The Centre County Grange Fair: “Oh, it’s just wonderful, that’s all”

Posted by on Nov 28, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Centre County Grange Fair: “Oh, it’s just wonderful, that’s all” “I’d just like to see it keeping on and on.”   County fair! For many Americans these two words conjure up an array of images – memories of sights, sounds and smells found nowhere else … crowded, dusty fairgrounds … screams of excited children on midway rides … cotton candy and french fries … concessionaires cajoling passersby to “try...
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Lycoming County: Many Call It Romantic

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lycoming County: Many Call It Romantic Its heritage is so rich that it’s hard to adequately­ – and accurately – portray the roles Lycoming County has played in the Commonwealth’s history. Since its settlement in the mid­-eighteenth century, it has had, according to Sylvester K. Stevens, author of the 1946 guide to the Keystone State’s sixty-seven counties, My Penn­sylvania, “one of the most...
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Central Pennsylvania’s Very Own Painted Ladies

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Central Pennsylvania’s Very Own Painted Ladies The painted plank bottom chair, a sturdy survivor of Pennsyl­vania’s golden age of chairmaking, is at long last garnering the recognition it has long deserved – thanks to the nation’s seemingly insatiable appetite for what many call The Country Look. This hand-decorated chair, admired by many for its graceful stenciling and skilled workmanship, has weathered a century of heavy...
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Shorts

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Shorts Fort Hunter Day, a celebra­tion of autumn, will be hosted on Sunday, September 19 [1993], from 10 A. M. to 5 P. M. by Fort Hunter Mansion and Park. The event, free and open to the public, will feature crafts show and demonstrations, carriage rides, period entertainment, and numerous activities designed especially for children. Also featured throughout the day will be demonstrations of...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Organizing Archival Records by David W. Carmicheal Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1993 (53 pages, paper, $9.95) Subtitled A Practical Method of Arrangement and Description for Small Archives, this compact book is an easy-to-use “how-to” guide for community associa­tions, fraternal organizations, church groups, and local and county historical societies. This invaluable...
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Lost and Found

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lost and Found Lost Following World War II, the United States Steel Corporation’s massive Homestead Works in Allegheny County employed nearly fifteen thousand work­ers. The sprawling works, site of the infamous Homestead Steel Strike of 1892, closed in July 1986 and demolition began soon after. But all is not lost. While much of the plant is gone, there are plans to pre­serve the Pinkerton Landing, site...
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Executive Director’s Message

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Executive Director’s Message The fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II is being observed throughout the Commonwealth with a remarkable array of public events. from a large butter sculpture depicting the raising of the American flag at Iwo Jima displayed at this year’s Farm Show in January to a special exhibit devoted to wartime efforts on the home front installed in our own Mobile Museum, Pennsylvanians are...
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Lost and Found

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lost and Found Lost Harrisburg’s Senate Hotel, designed by architect Miller Isaac Kast in an elegant French Beaux Arts style, was opened by hotelier James Russ in 1906. In a successful nomination to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, it was described as “the finest com­mercial … building in the City of Harrisburg.” Preservationists treasured its handsome facade for the...
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Shorts

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Shorts “Working Under Wires,” examining the work – often unseen or unnoticed by the public – that ensured safe, reliable, and economical public transportation, will remain on exhibit at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington through December 1997. The exhibition focuses on the men and women employed by trolley companies as operators, mechanics, track crews, overhead wire and signal...
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Pennsylvania Military Museum

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Military Museum The Pennsylvania Military Museum at Boalsburg in Centre County portrays the endeavors of the Commonwealth’s citizen soldiers at war and peace from 1747 to the present. Special exhibits include the Hall of Weapons, a gallery featuring vintage photographs and posters, displays of memorabilia from several wars, and a life-size diorama re-creating the sights and sounds of a World War I...
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