Projecting History: Lantern Slides at the Pennsylvania State Archives

Posted by on May 13, 2022 in | Comments Off on Projecting History: Lantern Slides at the Pennsylvania State Archives   Before digital projectors and PowerPoint, before the carousel slide or 35mm film strips, and before the overhead, there was the lantern slide. A simple method of projecting images onto a large space, lantern slides were a technological marvel that revolutionized home entertainment, education and photography in Pennsylvania and beyond. Lantern slides, often called “magic lantern slides,”...
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Hershey Rose Garden

Posted by on Aug 25, 2021 in | Comments Off on Hershey Rose Garden Created at the bequest of Milton S. Hershey (1857–1945), the Hershey Rose Garden (now Hershey Gardens) began as a 3½-acre floral park for public enjoyment featuring 175 varieties of roses. Hershey had a long-standing interest in gardening and had built several glass conservatories to grow and display plants year-round near his mansion home, High Point, recognized as a National Historic Landmark...
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Dauphin County: Chocolates, Coal, and a Capital

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Dauphin County: Chocolates, Coal, and a Capital Dauphin County celebrates its two hundredth anniver­sary this year. The events and themes that are the history of the county reflect the experience of Pennsylvania and the United States. Dauphin County has never been a homogeneous commu­nity; indeed, it is difficult to consider it as a single commu­nity. From the beginning it has comprised individuals of diverse ethnic, national and religious...
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Executive Director’s Message

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Executive Director’s Message Sprawl. There are some words in the English language that are immediately self-defining. Sprawl is one. It instantly creates an image of careless growth with little regard for the integrity of the environ­ment, whether historic or natural. Pennsylvania is now, unfortunately, considered one of the nation’s most spectacular examples of suburban sprawl. The cover story of a recent issue of...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf J. Horace McFarland: A Thorn for Beauty by Ernest Morrison Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1995 (393 pages, cloth, $19.95) Three-quarters of a century ago, his was a name known throughout the na­tion. To some, he was ordained the “High Priest of the Rose.” To others, he was christened the “Father of the National Park Service.” And to even more, he was...
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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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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Documenting Pennsylvania’s Past: The First Century of the Pennsylvania State Archives Edited by Willis L. Shirk Jr. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2003 (242 pages, paper, $32.95) A detailed and highly graphic centennial celebration in print, Documenting Pennsylvania’s Past: The First Century of the Pennsylvania State Archives offers readers a glimpse at the vast...
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Wildwood Park

Posted by on Nov 24, 2013 in | Comments Off on Wildwood Park Tucked away north of downtown Har­risburg, just above the campus of Harris­burg Area Community College (HACC), is Wildwood Lake Sanctuary, a preserve of more than two hundred acres that traces its roots to the City Beautiful Movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth cen­turies. As a child, J. Horace Mcfarland (1859-1948) spent countless hours at Wetzel’s Swamp, studying the...
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Hummelstown Brownstone: A Victorian Era Treasure

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Hummelstown Brownstone: A Victorian Era Treasure Builders and contractors in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries prized brownstone as one of the best and most versatile masonry materials in the United States. Whether used for curbing, windowsills,steps, lintels, stoops, foundations, and tombstones, or to grace the finest mansions as intricately carved statues or coping, brownstone filled the bill. Eminent American architects...
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Legislative Route 1 Sycamore Allée

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Legislative Route 1 Sycamore Allée One of the more unusual additions to the National Register of Historic Places is the Legislative Route 1 Sycamore Allée, running one mile north and south of Halifax, through Halifax and Reed Townships, in northern Dauphin County. (An allée is a French term for formally planted trees, shrubs, or hedges lining both sides of a walk or drive.) Planted in 1922, the allée is an important example of...
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