Trailheads

After a long year of closure due to COVID-19, Pennsylvania Trails of History sites reopened to the public late this spring. Most sites operated on reduced schedules to allow staff extra time for cleaning and to help everyone get back into a routine. Visitors seemed eager to return, and they adapted to online reservations, timed tickets and mask requirements. By late June, the Wolf administration lifted mask and capacity mandates, and PHMC sites began to expand their schedules, adding some smaller in-person events and planning for larger events to take place this fall.

The number of virtual programs has decreased somewhat over the summer. That does not mean they will disappear. The experience of the past year has shown that audiences for online presentations, for example, often exceed those for in-person lectures and draw participants from a much wider geographical range. Virtual exhibits also allow sites to research and share stories that would be greatly limited in physical space.

For more information on events and schedules, check your favorite site’s webpage or go to the PHMC Events Calendar, which lists both in-person and virtual events.

Ephrata Cloister’s Printing Office on Virtual Exhibit

The Printing Office exhibit building at Ephrata Cloister.
Photo, Ephrata Cloister, PHMC

Ephrata was known for its printing operation, run by the celibate Brothers of the community. A virtual exhibit on Ephrata Cloister’s website, “At His Request Put Into Print”: Customers of the Press & Puzzles of Printing at Historic Ephrata Cloister, provides a thorough history of the printing operation and includes images of the Printing Office, a popular stop on tours of the site for school groups and adults.

Starting in 1745 and continuing for almost 50 years, as the exhibit notes, “Ephrata’s printing office became the first in Pennsylvania west of Philadelphia and the second press in the colonies using German Fraktur type, a font favored by a large population.”

The Brothers printed “hymnals, testimonials, and material reflecting Ephrata’s complex theology” for use by the community. They also produced books and pamphlets for outside customers. In addition to printing, the Brothers made their own paper and ink and bound books using leather they tanned themselves. The exhibit indicates that they purchased the hides because the community rarely consumed meat.

In 1747-49, the Brothers translated the 1,512-page Martyrs Mirror from Dutch into German and published 1,300 copies for the Mennonites.
Photos, Ephrata Cloister, PHMC

Many of the outside projects were printed for other religious groups, such as the Mennonites’ Martyrs Mirror, the largest book published in colonial America. Other publications addressed political and social issues of the wider world. The exhibit examines the history behind these issues and raises questions about the relationship of the Ephrata community to the ideas in these publications, asking “Did Ephrata agree with the words on these pages, or did printing these books simply provide an income?”

Two examples included in the exhibit are German translations of books written by Anthony Benezet (1713–84), a Quaker abolitionist and educator from Philadelphia who helped found one of the nation’s first antislavery societies. The first book, published in 1763, sought to expose the injustice of the slave trade. Its title page noted that it was being printed in High German “so that the High German nation would consider compassionately the condition of their poor fellow creatures.” The second book, published in 1786, after the author’s death, documents “the state and condition of the soul of the Indian inhabitants of this part of the world.”

Railroad Museum’s Lotos Club Car Showcased

Since its debut in December, PHMC Virtual Collections Showcase has been a source of fascinating stories about objects that define Pennsylvania. For July’s theme of “Travel and Destinations,” Dodie Robbins from the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania presented the Lotos Club passenger car, built by the Pullman Company in 1913. Named for a fashionable literary club in New York City, the museum’s Pullman includes dining and sleeping accommodations. It is a favorite with visitors, even though it must be viewed mostly from the outside (the roster of railcars on the museum’s website includes a virtual tour of the interior).

The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania’s Lotos Club Pullman car is a centerpiece of new exhibits on passenger travel, including a kiosk with a 360-degree virtual tour of the interior.
Photo, Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, PHMC

Pullman began building passenger coaches in the 1860s. The company owned and operated the cars, which ran on various railroads as customer demand dictated. According to the museum’s website, Lotos Club could carry 32 passengers during the day and had sleeping space for 16. It continued in service until 1967, when it made its last run from Chicago to South Bend, Indiana, carrying family and friends of Elmer Layden, one of Notre Dame football’s famed “Four Horsemen.”

The work of providing the comfort and fine service that Pullman club cars were noted for was carried out primarily by African American men hired as porters. Responsible for all aspects of customer service except cooking the meals, porters worked long hours for low pay (at least initially). It was steady work though, and with tips, many porters were able to build savings and establish themselves and their families within the middle class. The men who worked as porters were also often well-respected leaders in their communities. In 1925 porters organized under the leadership of A. Philip Randolph and Milton P. Webster and founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first African American labor union. The union also became a training ground for early civil rights activists.

To see a playlist of PHMC Virtual Collections Showcase programs, visit PHMC’s YouTube channel.

This gold and marble watch fob measures approximately 1.3 inches tall by 0.8 inches wide and was made for oil well operator Harry W. Potter in 1866.
Drake Well Museum & Park, PHMC (DW79.11.298)

Collections Spotlight

For the May edition of PHMC Virtual Collections Showcase, the theme was “Souvenirs & Swag.” For her featured item, Drake Well Museum’s curator Susan Beates chose a watch fob made in 1866 for Henry W. Potter. Beates described the details of the fob: “The sides rise and taper to the gold cap on top, which is a derrick and an oil tank with an engine house. . . . Next to the engine house, that one round circle with the post would be the bullwheel and the walking beam is a little oversized, but at the very top of the derrick, you can see the crown pulley. And then in front are barrels of oil.”

The fob’s oval base is incised with the initials “HWP” in Old English script. Beates noted that Potter was an oil operator in 1872, which was a turbulent time in the industry. With John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil slowly taking over, many operators shut down their wells in protest. By 1879 Potter was superintendent of the Titusville waterworks, so he may have switched careers to avoid being taken over.

Amy Killpatrick Fox is a museum educator in PHMC’s Bureau of Historic Sites & Museums. She writes a weekly blog also called Trailheads.