The Artist and the President: Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Painting Impulse and the Andrew Wyeth Connection

Posted by on Aug 9, 2024 in | Comments Off on The Artist and the President: Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Painting Impulse and the Andrew Wyeth Connection   After the popular Pennsylvania artist Andrew Wyeth (1917–2009) died at age 91 at his home in Chadds Ford, the New York Times obituary summed up his career, emphasizing key themes in his corpus and noting that he had both admirers and detractors. The former included British statesman Winston Churchill, himself an amateur painter of ability. To this list one could add President Dwight D....
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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...
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From the Susquehanna to the Rhine: The Military Career of Daniel Strickler in Two World Wars

Posted by on Nov 30, 2020 in | Comments Off on From the Susquehanna to the Rhine: The Military Career of Daniel Strickler in Two World Wars “Hold at all costs.” It’s an order no commander wants to give. It is certainly unwelcome — and perhaps even terrifying — to the subordinate who receives it. The phrase was used on the morning of December 16, 1944, at the headquarters for the 28th Infantry Division in Wiltz, Luxembourg. Maj. Gen. Norman Cota (1893–1971), the commander of the 28th, issued the order during the initial phase of the...
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“The Not So Good Old Days”: Disease and the Struggle for Public Health in Pennsylvania

Posted by on Oct 15, 2020 in | Comments Off on “The Not So Good Old Days”: Disease and the Struggle for Public Health in Pennsylvania In 1930 A. J. Bohl was proud to work in the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH). After 25 years there, he wrote an article in Pennsylvania’s Health in which he recalled growing up in the 1880s, when disease and illness ravaged the state. “There wasn’t much attention paid to the communicable diseases. Everybody, as a matter of course, had measles, chicken pox, whooping cough and mumps, and...
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Battlefield Pennsylvania by Brady J. Crytzer

Posted by on Mar 6, 2020 in | Comments Off on Battlefield Pennsylvania by Brady J. Crytzer Battlefield Pennsylvania A Guide to the Keystone State’s Most Sacred Ground by Brady J. Crytzer Westholme Publishing, 288 pp., cloth $28.00 Ironically, the soil of Pennsylvania, founded by pacifist and Quaker William Penn, was soaked with the blood of its inhabitants. Brady J. Crytzer’s Battlefield Pennsylvania documents the many battles waged in this state. Some near present-day...
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Bubley by Greyhound: Photographing Wartime Rationing

Posted by on Feb 3, 2020 in | Comments Off on Bubley by Greyhound: Photographing Wartime Rationing Most photographs from World War II document industries or overseas military activities. Rarely do we get a look at daily life on the home front. One young woman who was documenting ordinary lives at that time was Esther Bubley (1921–98), who became known for taking intimate photos of people despite lugging around a large camera. There’s no better example of that than a story from her niece Jean...
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Baking Pennsylvania Dutch Style

Posted by on Sep 9, 2016 in | Comments Off on Baking Pennsylvania Dutch Style Regional American cuisine is fast becoming the hottest trend on the food scene today, and while we still hear a great deal about Cajun or the Southwest, one of the richest areas for culinary diversity is Pennsylvania. The Keystone Center for the Study of Regional Foods and Food Tourism, a nonprofit that has taken the lead in exploring the foods of our state, has identified five distinct culinary...
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Historic Districts in Pennsylvania: An Evolving Sense of Place

Posted by on Jun 6, 2016 in | Comments Off on Historic Districts in Pennsylvania: An Evolving Sense of Place Jim Thorpe, originally named Mauch Chunk, is a small and picturesque borough of well-preserved 19th-century buildings perched on the side of a mountain along the Lehigh River in Carbon County. It once served as an important railroad and coal shipping center. As these industries waned in the 20th century, the town sought new economic purpose by marketing its scenic appeal as the “Switzerland of...
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Before and After the Act: Historic Preservation in Pennsylvania

Posted by on Apr 19, 2016 in | Comments Off on Before and After the Act: Historic Preservation in Pennsylvania In 1816 the City of Philadelphia purchased Independence Hall to save it from demolition. This was the first historic preservation effort in the United States. One hundred and fifty years later, the historic preservation movement found its footing as a national priority when President Lyndon Johnson signed the National Historic Preservation Act into law on October 16, 1966. The act codified the...
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Honoring Valor: Pennsylvania’s Collection of Civil War Battle Flags

Posted by on Jun 19, 2015 in | Comments Off on Honoring Valor: Pennsylvania’s Collection of Civil War Battle Flags As the American Civil War Sesquicentennial of the past four years draws to a conclusion, it is appropriate to direct attention to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s vast collection of Civil War battle flags and its 1914 transfer from the Executive, Library and Museum Building to the Capitol’s main rotunda cases. This special event, which occurred on Monday, June 15, 1914 – Flag Day...
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