Keep the Boys in College! How World War I Produced a Penn State Football Legend

Posted by on Dec 13, 2016 in | Comments Off on Keep the Boys in College! How World War I Produced a Penn State Football Legend Pennsylvanians who remember Glenn Killinger (1898–1988) often envision the legendary coach of West Chester State Teachers’ College football and baseball teams during the decades that spanned 1933 to 1970. His name often comes up in conversations about Paul “Bear” Bryant as one of the two unbending football minds who led the North Carolina Pre-Flight Cloudbusters to one of the...
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Historic Districts in Pennsylvania: An Evolving Sense of Place

Posted by on Jun 6, 2016 in | Comments Off on Historic Districts in Pennsylvania: An Evolving Sense of Place Jim Thorpe, originally named Mauch Chunk, is a small and picturesque borough of well-preserved 19th-century buildings perched on the side of a mountain along the Lehigh River in Carbon County. It once served as an important railroad and coal shipping center. As these industries waned in the 20th century, the town sought new economic purpose by marketing its scenic appeal as the “Switzerland of...
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One Should Not Overlook Union County

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on One Should Not Overlook Union County Union County on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River is one of Pennsylvania’s smaller counties, encompassing a bare 258 square miles, with a population of 30,000, including 3000 college stu­dents and 1900 inmates of two federal prisons. Few of its residents have held high political office and fewer of its names have appeared in Who’s Who in America. Yet the historical...
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Pennsylvania Gridiron: Washington and Jefferson College’s First Century of Football

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Gridiron: Washington and Jefferson College’s First Century of Football Gentlemen, you are now going to play football against Harvard. Never again in your whole life will you do anything so important. Yale’s noted football coach T.A.D. Jones delivered his message just as his team was going out to defend Yale Bowl against its ancient rival. But it’s not only coaches whose pas­sion for football is ardent­ – millions play the game on high school,...
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The Young Lady of Lewisburg Grows Up

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Young Lady of Lewisburg Grows Up The year is 1864. It is summer. The time is morning. Enter Sallie Meixell, a young woman. Wearily, Sarah Rebecca Meixell trudges up the stairs to the attic of her parents’ home in Lewisburg, lugging the cradle Annie Cowden had used. After returning it to its proper place, she gratefully sinks down and falls asleep until noon. Upon awakening she hurries to McMahon’s Store to purchase...
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Executive Director’s Message

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Executive Director’s Message The two hundredth anniver­sary of Joseph Priestley’s arrival in Pennsylvania presents a time to reflect on the life and work of an individual who was truly a unique citizen of our state, nation, and the world. During his lifetime, Priestley was the representative man of the Age of Enlightenment in England and America. His discovery of oxygen in 1774 established his reputation worldwide as...
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Shorts

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Shorts Opening Saturday, October 30 [1993], at the Philadelphia Museum of Art is an exhibi­tion of one hundred and twenty-five old master drawings selected from both public and private collections in the United States and Europe, many of which have never before been exhibited in this country. Entitled “Visions of Antiquity: Neoclassical Figure Drawings,” the exhibition features works by a...
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Finding the Fabulous Furniture of the Mahantongo Valley

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Finding the Fabulous Furniture of the Mahantongo Valley The exuberantly decorated furniture made during the first half of the nineteenth century in the Mahantongo Valley of south central Pennsylvania continues to attract considerable attention. The Mahantongo Valley, roughly seventeen miles long and four miles wide, lies about twenty-five miles north of Harrisburg, and its topography is formed by a series of sharp ridges, meandering creeks, and steep...
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Shorts

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Shorts “Elocution, Orthography, and Mental Arithmetic: Victorian School Days,” an exhibit examining the nineteenth-century educational experience from the one-room rural schoolhouse to the sprawling urban university, is on view at Penny­packer Mills through Saturday, June 30, 2001. The exhibit interprets these experiences through objects and artifacts originally belonging to members of the...
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Art with a Purpose: Pennsylvania’s Museum Extension Project, 1935-1943

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Art with a Purpose: Pennsylvania’s Museum Extension Project, 1935-1943 Like other relief programs launched during the Great Depression under the aegis of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, the goal of federal arts programs of the 1930s was two-fold: to rescue unemployed Americans from poverty and to produce something of public benefit. One of the unintended byproducts was controversy. In 1937, the Federal Art and Theatre Project unintentionally...
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