Currents

Exciting Erie Before the arrival of white settlers, the southern shores of Lake Erie were inhabited by the Eriez Indians of Iroquois stock until they were virtually eliminated, by 1655, through war with the Seneca nation. A century later, the French, recognizing the military and trade advantages that Lake Erie and its waterways offered, found a harbor ideally suited for a fort, which they named...
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Shorts

The Johnstown Area Heritage Association will host “Johnstown FolkFest ’95” from Friday through Sunday, September 1-3 [1995], in the community’s historic district of Cambria City. The Labor Day weekend event will fea­ture ethnic entertainment, tours of historic buildings, and cultural crafts. For more information, write: Johnstown Area Heritage Association, P. O. Box 1889,...
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Currents

Grand Manner Born in Nescopeck, Luzerne County, Peter Frederick Rothermel (1812-1895) was once one of the most celebrated his­tory painters in the United States (see “Painting for Peer, Patron, and the Public” by Kent Ahrens in the spring 1992 edition of Pennsylvania Heritage). Neglected for decades, he is at last being celebrated in a major exhibition, “Painting in the Grand...
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Shorts

“Tricks of the Trade: Apprenticeships in the Traditional Arts,” an exhibition ex­ploring the relationships between master artists and artisans and their apprentices will be shown at the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, Pittsburgh, from Wednesday, January 10, through Friday, February 23, 1996. “Tricks of the Trade” documents more than one hundred part­nerships in a...
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Shorts

In recognition of the recent seventy-fifth anniversary of women’s suffrage in the United States, the Chester County Historical Society is examining the roles of local women in the social reform movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through an exhibition entitled “‘Do Everything’: Women and Reform in Chester County.” Abolition, temperance,...
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Captain Smollet Defies the Mutineers (1911) by N. C. Wyeth

Newel Convers Wyeth (1882-1945) – known worldwide simply as N. C. Wyeth – was one of the best loved illustrators of this century. Patriarch of one of the nation’s most famous artistic dynasties, his name is synonymous with the Brandywine Valley of southeastern Pennsylvania and America’s golden age of illustration. Wyeth studied under master illustrator Howard Pyle...
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Shorts

The first exhibition in Philadelphia devoted to identifying and honoring African American women tap dancers, “Plenty of Good Women Dancers: African American Women Hoofers from Philadelphia,” features glamorous photographs and dancers’ vivid recollec­tions portraying the golden age of swing and rhythm tap of the 1930s and 1940s. “Plenty of Good Women Dancers”...
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Shorts

“Elegant Etiquette: Nineteenth-Century Figural Napkin Rings,” on view through Sunday, August 10 [1997], at the Brandywine River Museum, showcases a selection of whimsical table articles manufac­tured by American silverplate companies during the second half of the last century. From the 1860s through the end of the century, napkin rings took many forms and were adorned with fig­ures...
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A Commonwealth Treasure: Brandywine Battlefield Park

Brandywine Battlefield now lies quiet and peaceful, offering no grim hint of the heartbreak it once witnessed and bloodshed that stained its tall meadow grasses. Two hundred and twenty years ago this autumn its tranquility was shattered by the cacophony of cannon and its fields trampled by soldiers – twenty-six thousand of them – determined to do battle. Today, this scenic region of...
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Currents

Officers and Gentlemen Brevet Major General John Frederick Hartranft and General Winfield Scott Hancock, of Montgomery County, and Brevet Brigadier-General Galusha Pennypacker and Private Samuel W. Pennypacker, of Chester County, were among the many local servicemen and heroes who served during the Civil War. Galusha Pennypacker (1842-1916), hero of Fort Fisher, off Cape Fear, North Carolina,...
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