The History of Silver Lake by Scott and Kathleen Webb

Posted by on Sep 8, 2025 in | Comments Off on The History of Silver Lake by Scott and Kathleen Webb The History of Silver Lake As Told Through Its Deeds by Scott and Kathleen Webb GWN Publishing, 155 pp., hardcover $39.99, paperback $29.99 Silver Lake is an ancient body of water adjacent to Lewisberry, York County, just 13 miles south of Harrisburg. Once the prehistoric home of reptiles and amphibians, the lake was used as a mill pond in the late 18th and 19th centuries and was developed into...
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From the Executive Director

Posted by on Sep 18, 2023 in | Comments Off on From the Executive Director The American philosopher Edward S. Casey examines the ideas of place in Western thought. Although much of his work is a challenging read, he wrote the following in very plain language: “Whatever is true for space and time, this much is true for place: we are immersed in it and could not do without it. . . . We are surrounded by places. We walk over them and through them. We live in places,...
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Pennsylvania Farming by Sally McMurry

Posted by on Nov 12, 2019 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Farming by Sally McMurry Pennsylvania Farming A History in Landscapes by Sally McMurry University of Pittsburgh Press, 472 pp., cloth $49.95 For generations, most Pennsylvanians were farmers. Today, farmers are only a small percentage of the population, yet the enduring pastoral and historic character of the state’s rural landscape is a source of local pride and fosters tourism in many areas. With engaging prose and an...
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From the Executive Director

Posted by on Apr 12, 2016 in | Comments Off on From the Executive Director Historical geography is the study of how geology, landforms and waterways have shaped the human experience. Is there a better place to demonstrate the power of geography in molding our history than in Pennsylvania? Our unique location linking the original 13 colonies in fact is how we came to be known as the Keystone State. But our history has been defined by more than location. It’s also been...
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Geography and Resources: The Story of Adaptation

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Geography and Resources: The Story of Adaptation The country itself, in its soil, air, water, seasons, and produce, both natural and artificial, is not to be despised. – William Penn Man is a creative and inventive creature capable of either adapt­ing to the environment, when need be, or adapting the environment to suit his particular needs. In the words of Max Savelle, “the history of the Anglo­American colonies is . . . a history...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Keystone of Justice: The Pennsylvania Superior Court By Patrick J. Tamilia and John J. Hare Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission for the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2000 (366 pages; cloth, $29.95; paper, $19.95) A result of crisis in appellate proceedings, once solely the domain of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, was the creation, in 1895, of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania....
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Attending a One-Room School in the 1930s

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Attending a One-Room School in the 1930s In the midst of the economic depression of the 1930s, my father, Hal Cornell, was a “furloughed” railroad locomo­tive foreman living with his wife and five school-aged children in a ten-dollar-a-month rented house in Burrell Town­ship, adjacent to Blairsville, in Indiana County. During two school years, my three brothers, a sister, and I attended the one­-room...
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