The Lady in Red: Cornelia Bryce Pinchot, Feminist for Social Justice

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Lady in Red: Cornelia Bryce Pinchot, Feminist for Social Justice Vigorous, rebellious, and perceived by many to be unfashionably independent for a woman of her time and social standing, Cornelia Bryce Pinchot (1881-1960) was irrefutably the Keystone State’s most flamboyant first lady. But she was more than modern, much more than a stylish trendsetter. Pursuing an active public life that she described as “never stale or dull,” she prided...
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My Memories of Harrisburg and the Flood of ’36

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on My Memories of Harrisburg and the Flood of ’36 In 1923, I was four years old when my family moved from Philadelphia to Harrisburg. My father, Einar Barfod, had been appointed chief investigator in the securities department of Pennsylvania’s ban.king department by Governor Gifford Pinchot. My earliest memory of Harrisburg was a summer when my mother hired a farmer to plow the field next to our house, then having all the neighborhood...
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Executive Director’s Message

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Executive Director’s Message Remembering the twentieth century has become a preoccupation bordering on obsession. As the lists of greatest moments and most important people grows daily, I am equally intrigued not only by what we choose to recall but the way in which we decide to commemorate the past. Over the past one hundred years Pennsylvanians have remembered their history by constructing a stunning array of statues,...
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Shorts

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Shorts The Internet Unplugged: The World-Wide Moravian Network, 1732-1858, an exhibit chronicling Moravian Church communi­cation in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, has been recently unveiled by the Moravian Historical Society in Nazareth. The exhibit, which runs through Sunday, October 21 [2001], surveys the ways in which Moravians kept abreast of developments, as well as exchanged ideas and...
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The Value of Pennsylvania History

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Value of Pennsylvania History George W. Bush won the presidential election of 2000 because the fifty states cast more electoral votes for him, even though more people actually voted for his opponent, Albert A. Gore Jr. The election reminded Americans about a curious institution called the Electoral College, and an equally peculiar system known as federalism in which each state conducts elections according to distinct laws...
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“He, on the Whole, Stood First”: Gifford Pinchot

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on “He, on the Whole, Stood First”: Gifford Pinchot President Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946) was a talented and gifted public servant. Of his friend and adviser, Roosevelt wrote, “I believe it is but just to say that among the many, many public officials who, under my administra­tion, rendered literally invaluable service to the people of the United States he, on the whole, stood first.” Among Pennsylvania’s...
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Letters to the Editor

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Letters to the Editor Over The Top! I enjoyed the Gifford Pinchot story in the Winter 2004 issue [“‘He, On the Whole, Stood First’: Gifford Pinchot,” by Kenneth C. Wolensky], particularly because there is an anecdote that was told to me many, many years ago by Henry Masker, who was the water­craft concessionaire at Promised Land State Park in Pike County. During World War I, Masker and...
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Birdhouse by J. Warren Jacobs

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Birdhouse by J. Warren Jacobs J. Warren Jacobs (1868-1947), of Waynesburg, Greene County, was an artist, essayist, poet, bird watcher, and woodworker. A versatile individual, he fashioned cabinets, display cases, and furniture for his library and the “J. Warren Jacobs Museum of Applied Oology,” housed in two rooms on the second floor of the family’s residence on South Washington Street in Waynesburg. He...
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Soaring Above “This School in the Clouds”

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Soaring Above “This School in the Clouds” Each fall, when north­west winds blast down from Canada, knowledgeable bird watchers hurriedly make their way to the Appalachian Mountain ridges that zig west, then zag south through the center of the Keystone State. Binoculars in hand, they climb and hike the rocky ridge tops to await the thousands of hawks, eagles, and falcons flying south­ward. Autumn’s winds have beckoned people to...
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Executive Director’s Message

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Executive Director’s Message This edition of Pennsylvania Heritage pays tribute to The State Museum of Pennsylvania on its centennial. The museum was developed as one of the first comprehensive state museums in the nation. Sylvester K. Stevens (1904-1974), the legendary executive director of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), brought the agency to new, unparalleled levels of professionalism. Under his...
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