Pennsylvania in Watercolor: Revisiting Nick Ruggieri’s Bicentennial Series

Posted by on Dec 1, 2025 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania in Watercolor: Revisiting Nick Ruggieri’s Bicentennial Series   In 1971, the Harrisburg Patriot-News commissioned local artist and newspaperman Nick Ruggieri (1908–96) to create a series of paintings depicting Pennsylvania scenes—both historic and contemporary — across all 67 counties. The project was intended to be the capital city newspaper’s contribution to the upcoming Bicentennial, a national celebration in which the Keystone State was expected...
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Monument Man: Chester County’s John Gheen Taylor and His Memorials

Posted by on Sep 8, 2025 in | Comments Off on Monument Man: Chester County’s John Gheen Taylor and His Memorials In Pennsylvania’s Chester County there is an old burial ground called Birmingham Lafayette Cemetery. While it may seem quiet outside the cemetery’s gates, behind them is a collection of monuments that speak loudly, telling a story that once captured the attention of the nation. Between 1893 and 1913, a determined West Chester local named John Gheen Taylor made it his mission to erect certain...
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Teammates & Rivals: Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and the Pittsburgh Crawfords

Posted by on Sep 8, 2025 in | Comments Off on Teammates & Rivals: Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and the Pittsburgh Crawfords On September 10, 1942, the Negro American League champion Kansas City Monarchs faced the Negro National League champion Homestead Grays at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. It was Game Two of a best-of-seven matchup that would determine the World Series of Black baseball. The Monarchs had taken a one-game lead in the series the previous day, handily defeating the Grays, 8–0. Homestead was out for...
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“An Office I had some kind of Right to”: Benjamin Franklin and the Origins of the U.S. Postal Service

Posted by on Sep 8, 2025 in | Comments Off on “An Office I had some kind of Right to”: Benjamin Franklin and the Origins of the U.S. Postal Service In 1788, near the end of his life, Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) summed up a lengthy and significant association with the postal system in America in a letter to his old friend Charles Thomson, then secretary of the Continental Congress. Franklin wrote, “On my Return from England the Congress bestow’d on me the Office of Postmaster General, for which I was very thankful. It was indeed an Office I...
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The Hobby That Became a Museum: Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum, 1925–2025

Posted by on Aug 29, 2025 in | Comments Off on The Hobby That Became a Museum: Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum, 1925–2025 Brothers Henry Landis (1865–1955) and George Landis (1867–1954), the founders of Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum, were descendants of Germanic Mennonite families who moved to the area that would become Lancaster County in 1717. As young boys, Henry and George were encouraged by their forward-thinking parents and several teachers to pursue their personal interests and begin collecting....
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From Fort Sumter to Appomattox and Back: The Civil War Career of Samuel W. Crawford

Posted by on Jun 11, 2025 in | Comments Off on From Fort Sumter to Appomattox and Back: The Civil War Career of Samuel W. Crawford It started with a boom at 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, as a single mortar shell arched appropriately from south to north high over the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina. The shell burst above Fort Sumter and was a signal to the artillery batteries positioned around the harbor to open fire. The next shot, fired from a battery farther east, was meant to be the ceremonial beginning of a second...
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A Beacon of Liberty for the Enslaved: 250 Years of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society

Posted by on Jun 11, 2025 in | Comments Off on A Beacon of Liberty for the Enslaved: 250 Years of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society   By the early 1700s, French Protestants — largely Calvinists known as Huguenots — suffered in their country from severe religious persecution, among them a boy, Antoine Bénézet (1720–72), and his parents. When their property was seized unless they renounced their faith, they departed their country, making their way to London, where they joined a welcoming group that stood for tolerance,...
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Pennsylvania and the American Revolution: An Interview with Gordon S. Wood

Posted by on Jun 11, 2025 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania and the American Revolution: An Interview with Gordon S. Wood   The American Revolution was the most significant event in our country’s history. Independence from Great Britain not only resulted in the birth of a new nation but also one dedicated to a uniquely democratic form of government unknown to the world in the 18th century. It also forged a national identity, rooted in the principles of liberty, equality and republicanism, that has endured for...
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The Hanna’s Town Resolves

Posted by on Jun 11, 2025 in | Comments Off on The Hanna’s Town Resolves On May 16, 1775, the citizens of Pennsylvania’s Westmoreland County gathered at Hanna’s Town to draft a series of resolutions condemning the actions of Parliament and to organize themselves into an armed militia. The resulting 755-word document, known as the Hanna’s Town Resolves, challenged the scope of British authority and took the western backcountry one step closer to revolution. Signed 14...
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Roads and Rails in Pittsburgh’s North Hills: How Transportation Fast-Tracked 20th-Century Suburban Development

Posted by on Feb 24, 2025 in | Comments Off on Roads and Rails in Pittsburgh’s North Hills: How Transportation Fast-Tracked 20th-Century Suburban Development The North Hills of Pittsburgh today resembles the suburban landscape clustered around many other American cities, dotted with housing subdivisions, roadside shopping centers, schools and too many traffic lights to count. But a little more than a century ago, this part of Allegheny County was like a rural outpost, a sparsely settled land of forested hillsides, rolling farmers’ fields, and the...
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