Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter – Winter 2026

Posted by on Jan 14, 2026 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter – Winter 2026 Topics in the Winter 2026 Newsletter: Winter Events of the Trails of History Forthcoming U.S. 250th Events on the Trails of History Winter-2026-newsletter...
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Back to the Cloister Fund

Posted by on Jan 14, 2026 in | Comments Off on Back to the Cloister Fund In 1925, Rev. Samuel Zerfass faced a quandary. He needed a new suit, but he lacked the funds for such a substantial purchase. Zerfass was a minister with the Society of German Seventh Day Baptists, a last vestige of the Ephrata Cloister religious community. With a dwindling membership and an entire campus of historic structures in disrepair, financial resources were limited. Undaunted, Zerfass...
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Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter – Winter 2025

Posted by on Feb 24, 2025 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter – Winter 2025 Topics in the Winter 2025 Newsletter: Winter Events on the Pennsylvania Trails of History PHF Welcomes Art of the State Winter-2025-PHF-Newsletter...
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Clocks of the Cloister

Posted by on Mar 29, 2024 in | Comments Off on Clocks of the Cloister In 1732 German mystic Conrad Beissel (1691–1768) came to the region known as the Cocalico. This was an undeveloped wilderness where he hoped to find solitude with God. Soon, fellow seekers of God came to be with him. Together, they created the Camp of the Solitudes, which quickly took the biblical name “Ephrata.” Those on the outside called it the Ephrata Cloister. This community grew rapidly...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Mar 27, 2024 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter “A century hence, they will not be here as I see them,” John James Audubon wrote in his journal on December 12, 1826, during a trip to England to raise money for the publication of The Birds of America. Audubon was feeling disconcerted about encroaching human activity in the American wilderness that would destroy nature’s “many brilliant charms,” among which he laments, “The Eagle scarce ever...
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Looking Back at 2023

Posted by on Dec 1, 2023 in | Comments Off on Looking Back at 2023 As we do every year in these pages (for the last dozen years or so, anyway), it’s time to take a look at highlights of the year that was.   Art of the State 2023 The State Museum of Pennsylvania’s annual juried art exhibition, Art of the State, opened on September 10. This year 559 artists submitted 1,915 entries. Selection jurors Deborah Pinter (Cleveland Institute of Art), Kyle Hackett...
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2022 Trails

Posted by on Dec 16, 2022 in | Comments Off on 2022 Trails With what feels like record speed, it’s once again time for our look back at the past year. Our steady rebound from 2020’s COVID-19–related site closures and event cancellations continued into 2022, with ongoing efforts to balance staff and visitor safety with everyone’s desire to get back out onto the Pennsylvania Trails of History. Visitation levels that started to increase in 2021 have...
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Songs of the Saron: Ephrata Cloister’s Women Composers

Posted by on May 13, 2022 in | Comments Off on Songs of the Saron: Ephrata Cloister’s Women Composers   In the mid-18th century, a small religious community thrived at what is known today as Ephrata Cloister on the banks of the Cocalico Creek in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County. Founded in 1732 by German immigrant Conrad Beissel (1691–1768), the group was composed of celibate Brothers and Sisters who lived lives of religious devotion and self-denial, supported in part by the married members...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on May 13, 2022 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter With this edition of Pennsylvania Heritage, we mark the anniversaries of two events that not only sent shock waves across Pennsylvania but also awakened communities to concerns about public and worker safety. Fifty years ago, in June 1972, a tropical cyclone made its way from the Yucatán Peninsula, up the Atlantic Seaboard of the U.S., shifting its strength as it advanced over land and sea....
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Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter – Winter 2022

Posted by on Dec 1, 2021 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter – Winter 2022 Topics in the Winter 2022 Newsletter: Hidden Gems at Pennsylvania Trails of History Sites Daniel Boone Homestead Ephrata Cloister Cornwall Iron Furnace Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum   winter-2022-phf-newsletter...
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