Art of the State 2017

Posted by on Aug 22, 2017 in | 0 comments Art of the State, the annual juried exhibition at The State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg, Dauphin County, marked its 50th occurrence this year, showcasing 130 works selected from more than 2,200 submissions. Since 1968 the museum has served as the venue each year for Pennsylvania artists to share their ideas and engage viewers through a diverse body of artwork (see “Representing...
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Artful Trails

Posted by on Jun 13, 2017 in | Comments Off on Artful Trails In honor of the 50th Art of the State exhibition, open through September 10, 2017, at The State Museum of Pennsylvania, we’re exploring art at other historic sites and museums along PHMC’s Pennsylvania Trails of History. As visual storytellers, our sites employ a multidisciplinary approach to documenting and sharing Pennsylvania heritage. Artworks frequently play a role in the study...
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Mount Gretna’s Spirit Lives On

Posted by on Jun 13, 2017 in | Comments Off on Mount Gretna’s Spirit Lives On Mount Gretna in Lebanon County is an enduring gem of a historic village that offers visitors a rare opportunity to experience an unembellished, Victorian-era lifestyle that shuffles on in similar fashion today. Cloistered within a 16-mile slice of forested rocky hills surrounded by a patchwork expanse of farmland between Lancaster and Hershey, Mount Gretna came to life in 1892 as a village (now...
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Representing Pennsylvania’s “Precious Heritage”: Art of the State 50

Posted by on Jun 13, 2017 in | Comments Off on Representing Pennsylvania’s “Precious Heritage”: Art of the State 50 Art of the State is an annual juried exhibition that has been showcasing the work of Pennsylvania’s artists at The State Museum of Pennsylvania since 1968. The body of art that has been exhibited reflects half a century of creative endeavor in the Keystone State. Through the years, exhibitors have shared their ideas and engaged viewers in the categories of painting, photography, craft,...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Jun 13, 2017 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter Historical research is often motivated by a personal connection to a subject. Two articles in this issue of Pennsylvania Heritage come from authors who have investigated individuals significant to their own lives and found links to broader themes in Pennsylvania history. David D. Hursh became intrigued by his maternal great-grandfather, Rudolph M. Hunter, after years of hearing family lore about...
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To Protect, Conserve and Enhance by Kenneth C. Wolensky

Posted by on Sep 9, 2016 in | Comments Off on To Protect, Conserve and Enhance by Kenneth C. Wolensky To Protect, Conserve, and Enhance: The History of the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission by Kenneth C. Wolensky Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission, 400 pp., paper $19.95 As part of the 150th anniversary of its founding in 1866, the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission (PFBC) has published its own comprehensive history. Author Wolensky, through interviews, exhaustive review of PFBC...
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Black Cultural Development in Pennsylvania: Since 1900

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Black Cultural Development in Pennsylvania: Since 1900   The cultural history of Blacks in America is varied and diverse. At the same time, it is deeply inter­woven into the whole of America’s cultural fabric. Yet, the significant cultural contributions of Black Amer­icans have been overlooked. Because of this omission, it was not until the beginning of the twentieth century that the art of Afro-Americans began to receive the recognition...
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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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Malcolm Parcell, The Master of Moon Lorn

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Malcolm Parcell, The Master of Moon Lorn Fame has not forgotten Malcolm Parcell, undeniably one of Pennsylvania’s – and America’s – foremost portrait painters of the twentieth century. Although the reclu­sive artist died at the age of ninety-one in March 1987 at his enchanting rural retreat in Washington County, he is still spoken of with affection and reverence as “the grand old man of western...
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Susquehanna’s Painters

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Susquehanna’s Painters Few Pennsylvanians probably realize that Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, Thomas Doughty, Frederick Edwin Church and Jasper Francis Cropsey, the leading lights of the Hudson River school, the famous nineteenth century landscape tradition, painted the Susquehanna River or its tributaries. The most important works of Cropsey and Doughty – hailed as the luminar­ies of the Hudson River school...
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