Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Sep 12, 2022 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter The State Museum of Pennsylvania has recently installed in its first-floor gallery a long-term exhibition, A Place for All, focusing on three episodes of the Civil Rights Movement in the commonwealth — struggles for integration at Highland Park swimming pool in Pittsburgh, Girard College preparatory school in Philadelphia, and the suburban community of Levittown in Bucks County. The stories were...
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Ruthless Tide by Al Roker

Posted by on Jan 13, 2020 in | Comments Off on Ruthless Tide by Al Roker Ruthless Tide The Heroes and Villains of the Johnstown Flood, America’s Astonishing Gilded Age Disaster by Al Roker William Morrow, 303 pp, cloth $28.99 The Johnstown Flood of 1889 retains  its fascination. The flood was caused by the breaking of a dam owned by the South Fork Fishing & Hunting Club, a group of Pittsburgh industrialists and financiers. In a horrifying display of the...
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Homeward Bound: An Interview with David McCullough

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Homeward Bound: An Interview with David McCullough David McCullough is a familiar name – and face. Known to millions as the author of bestselling books, including The Great Bridge, The Path Between the Seas, Truman, Mornings on Horseback, and Brave Companions, and as host of the popular PBS television series “Smithsonian World” and “The American Experience,” he is noted for his remarkable gift of writing richly...
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Letters to the Editor

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Letters to the Editor Sheer Eloquence I enjoyed reading David McCullough’s first-person account of how he tackles research and writing (see “Homeward Bound: An Interview with David McCullough” by Brent D. Glass in the summer 1994 edition). He is articulate and perceptive. His words are nothing short of sheer eloquence. Aren’t we fortunate to be able to claim him as a native Pennsylvanian?...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf The Indian Industrial School, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 1879-1918 by Linda F. Witmer Cumberland County Historical Society, 1993 (166 pages, cloth, $29.95) The Indian Industrial School, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 1879-1918, is a photo­graphic essay tracing the origins and development of the educational institu­tion established in the Cumberland County seat by Captain Richard H. Pratt. The Indian...
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Currents

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Currents White Elephants Baseball historians generally consider Connie Mack (1862-1956) the paragon of managers. His knowledge of the game, professional disposition, and ability to acquire and, more importantly, manage players captured the attention of sports enthusiasts during a time when the national pastime was riddled with scandal, permeated with intemperance, and punctuated by rowdyism. Connie Mack...
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Conrad Richter

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Conrad Richter Proudly claimed as a native son by Pennsylva­nians, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Conrad Richter (1890-1968) was born and raised in Pine Grove, in western Schuylkill County, about thirty-five miles north of Harris­burg. Work took him increasingly westward until, in 1928, he and his wife. Harvena Achenbach Richter, relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico, which pro­vided material for his first...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Palace of Culture: Andrew Carnegie’s Museums and Library in Pittsburgh by Robert J. Gangewere published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011; 332 pages, cloth, $35.00 Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) is remembered as one of the world’s great philanthropists. As a boy, he witnessed the benevolence of Colonel James Anderson, a prosperous iron maker, who opened his personal library of several...
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