Ask A Curator Day

Posted by on May 8, 2015 in | Comments Off on Ask A Curator Day Sarah Buffington was quick with her response. The longtime curator at Old Economy Village in Ambridge, Beaver County, had expected the question and she was ready. “Probably a static electricity machine,” she said. “The communal Harmony Society had a science museum, which we’ve recreated. They tried to make electricity in the 1820s and ’30s. It didn’t work...
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Paesano: The Struggle to Survive in Ambridge

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Paesano: The Struggle to Survive in Ambridge For nearly three-quarters of a cen­tury, Lucy Derochis, my grandmother, has struggled successfully to preserve and convey her Italian heritage while living in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. Her cultivation of familial closeness was rewarded when family members gath­ered to celebrate her eighty-ninth birthday on March 13, 1980. The dur­ability of the tight and close structure of an Italian-American...
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Unlikely Capitalists: Harmonists as Textile Manufacturers

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Unlikely Capitalists: Harmonists as Textile Manufacturers At the end of the eighteenth century, George Rapp (1757-1847) planned to create a religious community in the wilderness as near to heaven on earth as was humanly possible. He succeeded to a large extent, but in the process achieved a different kind of success: he created one of the largest textile manufacturing enter­prises in the Pennsylvania of his time. While still in his native Württemburg,...
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History is Alive and Well in Beaver County

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on History is Alive and Well in Beaver County On June 6, 1824, the steamboat Ploughboy with the first contingent of Harmony Society members came around the bend in the river at Legionville; the skipper gave a cannon salute. After dropping anchor, the passengers disembarked and made camp. The following day, Father Rapp, leader of the Harmonists, wrote to the remaining members at New Harmony: “I consider this place the most healthful in...
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Graphic Arts of Harmony Society

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Graphic Arts of Harmony Society You shall not make unto yourself any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in the heavens above or the earth beneath … (Exodus 20:4). How can you have art when you cannot have “graven images?” The Harmony Society (1785-1905) believed in the literal truth of the Bible and followed all of the injunctions carefully, including the third commandment quoted above....
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Heritage Highlights

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Heritage Highlights Bushy Run Battlefield, Jeanette Spring Nature Walk, May 8, 1993 Lecture: “Trade Muskets: Fact or Fiction?”, June 19, 1993 230th Battle Anniversary Commemoration, August 7-8, 1993 Cornwall Iron Furnace, Cornwall Cornwall Furnace Country Fair, July 17, 1993 Eckley Miners’ Village, Weatherly Patch Town Day, June 27, 1993 Ephrata Cloister, Ephrata Discovery Days: Indians of the...
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Heritage Highlights

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Heritage Highlights Daniel Boone Homestead, Birdsboro First Pennsylvania Regiment Flintlock Shoot, September 11-12, 1993 Architectural Heritage Day, October 17, 1993 Brandywine Battlefield Park, Chadds Ford Annual Battle of Brandywine Reenactment, September 19, 1993 Bushy Run Battlefield, Jeanette Fall Nature Walk and Tour, October 16, 1993 Drake Well Museum, Titusville Fall Gas- up Engine Exhibit and...
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Heritage Highlights

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Heritage Highlights Brandywine Battlefield Park, Chadds Ford Summer History Camps for Children, June 12-August 13, 1993 Annual Battle Reenactment, September 19, 1993 Bushy Run Battlefield, Jeanette Lecture: “Trade Muskets: Fact or Fiction?”, June 19, 1993 230th Battle Anniversary Commemoration, August 7-8, 1993 Lecture: “The Hunting Pouch of the Colonial Period”, September 18, 1993 Cornwall...
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Heritage Highlights

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Heritage Highlights Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum, Scranton Exhibit: “Illustrating an Era: The Life and Work of Photographer John Horgan, Jr., 1859-1926”, through March 1994 Old Economy Village, Ambridge “Gartenfest”, May 14-15, 1994 Joseph Priestley House, Northumberland “Oxygen Day” Celebration, August 1, 1994 Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, Strasburg Lecture:...
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Shorts

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Shorts The seventeenth annual Conference on Black History will be conducted by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission on Friday and Saturday, May 13-14, 1994, in Erie. The theme of this year’s event is “African Americans at Work in Pennsyl­vania.” For additional information, write: 1994 Conference on Black History, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, P. O. Box...
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