Building a Brand for Pennsylvania Products

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Building a Brand for Pennsylvania Products Over the centuries most Pennsylvanians have traded their team of horses for cars, their work boots for street shoes, and their plows for computers. yet we still hanker for a taste of our rural roots. While many of us may be weekend gardeners, farmers are lifetime gardeners, producing a quality, diverse food supply for the world year-round. What better way to support local farmers than by...
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Rediscovering the People’s Art: New Deal Murals in Pennsylvania’s Post Offices

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Rediscovering the People’s Art: New Deal Murals in Pennsylvania’s Post Offices On a February morning in 1937, artist George Warren Rickey (1907-2002) and a group of four men met at the post office in Selinsgrove, Snyder County. Armed with cloth-covered rolling pins, the men attached Rickey’s mural entitled Susquehanna Trail to one of the lobby’s end walls. After six hours, they transformed the entire blank white wall, from marble wainscoting to ceiling, into a...
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Elizabeth Meyer Flag at Pennsylvania Military Museum

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Elizabeth Meyer Flag at Pennsylvania Military Museum No less than two dozen communities throughout the country claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day and Boalsburg, Centre County, continues to staunchly defends its claim. According to local tradition Emma Hunter and Sophie Keller met at a cemetery adjacent to the village’s Zion Lutheran Church on an October Sunday in 1864 to place flowers on the grave of Hunter’s father Reuben, a physician who...
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Celebrating Volunteers on the Pennsylvania Trails of History

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Celebrating Volunteers on the Pennsylvania Trails of History Every spring we honor those who contribute their experience and expertise to support the mission and work of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC). In 2011–2012 volunteers donated approximately 117,000 hours at historic sites and museums along the Pennsylvania Trails of History®. This impressive collective donation is valued at nearly $2.5 million, based on data provided by...
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Dispatch from Governor Andrew Curtin

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Dispatch from Governor Andrew Curtin A dispatch issued on June 15, 1863, by Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin (1817–1894) to various post offices in Pennsylvania alerted citizens to the imminent arrival of Confederate troops under General Robert E. Lee in Pennsylvania. It was the first public notice of the South’s advance on the Keystone State which ultimately resulted in the horrific three-day Battle of Gettysburg waged July 1-3. “Lee...
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New York Central Railroad Station, Philipsburg, Pa.

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on New York Central Railroad Station, Philipsburg, Pa. Until railroads reached Philipsburg in the mid-nineteenth century, the small Centre County community was primarily a hub of local commerce. Founded in 1797 on the east side of Moshannon Creek by a thirty-year-old entrepreneur, Henry Phillips (1767–1800), the community owed its economic boom of the second half of the nineteenth century to the proverbial coming of the railroad. Philipsburg was...
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Letters

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Letters Energized! Your most recent issue [Spring 2009] has left me “energized”! The articles and the interviews are all top notch – stunningly written and beautifully laid out. This one is a keeper. Thank you for making history so relevant to what we are experiencing today. We need to understand history in order to make critical decisions that will affect not only us but our...
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Exploring the Pennsylvania Energy Trail of History

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Exploring the Pennsylvania Energy Trail of History Pennsylvania’s vast natural resources helped fuel the growth and development of both state and nation, spawning innumerable advances in transportation, industry, technology, and science. These resources propelled an economy that supported generations of men and women. The Pennsylvania Trails of History, a network of historic sites and museums administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and...
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PHMC Highlights

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on PHMC Highlights In May, visitors witnessed a reenactment of World War II field life in the 1944–1945 European theater of operations as American, Allied, and German soldiers set up a bivouac on the grounds of the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg, Centre County. Reenactors who portrayed Allied small squad tactical operations against Nazi opposition included Tom Gray, Caitlin Williamson, and Doug Hartman;...
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When the Susquehanna River Was Pennsylvania’s Flour Highway

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on When the Susquehanna River Was Pennsylvania’s Flour Highway The flour trade industry in the Susquehanna River watershed is one of the lesser known stories in Pennsylvania’s history, but it is among its most significant sagas. Millers were among the first tradesmen to arrive in the New World to sustain the settlers. The Keystone State’s rich farmlands produced abundant flour for local and regional markets with a consistent surplus for export to foreign...
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