Raising Philadelphia by Justin McHenry

Posted by on Sep 8, 2025 in | Comments Off on Raising Philadelphia by Justin McHenry Raising Philadelphia The Making of America’s First Great City, 1750–1775 by Justin McHenry Brookline Books, 224 pages, hardcover $32.95 McHenry’s appetite for research and his passion for storytelling combine here to illuminate threads of history and biography into readable stories for a broad audience. Focusing on Philadelphia’s transformation into a cultural and political epicenter...
read more

The Frantz One-Room Schoolhouse

Posted by on Mar 27, 2024 in | Comments Off on The Frantz One-Room Schoolhouse   Set in the rural woodlands and farm fields of Eldred Township, Monroe County, the Frantz One-Room Schoolhouse served as a school for about 90 years, from its construction circa 1855 until 1945. In fall 2022 it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of the important role such one-room schools played in public education in Pennsylvania and the dedication of...
read more

Thaddeus Stevens by Bruce Levine

Posted by on Dec 1, 2021 in | Comments Off on Thaddeus Stevens by Bruce Levine Thaddeus Stevens Civil War Revolutionary, Fighter for Racial Justice by Bruce Levine Simon & Schuster, 309 pp., hardcover $28 In most respects a conventional biography, Thaddeus Stevens revisits the life and times of a consequential American character. Levine limns the forces that shaped Stevens’ sensibility and his commitment to racial justice as his most notable cause. Stevens’ family...
read more

Lincoln University

Posted by on Nov 29, 2021 in | Comments Off on Lincoln University Pennsylvania has the distinction of hosting the nation’s first two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs): Cheyney and Lincoln universities. Both schools were established to provide people of African descent with higher education opportunities that were profoundly lacking in the 19th century. Cheyney, founded in 1837, initially provided training in trades and agriculture and the...
read more

“Without Fear and Without Reproach”: Octavius V. Catto and the Early Civil Rights Movement in Pennsylvania

Posted by on Feb 5, 2021 in | Comments Off on “Without Fear and Without Reproach”: Octavius V. Catto and the Early Civil Rights Movement in Pennsylvania On Tuesday, September 26, 2017, the City of Philadelphia unveiled a monument to Octavius V. Catto in a ceremony at the southwestern apron of City Hall. Catto was a cornerstone figure in Philadelphia’s early civil rights struggle — a recruiter of an African American militia during the Civil War, an instrumental figure in the victory to desegregate Philadelphia’s horse-drawn streetcars, a...
read more

On Becoming Neighbors by Alexandra C. Klarén

Posted by on Oct 15, 2020 in | Comments Off on On Becoming Neighbors by Alexandra C. Klarén On Becoming Neighbors The Communication Ethics of Fred Rogers by Alexandra C. Klarén University of Pittsburgh Press, 344 pp., hardcover $35 Fred Rogers is one of western Pennsylvania’s most beloved national figures. Born in Latrobe in 1928, he spent most of his professional life at WQED in Pittsburgh producing the children’s TV series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (1968–2001) for PBS. A number of...
read more

Charles Carroll Public School

Posted by on Apr 23, 2020 in | Comments Off on Charles Carroll Public School By the late 1960s the Philadelphia public school system was faced with a crisis. The urban population, after years of growth and expansion to the city’s outskirts and beyond, was now in decline. At the same time racial tensions became prevalent as the urban population became more integrated. Many Philadelphia public schools, especially those found in integrating or depressed neighborhoods, had...
read more

From the Executive Director

Posted by on Feb 3, 2020 in | Comments Off on From the Executive Director Spring is field trip season here at the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission. Each year, we welcome approximately 90,000 schoolchildren to our museums and historic sites, with most of them visiting between March and June, when classroom schedules have a little more flexibility and teachers are anxious to help students burn off a little of their spring fever. Many of the students who...
read more

From the Executive Director

Posted by on Dec 17, 2019 in | Comments Off on From the Executive Director One of the things I love best about being executive director of the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission is sharing our commonwealth’s history with other Pennsylvanians. Although this letter is appearing in the winter issue of Pennsylvania Heritage, I am writing it on one of the hottest days of 2018. Earlier today, I had just come out of a series of meetings related to agency work...
read more

Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter – Summer 2018

Posted by on Nov 12, 2019 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter – Summer 2018 Topics in the Summer 2018 Newsletter: PHF Sponsors Children’s Visit to Old Economy Village PHF Identifies PHMC’s 21st-Century Museums Initiative as a Fundraising Priority PHF Hosts Rotary International Students for Tour of The State Museum PHF Hosts Giving Circle Members at 4th Annual Dinner   pennsylvania-heritage-foundation-newsletter-summer-2018...
read more