The 100th Pennsylvania Farm Show: A Blue Ribbon State Fair

Posted by on Apr 19, 2016 in | Comments Off on The 100th Pennsylvania Farm Show: A Blue Ribbon State Fair The Pennsylvania Farm Show is the largest indoor agricultural event in the United States. Each year hundreds of thousands of people flock to the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center in Harrisburg, Dauphin County, to experience apples and alpacas, butter sculpture and blue-ribbon contests, milkshakes and mushrooms, square dancing and grape stomping, rodeos and tractor pulling, and...
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A Historical Sketch of Indiana County

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on A Historical Sketch of Indiana County Indiana County was named for the native Indians. During historic times the two principal tribes were the Delawares and Shawnees. Being reluctant to give up their lands, the Indians struggled desperately to keep out the tide of European settlers. Perhaps the first white settler to enter Indiana County was James LeTort, an Indian trader, about 1726-27. A place called “Letart’s...
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The Romance of Pennsylvania Agriculture

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Romance of Pennsylvania Agriculture When a small group of men met at Lancaster’s Leopard Hotel in August 1916 to organize the first Pennsylvania Farm Show, they did not have in mind mammoth displays of fifty thousand dollar tractors, mountains of steaming baked potatoes or presentations of grand champion livestock ribbons. They didn’t envision a state fair of the type that had become so popular in places like Iowa,...
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Ninety-Five Years of the Pennsylvania Society: A “Who’s Who” of Business and Politics

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Ninety-Five Years of the Pennsylvania Society: A “Who’s Who” of Business and Politics From industrialist Andrew Carnegie to television personality Mister Rogers, The Pennsylvania Society has both honored and drawn its energy from prominent personages of the Commonwealth’s civic, business, academic, entertain­ment, and government circles for nearly a century. Best known for its legendary annual December awards dinner that lasts for but a few hours each year, the organization...
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Presence from the Past: A Gift to the Future Through Historic Preservation

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Presence from the Past: A Gift to the Future Through Historic Preservation The United States is a nation and a people on the move. It is in an era of mobility and change … The result is a feeling of rootlessness combined with a longing for those land­marks of the past which give us a sense of stability and belonging … If the preservation movement is to be successful, it must go beyond saving bricks and mortar. It must go beyond saving occasional historic...
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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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