennsylvania German harvest traditions, during the weekend of October 8-9. More than eighty demonstrators will bring the crossroads village to life as they show visitors traditional skills and crafts, such as weaving, caning, and blacksmithing. For information: www.landisvalleymuseum.org or (717) 569-0401.
Through music, poetry, and dramatic works, living history performers will present a program entitled “Music of the American Civil War” on Sunday, November 13, at Eckley Miners’ Village, Weatherly. The historic site is a typical nineteenth-century coal miners’ village that was once common in northeastern Pennsylvania’s anthracite region. In 1968, the village was used by Paramount Studios for filming The Molly Maguires, a motion picture starring Sean Connery, Richard Harris, and Samantha Eggers. For information: www.eckleyminers.org or (570) 636-2070.
“Archaeology Day” will be sponsored by the Drake Well Museum and Park, Titusville, on Saturday, October 15. Drake Well commemorates the drilling of the world’s first successful oil well by Edwin L. Drake in 1859 and chronicles the resulting oil boom, which forever changed the way people live and work. For information: www.drakewell.org or (814) 827-2797.
Pennsbury Manor, the recreated country house of William Penn at Morrisville, Bucks County will offer open hearth cooking and smokehouse demonstrations on Sunday, November 20. Addressing the theme of Native American-European Contact, the historic site’s interpretive staff will demonstrate the Native American influence on English cooking and the English influence on Native American foodways. The “three sisters” – corm, beans, and squash – will abound. For information: www.pennsburymanor.org and (215) 946-0400.
Opening Saturday, November 12, at the Somerset Historical Center in Somerset is an exhibition examining the wartime experiences of Somerset County’s National Guard Company C, 110th Infantry Regiment, 28th Division, during World War 1. The exhibit, which continues through February 28, 2006, will feature artifacts, weapons, documents, photographs, and letters pertaining to the Second Battle of the Marne in July 1918, in which the unit participated. Somerset Historical Center interprets the rural life of southwestern Pennsylvania and its residents. For information: www.somersethistoricalcenter.org or (814) 445-6077.
Reenactors portraying common soldiers, officers, camp followers, and sutlers of the American and British troops during the American Revolution will convene at Hope Lodge on Saturday, November 5, for the Whitemarsh Encampment. The historic site’s grounds and an eighteenth-century barn will be transformed to a Revolutionary War field hospital. Visitors will be treated to crafts demonstrations, family activities, special tours, dirt redoubts, military skirmishes, and drills. For information: (215) 646-1595.
