Exploring the Pennsylvania Energy Trail of History

Pennsylvania’s vast natural resources helped fuel the growth and development of both state and nation, spawning innumerable advances in transportation, industry, technology, and science. These resources propelled an economy that supported generations of men and women. The Pennsylvania Trails of History, a network of historic sites and museums administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and...
read more

Louise Tanner Brown, Businesswoman

Like many women born in the late nineteenth century, Louise Tanner Brown (circa 1883–1954) was educated and trained for cottage industry work, a variety of home-based businesses that included sewing, laundry, cleaning, beauty care, and hairdressing. Cottage industries were especially important in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,...
read more

Giving a New Shine to an Old Boot and Shoe Factory

Named for Tahkamochk (or Tam-a-kwah), a Tuscarora Indian chief of the Turkey Clan, Tamaqua, in northeastern Pennsylvania’s Schuylkill County, was known as the “the land where the beaver dwells in the water” and “the valley among four mountains.” It began as an anthracite (hard coal) mining town with related manufacturing interests. Tamaqua’s first settler, Burkhart Moser, is credited with...
read more

This Is a Beautiful, Bountiful Earth: Joseph Trimble Rothrock and the Preservation of Penn’s Woods

The lush, verdant woodlands characteristic of Pennsylvania’s landscape are almost entirely second-growth forests, in existence roughly for less than a century. Had it not been for the groundbreaking work of many conservationists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Keystone State’s present terrain would be dramatically different. One of the most important of those...
read more

Heinz – Much More than 57 Varieties

The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago captivated spectators with dazzling sights and sounds. Among the innovators showcasing their celebrated products was a trio of Pittsburghers: George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. (1859-1896), George Westinghouse Jr. (1846-1914), and Henry John Heinz (1844-1919). A bridge engineer, Ferris built his famous wheel-shaped ride, this first one...
read more