100 Games: The Penn State–Pitt Rivalry

Posted by on Mar 12, 2020 in | Comments Off on 100 Games: The Penn State–Pitt Rivalry It “leaves an everlasting impression on you because, in Pennsylvania, it’s the only game that counts,” wrote Tim Panaccio about the rivalry between the Pennsylvania State University Nittany Lions and the University of Pittsburgh Panthers in his 1982 book Beast of the East: Penn State vs. Pitt. In the same breath, he added, “Records don’t mean a thing, just who wins this game.” Panaccio’s...
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Luna by Brian Butko

Posted by on Nov 3, 2019 in | Comments Off on Luna by Brian Butko Luna Pittsburgh’s Original Lost Kennywood by Brian Butko Senator John Heinz History Center, 140 pp., paper $12.95 It’s not often that a history book begins with a graphic description of a lion attack. But in Brian Butko’s latest, Luna, it is the perfect way to set the stage for this enjoyable look at the growth of the entertainment industry in Pittsburgh at the turn of the 20th century. The...
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Josh Gibson, The Heartbreak Kid

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Josh Gibson, The Heartbreak Kid The kid tapped his bat on Yankee Stadium’s home plate and tugged at the sleeves of his gray visi­tors’ uniform, revealing biceps “built like sledge ham­mers.” Before him, the stadi­um’s left field roof, with its famous gingerbread lattice facing, soared one hundred and eighteen feet into the air some four hundred feet from home plate. The scene was the World Series...
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Pittsburgh’s Black Opera Impressario: Mary Cardwell Dawson

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Pittsburgh’s Black Opera Impressario: Mary Cardwell Dawson More than three decades after her death, Pittsburgh’s pioneer black opera company founder Mary Cardwell Dawson (1894-1962) has finally been honored for her many contributions to the Commonwealth’s musical heritage. On Sunday, September 25, 1994, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission unveiled and dedicated a state historical marker at the site of the Cardwell School of...
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Currents

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Currents When Worlds Collide History, politics, and art collide in a newly opened exhibition of works by renowned illustrator N.C. Wyeth (1882- 1945) and his grandson, James Wyeth (born 1946), at the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Delaware County. One Nation: Patriots and Pirates Por­trayed by N.C. Wyeth and James Wyeth brings together eighty draw­ings and paintings that challenge viewers to...
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Roberto Clemente (1934-1972)

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Roberto Clemente (1934-1972) On New Year’s Day, 1973, Vera Clemente stood vigil on Piñones Beach, east of Puerto Rico’s San Juan Airport. When it became known that her husband, Roberto Clemente, died in an air­plane crash during a humanitarian mission, the memory of “The Great One” would touch people from the Keystone State to South America. Clemente gave Pittsburgh and baseball eighteen years and...
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Barney Dreyfuss

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Barney Dreyfuss One of the most influential figures in Pennsylvania sports history was a German Jew who came to the United States in the early 1880s. Barney Dreyfuss (1865-1932) went to work as a bookkeeper in a distillery in Paducah, Kentucky, where he began his association with baseball by organizing a semi-professional baseball club. After moving to Louisville with his company, he bought into the Louisville...
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PHMC Highlights

Posted by on Nov 24, 2013 in | Comments Off on PHMC Highlights The orientation video at the Pennsylvania Military Museum, Boalsburg, Centre County, recently garnered two prestigious national awards. Answering the Call: Pennsylvanians in Service to the Nation won a Telly Award in the twenty-seventh annual competition conducted in 2006, and first place in the National Association of Government Communicators Blue Pencil/Gold Screen Award for exceptional...
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