1918’s Deadliest Killer: The Flu Pandemic Hits Pennsylvania

Posted by on Dec 1, 2019 in | Comments Off on 1918’s Deadliest Killer: The Flu Pandemic Hits Pennsylvania I had a little bird, Its name was Enza. I opened the window, And in-flu-enza. —Children’s rhyme, 1918 The year 1918 was arguably one of the darkest in modern times and the deadliest ever recorded in human history. Much of Europe was locked in a hideous, relentless military struggle that had dragged on for three years, killing millions of soldiers and bankrupting its governments. Famine stalked...
read more

Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Dec 1, 2019 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter In Pennsylvania Heritage, we often run stories related to current anniversaries. Anniversaries give us the opportunity to focus on moments that have remained significant from our shared past — in our case as a community of Pennsylvanians — to gain a better perspective on what came before us and how the achievements, challenges and even misfortunes of history can instruct us in the present. Three...
read more

Loretto Perfectus Walsh, First Woman to Serve in the U.S. Armed Forces

Posted by on Oct 28, 2019 in | Comments Off on Loretto Perfectus Walsh, First Woman to Serve in the U.S. Armed Forces At the age of 20, Loretto Perfectus Walsh (1896–1925) became the first woman to enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces in March 1917, just weeks before the U.S. entered World War I. Women had served in the American military since 1901 but as nurses only. Walsh joined the U.S. Navy and was sworn in as a chief yeoman. She was expected to perform the same duties and was entitled to the same benefits and...
read more

Keep the Boys in College! How World War I Produced a Penn State Football Legend

Posted by on Dec 13, 2016 in | Comments Off on Keep the Boys in College! How World War I Produced a Penn State Football Legend Pennsylvanians who remember Glenn Killinger (1898–1988) often envision the legendary coach of West Chester State Teachers’ College football and baseball teams during the decades that spanned 1933 to 1970. His name often comes up in conversations about Paul “Bear” Bryant as one of the two unbending football minds who led the North Carolina Pre-Flight Cloudbusters to one of the...
read more

Plagued! Philadelphia’s Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Plagued! Philadelphia’s Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 On August 5, 1793, Dr. Benjamin Rush was summoned to the waterfront residence of fellow physician Hugh Hodge, whose daughter had recently taken ill. For days Rush had been treating Philadelphians for a serious outbreak of influenza and had assumed that this was yet another case. But when he found the small girl on her deathbed, gasping for breath and vomiting black bile, Rush instinctively knew...
read more