My Memories of Harrisburg and the Flood of ’36

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on My Memories of Harrisburg and the Flood of ’36 In 1923, I was four years old when my family moved from Philadelphia to Harrisburg. My father, Einar Barfod, had been appointed chief investigator in the securities department of Pennsylvania’s ban.king department by Governor Gifford Pinchot. My earliest memory of Harrisburg was a summer when my mother hired a farmer to plow the field next to our house, then having all the neighborhood...
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Currents

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Currents Both Sides Now A decade in the making, Harrisburg’s newly opened National Civil War Museum boasts nearly thirty thousand square feet of exhibition space. Situated high atop a knoll in a city park, with a commanding view of the capital city below, the museum – described by the re­gion’s press as “a world-class museum for a world-class collection” – is the first...
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Eddie Plank

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Eddie Plank Gettysburg conjures up images of the greatest battle of the American Civil War. Shortly after guns were silenced, the same rural community played an important role in producing one of baseball’s greatest pitchers. Edward Stewart “Eddie ” Plank, born August 31, 1875, played baseball for Gettysburg College, while attending Gettysburg Academy from 1900 to 1901. He went directly...
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David McNeely Stauffer’s Little Known Legacy to Lancaster

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on David McNeely Stauffer’s Little Known Legacy to Lancaster “Nothing con­tributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose – a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.” A passage from Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s 1818 clas­sic Frankenstein may be a most unlikely source, but these words characterize the equally unlikely life of Lancaster County native David McNeely Stauffer (1845-1913). Born in Richland...
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Documenting Everyday Life in Pennsylvania During the Great Depression and World War II

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Documenting Everyday Life in Pennsylvania During the Great Depression and World War II The documentary photography project initiated by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in 1935 was an unprecedented experiment in the history of photography, and it remains a monument to a collective effort that will never be equaled-the recording of an entire nation, from the city and town to the farm, from the home to the factory, from work to leisure, from school to church, from the baseball...
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Out and About

Posted by on Nov 24, 2013 in | Comments Off on Out and About American Etchers Abroad Beginning in the early 1880s, a large number of American artists set out for foreign lands. Europe offered travel abroad, opportunity to study great works of art, and instruction from master artists. Many were drawn to the graphic art of etching. With etching tools in hand, they explored Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and recorded their impressions of sites and people....
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A Flag Bears Witness – Don’t Give Up The Ship

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on A Flag Bears Witness – Don’t Give Up The Ship A mere five words stitched on a flag in 1813 in a tiny frontier village produced one of the most enduring symbols in United States history. Two hundred years later those few words – Don’t Give Up The Ship – have become a stirring, unofficial motto of the U.S. Navy; a rallying cry; and a flag flown from masts of sailboats, yachts, tall ships, and more. The details of the War of...
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Peter F. Rothermel

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Peter F. Rothermel Best known — in Pennsylvania at least — as the artist of the colossal painting depicting Pickett’s Charge on July 3, 1863, the third and final day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Peter Frederick Rothermel (1817–1895) was born and raised in Nescopeck, Luzerne County. Following a public school education he moved to Philadelphia where he worked as a sign painter. He briefly studied drawing before...
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All’s Fair: Philadelphia and the Civil War Sanitary Fair

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on All’s Fair: Philadelphia and the Civil War Sanitary Fair Share...
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The State Museum Commemorates the Civil War

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on The State Museum Commemorates the Civil War Commemorations of the American Civil War are nearly as old as the conflict itself. Little more than six years after the war ended General George Gordon Meade of Philadelphia spoke to Union army veterans at a reunion in Boston. “Comrades of the Army of the Potomac,” he began, “the first thing I shall do, which we ought to do . . . is to return our thanks to the Great Being who,...
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