Eric Smith, Author at Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine

Pittsburgh’s Black Opera Impressario: Mary Cardwell Dawson

Posted by Eric Smith on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off More than three decades after her death, Pittsburgh’s pioneer black opera company founder Mary Cardwell Dawson (1894-1962) has finally been honored for her many contributions to the Commonwealth’s musical heritage. On Sunday, September 25, 1994, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission unveiled and dedicated a state historical marker at the site of the Cardwell School of...
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The Protégé Becomes a Prophet: Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller

Posted by Eric Smith on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) pronounced her a born artist, and in the dazzling cultural circles of Paris her works of art garnered breathless praise. Yet, in her own country, African American sculptor Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller (1877-1962) of Philadelphia lived and worked unknown to many, until at last she emerged from the stultifying shadows of racial intolerance and domestic responsibilities to...
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Crystal Bird Fauset Raises Her Voice for Human Rights

Posted by Eric Smith on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off Power surrounds the woman. It dwells within her, emanates from her, and yet, is very subtly hidden. Anyone who comes near Mrs. Fauset feels her greatness – in the sweep of her very alert glance, in the charm of her ready smile, in the warm sincerity of her hand clasp, and in her voice – like crisp staccato music, mellowed.” Attracted by her magnetism, a writer for the Chicago...
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Leader of the Band

Posted by Eric Smith on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off During a visit to Philadelphia in 1818, Englishman Robert Wahn discovered and wrote in his travel diary about a remarkably talented black musician. And by putting pen to paper, he unwittingly recorded for posterity the existence of an early nineteenth-century musician, composer, and conductor. “The Leader of the band,” wrote Wahn, “is a descendant of Africa [who] possesses a...
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Painted With Pride in the U.S.A.

Posted by Eric Smith on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off Although not a sketch artist like William Forbes and Alfred Waud, who drew scenes from the battlefield, African American painter David Bustill Bowser (1820-1900) is considered a Civil War artist-but for a much different reason. Active in Philadelphia from 1844 to 1889, he painted portraits of abolitionist John Brown and President Abraham Lincoln. Most important, he painted the regimental colors...
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Fanny M. Jackson and Philadelphia’s Institute for Colored Youth

Posted by Eric Smith on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off This idea was deep in my soul. Where it came from I cannot tell. It was in me to get an education and teach my people.” The sentiment was written nearly a century ago, in 1912, by Fanny M. Jackson Coppin (1837-1913), principal of Philadelphia’s Institute for Colored Youth (ICY). All but forgotten today, Coppin and her distinguished career of nearly four decades at the Institute for...
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Innovative African Americans in Pennsylvania History

Posted by Eric Smith on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off “Once [I was arrested] for standing in the road to prevent trucks from entering a housing construction site where no Blacks were employed, [and] a second time for leading a demonstration against a slum landlord [by conducting a prayer service in the street].” Those are the words of LeRoy Patrick (1915– 2006), minister, civil rights leader, former member of the Pennsylvania Historical and...
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Henry “Harry” T. Burleigh

Posted by Eric Smith on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off Early Life in Erie One year after the end of the American Civil War, Henry “Harry” T. Burleigh was born in Erie, on December 2, 1866, into an African American family which still sang the songs of slavery. Burleigh was the son of Henry Burley and Elizabeth Waters. After her husband died, Elizabeth changed the family name to Burleigh. The younger Burleigh recalled that the slave songs were...
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