Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Building Little Italy: Philadelphia’s Italians Before Mass Migration by Richard N. Juliani Pennsylvania State Univer­sity Press, 1998 (398 pages, paper, $19.95) The study of ethnicity in Amer­ica has been popular for years. Ethnic groups in cities small and large, in remote villages, and in rural farming areas have been ana­lyzed and researched; in several urban areas institutions devoted...
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Pennsylvanians-at-Arms: The Pennsylvania Military Museum

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvanians-at-Arms: The Pennsylvania Military Museum From provincial militia units that predate the American Revolution to this very day, Pennsylvanians have mustered their courage and taken up arms to defend their homes, defeat tyranny abroad, and champion the freedom of people at home and throughout the world. By accepting their call to duty, Pennsylvania’s brave citizen-soldiers have built a proud military tradition that, ironically, grew...
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Letters to the Editor

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Letters to the Editor Three Mile Island Brent D. Glass’s column [“Executive Director’s Message,” Spring 1999] on Three Mile Island (TMI) brought back many memories. I was a young, enthusiastic Westinghouse Nuclear Energy Systems employee based near Pittsburgh at the time of the accident. I had the opportunity of being sent by Westinghouse to TMI as part of the repair and recovery crew. I spent...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Guide to Pennsylvania Troops at Gettysburg By Richard Rollins and David Shultz Rank and File Publications, 1998 (106 pages, paper, $17.95) The Battle of Gettysburg was the nation’s most fierce military engagement. Pennsylvania alone dispatched well more than twenty-four thousand men to the epic onslaught, waged the first three days of July 1863, that resulted in more than fifty-one...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Wealth, Waste, and Alienation: Growth and Decline in the Connellsville Coke Industry By Kenneth Warren University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001 (297 pages, cloth, $30.00) In less than three-quarters of a century, the Connellsville coke industry, situated in southwestern Pennsylvania, mushroomed from slight beginnings into a key supplier essential to the iron and steel industries. It then fell victim...
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The Lincoln Train is Coming!

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Lincoln Train is Coming! On Saturday morning, April 15, 1865, news of President Abraham Lincoln’s assas­sination reached Philadelphia. The treacher­ousness of the crime created a mix of feel­ings surging from fear and horror to inconsolable grief. A galvanized nation began mourning immediately. Printer cranked out broadside that were posted throughout Philadelphia lamenting the “Martyred Father.”...
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Fred Waring (1900-1984)

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Fred Waring (1900-1984) In her 1997 book, Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians, Virginia Waring declared her late husband “The Man Who Taught America How to Sing.” In his foreword to the book, Robert Shaw (1916-1999), world-famous choral conductor known for his classical and secular repertoire, wrote, “It is certain to me that tours of the Bach B Minor Mass and the Mozart Requiem would not have been...
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The 54th Mass. Infantry Regiment, US Colored Troops

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on The 54th Mass. Infantry Regiment, US Colored Troops Although its name might lead many to believe that the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, United States Colored Troops (USCT), was made up of African American soldiers from New England, the unit included a number of Pennsylvanians. In fact, forty-five of the recruits lived in Franklin County, and an additional thirteen joined the 55th Massachusetts, organized for the overflow from the 54th....
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