Born a Leader for Pennsylvania

Posted by Kenneth Wolensky on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Born a Leader for Pennsylvania The essence of life is unconditional, non-judgmental love,” explains George Michael Leader when asked to sum-up his philosophy. He writes poetry, models and advocates wellness, leads community humanitarian projects, reads extensively, and oversees a family corpora­tion he founded that includes nursing facili­ties and retirement communities. In his ninth decade he is, as he has always been,...
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Out and About

Posted by PA Heritage Staff on Nov 24, 2013 in | Comments Off on Out and About Presidential China Selections from an extraordinary gift to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Robert L. McNeil Jr. Collection of American Presidential China, are on view in an ongoing exhibit at the museum. The collection of more than four hundred and fifty pieces designed for, and used by, presidents from George Washington to Ronald Reagan provides a material record of the history of the...
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Out and About

Posted by PA Heritage Staff on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Out and About Lincoln in Lehigh More than one thousand objects relating to the nation’s sixteenth president are on view in a landmark exhibition, “Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America,” currently on view at the Lehigh Valley Heritage Center and Museum in Allentown. The exhibit highlights a number of unique and rare objects, among them the ballot box in which Lincoln cast his vote in the election of 1860...
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From the Ashes at Boyertown – Safety Legislation for All

Posted by Mary Jane Schneider on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on From the Ashes at Boyertown – Safety Legislation for All Pennsylvania’s most disastrous fire broke out one hundred years ago, on Monday, January 13, 1908, killing 170 people in the Rhoads Opera House, a second-floor auditorium on East Philadelphia Avenue in the small Berks County community of Boyertown. The World Almanac records the disaster as one of the five worst fires in the United States of the twentieth century. No family in the community of...
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Frances Perkins

Posted by PA Heritage Staff on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Frances Perkins On July 28, 1933, U. S. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins (1882–1965), the first female presidential cabinet member in American history, visited the Homestead, Allegheny County, plant of the Carnegie Steel Company, where the minimum wage was forty cents an hour. Steel executives, determined to keep wages low, prevent unionization, and suppress free speech encouraging labor organization, were...
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James A. Finnegan (1906-1958)

Posted by PA Heritage Staff on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on James A. Finnegan (1906-1958) At the 1956 Democratic Convention in Chicago, former President Harry S. Truman greeted Philadelphian James A. Finnegan (1906–1958) and asked how he was. “Very good,” replied Finnegan. “I hope it isn’t too good!” Truman quipped. Truman had endorsed New York Governor William Averell Harriman for the Democratic nomination for president. Finnegan served as campaign manager for former Illinois...
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