John Nicholson and Land as a Lure in the Infant Nation, 1790-1800

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on John Nicholson and Land as a Lure in the Infant Nation, 1790-1800 John Nicholson was an early Pennsylvania land speculator, financier and entrepreneur. He was born in 1757, emigrated from Wales at an early age and died in 1800. While serving as comptroller-general of the state (1782-1794), he was a major factor in helping Pennsylvania achieve financial solvency after the revolutionary war. In this capac­ity, Nicholson created political alliances with those who...
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Pomp, Pageantry and a Parade: Celebrating the Constitution’s Centennial

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Pomp, Pageantry and a Parade: Celebrating the Constitution’s Centennial With the thunder of a one hundred gun naval salute at precisely ten o’clock on the morning of Thursday, September 15, 1887, the nation’s centennial celebra­tion of the adoption of the United States Con­stitution opened with great fanfare in Philadelphia. The booming cannon blast from a naval squadron on the Delaware River launched three jubilant days of parades, military marches,...
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A Salute to the Bicentennial of the Keystone State

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on A Salute to the Bicentennial of the Keystone State The current Bicentennial celebration commemorates not the birth of the United States, but the proclama­tion of thirteen British-American colonies that were “free and independent states” as of July 4, 17.76. When they formed a loose compact in 1761, their articles of confederation declared that “each state retains its sover­eignty, freedom and independence.” The...
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Poor John Fitch, The Inventor Few Remember

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Poor John Fitch, The Inventor Few Remember Philadelphia, August 22, 1787. With the promise of some relief from their intense debate and the heavy summer air, delegates to the Constitutional Convention strolled a few blocks from the State House (now Indepen­dence Hall) to the banks of the Delaware River. Along the river puffed an oddity, a curiosity that the statesmen had never before seen: a steam-operated boat­ – the first of its...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Pennsylvania Trail of History Cookbook By the Editors of Stackpole Books and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Stackpole Books and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2004 (127 pages, paper, $19.95) With recipes provided by the more than two dozen historic sites and museums administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), the Pennsylvania...
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Art with a Purpose: Pennsylvania’s Museum Extension Project, 1935-1943

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Art with a Purpose: Pennsylvania’s Museum Extension Project, 1935-1943 Like other relief programs launched during the Great Depression under the aegis of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, the goal of federal arts programs of the 1930s was two-fold: to rescue unemployed Americans from poverty and to produce something of public benefit. One of the unintended byproducts was controversy. In 1937, the Federal Art and Theatre Project unintentionally...
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