Pleistocene Preserved: The Lost Bone Cave of Port Kennedy

Posted by on Feb 20, 2020 in | Comments Off on Pleistocene Preserved: The Lost Bone Cave of Port Kennedy On October 29, 1895, more than 90 members attended a meeting at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Following the routine business of the publication committee’s report and the announcement of one member’s death, Henry Chapman Mercer (1856–1930) rose to speak about the ongoing exploration of a geological feature known as Irwin’s Cave in Montgomery County. The Philadelphia Inquirer...
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Preserving Pieces of Pennsylvania’s Past: An Inside Look at the Building of the Commonwealth’s Collections

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Preserving Pieces of Pennsylvania’s Past: An Inside Look at the Building of the Commonwealth’s Collections Associations between butterflies and buttons, Conestoga wagons and cannon, sculpture and arrowheads, or fossils and founder William Penn’s original Charter may seem tenuous, even obscure and, perhaps, nonsensical. But a relationship does exist: they are among the one and a half million objects and thirty thousand cubic feet of manuscripts, records, maps and photographs in the custody and...
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Bucks County

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bucks County As one of the three original counties of Pennsylvania created shortly after William Penn arrived in his nascent colony in 1682, Bucks County has a heritage that reaches back to the very beginnings of the Commonwealth. Long before Penn’s arrival, the intrepid settlers of the Dutch and Swedish colonies farther down the Delaware River had ex­plored the wooded banks of the river as far as the...
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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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Currents

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Currents Let’s Motor! Although Detroit has earned the title of “Motor City,” Pittsburgh was home to twenty automobile makers at the turn of the century, manufacturing such notable vehicles as the Penn 30 Touring Car, the Standard Model E Touring Car, the Keystone Six-Sixty, the Brush Model D Runabout, and the Artzberger Steam Surrey. Several of these automobiles attracted widespread...
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Currents

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Currents Doctor! Doctor! During the eighteenth century, and throughout much of the nineteenth cen­tury, most Americans attempted to heal themselves, as their ancestors had for centuries. Professional medical assis­tance was either too far away, too expensive, or both, and even affluent and urban families usually engaged in some sort of home health care before the doctor was summoned. Such care was...
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Lost and Found

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lost and Found Lost The manufacture of bricks in Reading and surrounding Berks County dates to at least 1790, and several historians contend that the industry in the area predates the American Revolution. The region’s dense clay soil encouraged a proliferation of companies, which by the mid-1840s, numbered seventeen and produced nearly ten million bricks each year. By the close of the nineteenth century,...
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Holland Sabbath School Banner

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Holland Sabbath School Banner Currently the subject of much interest – no doubt piqued by several popular exhibitions mounted by museums in southeastern Pennsylvania – Bucks County’s Edward Hicks (1780-1849) is known throughout the country (if not the world) for his paintings depicting The Peaceable Kingdom and Penn’s Treaty with the Indians (see “Currents” in the fall 1999 issue) Art...
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Dr. Henry C. Mercer’s Fonthill

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Dr. Henry C. Mercer’s Fonthill Henry Chapman Mercer (1856–1930), scion of a wealthy Doylestown, Bucks County, family was known for many characteristics and traits: well-bred, handsome, inquisitive, erudite, and — to townspeople — decidedly eccentric. He was known for his contributions as a master ceramicist, local historian, writer, archaeologist, ethnologist, museum curator, amateur architect, collector, horticulturist,...
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