Letters Patent from King William and Queen Mary

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Letters Patent from King William and Queen Mary Letters Patent from King William and Queen Mary Restoring Wm. Penn … Proprietor of Penssilvania, to the Government of the Said Province, dated August 20, 1694, is just one of many documents of the Commonwealth safeguarded by the Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg. Like other charters, constitutions, deeds, and treaties that define territorial boundaries, the authority of state...
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Currents

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Currents Both Sides Now A decade in the making, Harrisburg’s newly opened National Civil War Museum boasts nearly thirty thousand square feet of exhibition space. Situated high atop a knoll in a city park, with a commanding view of the capital city below, the museum – described by the re­gion’s press as “a world-class museum for a world-class collection” – is the first...
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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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Shorts

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Shorts On Friday and Saturday, July 26-27 [2002], the Slate Belt Heritage Center, in Bangor, will host “Slate Belt Heritage Days,” replete with walking tours, local history talks, horse-drawn carriage rides, story­tellers, crafts demonstrations, and a guid­ed tour of an operating slate quarry. The history of the slate industry in Northampton County is traced to the mid-nineteenth century,...
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St. Gabriel’s Catholic Parish Complex

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on St. Gabriel’s Catholic Parish Complex St. Gabriel’s Catholic Parish Complex in Hazleton, Luzerne County, is more than a collection of imposing ecclesiastical edifices. The complex is significant because it reflects the parish’s status as the city’s first Catholic parish, and is integrally associated with the growth of its Catholic population stimulated by the development of the anthracite industry. Hazleton grew...
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Into the Woodlands

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Into the Woodlands Rarely does his name enjoy prominence in horticultural history, but William Hamilton (1745-1813), owner of The Woodlands, a picturesque eighteenth-century countryseat on the banks of the Schuylkill River in West Philadelphia, made sev­eral significant contributions that forever changed the landscape of North America. An avid plant collector he filled his English-style garden with as many new...
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Trainloads of Goodwill and Gratitude

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Trainloads of Goodwill and Gratitude Pittsburghers, on the evening of Saturday, November 15, 1947, witnessed a ceremony at the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) Station that marked the beginning of an extraordinary occurrence: the journey of a Friendship Train across the Keystone State. By the time it reached Philadelphia, three days and seven stops later, the train hauled an additional fifty-one cavernous boxcars packed to capacity with...
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18th Century Drum at Fort Pitt Museum

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on 18th Century Drum at Fort Pitt Museum Discovered in New England in the 1970s, a rare mid-eighteenth-century French military drum has intrigued visitors to the Fort Pitt Museum in Point State Park, Pittsburgh, since being placed on exhibit in 2003. The drum, predating 1760, retains its distinctive decoration, including the royal crown of France, an oval containing three fleurs-de-lis, and branches bearing berries on a blue...
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Making Heritage Chocolate at the Historic Crossing

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Making Heritage Chocolate at the Historic Crossing On Saturday, June 16, 2012, Washington Crossing Historic Park (WCHP) in Bucks County, administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), partnered with the American Heritage Chocolate division of Mars Inc. to present a program entitled “Taste a Revolution in Chocolate.” The chocolate-making demonstration and lecture on the history of chocolate was attended by...
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New Deal Artifacts at State Museum of Pennsylvania

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on New Deal Artifacts at State Museum of Pennsylvania President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, created to spur economic relief in the wake of the Great Depression, did not focus solely on building and construction projects. The Frontier Forts and Trails Survey, funded by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and sponsored by the Pennsylvania Historical Commission (predecessor of the PHMC), conducted archaeological investigations in western...
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