Letters to the Editor

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Letters to the Editor Horace Pippin Judith E. Stein’s article, “Pippin,” in the spring 1994 edition prompted me to visit the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts’ exhibition, which I truly enjoyed. Since I really enjoyed the arti­cle, I have passed around my copy and cannot remember when this traveling exhibit returns to the East Coast. How timely (and clever) for Pennsylvania Heritage to...
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Shorts

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Shorts The Johnstown Area Heritage Association will host “Johnstown FolkFest ’95” from Friday through Sunday, September 1-3 [1995], in the community’s historic district of Cambria City. The Labor Day weekend event will fea­ture ethnic entertainment, tours of historic buildings, and cultural crafts. For more information, write: Johnstown Area Heritage Association, P. O. Box 1889,...
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Shorts

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Shorts The first exhibition in Philadelphia devoted to identifying and honoring African American women tap dancers, “Plenty of Good Women Dancers: African American Women Hoofers from Philadelphia,” features glamorous photographs and dancers’ vivid recollec­tions portraying the golden age of swing and rhythm tap of the 1930s and 1940s. “Plenty of Good Women Dancers”...
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Letters to the Editor

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Letters to the Editor Ecstatic with Esherick Wow! Your magazine is really on the ball. With the growing popularity of the crafts movement, you’re right on target with your feature story on Esherick [see Sharon Hernes Silverman’s “A Passion for Wood: The Life and Legacy of Wharton Esherick” in the Fall 1997 issue]. I’m ecstatic with your timely coverage. Thanks. Mimi Hake-Tripp...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Historic Houses of Philadelphia by Roger W. Moss University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998 (256 pages, cloth,$34.95) Sumptuous, a word frequently used by restaurant reviewers and critics of haute cuisine, aptly describes Historic Houses of Philadelphia, the latest fare by Roger W. Moss, known widely for his books on Victorian era architecture and ornamentation. Fifty historic houses, mansions, and...
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“Your Future Depends on Yourself”: Asa Packer as the Self-Made Man

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on “Your Future Depends on Yourself”: Asa Packer as the Self-Made Man Nineteenth-century literature abounds with stories of men who rose from humble circumstances to great wealth by virtue of their own diligence, perseverance, and courage. Several of the most famous such works, novels written by Horatio Alger Jr. (1832-1899), became best-sellers because the American public relished his stories about plucky boys achieving their goals against all odds. In his first...
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Scooping the Editor: Inside Pennsylvania Heritage, An Interview with Michael J. O’Malley III

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Scooping the Editor: Inside Pennsylvania Heritage, An Interview with Michael J. O’Malley III For fifteen of its twenty-five years, Pennsylvania Heritage has been edited by Michael J. O’Malley III. It is a task he clearly embraces with enthusiasm – and wonder. “It’s a learning experience each and every day,” he says, “and there’s not a moment in which I don’t learn some­thing. To be able to satisfy one’s curiosity and to learn more...
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“From the Things We Know Best”: The Art of William W. Swallow

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on “From the Things We Know Best”: The Art of William W. Swallow Two passions absorbed William W. Swallow (1912-1962) his entire life: art and the teaching of art. During a career that spanned just three decades, Swallow created ceramic sculptures that transformed the people and life of agrarian Pennsylvania into timeless, time­-honored icons. Although he achieved national fame, he continued – with singular devotion – teaching high school students...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Pennsylvania Architecture: The Historic American Buildings Survey, 1933-1990 By Deborah Stephens Bums and Richard J. Web­ster, with Candace Reed Stem Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2000 (629 pages; cloth, $85.00; paper, $65.00) This hefty volume befits its subject: it is a landmark book devoted to landmark buildings. Copiously illustrated, Pennsylvania Architecture: The Historic...
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Shorts

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Shorts “Elocution, Orthography, and Mental Arithmetic: Victorian School Days,” an exhibit examining the nineteenth-century educational experience from the one-room rural schoolhouse to the sprawling urban university, is on view at Penny­packer Mills through Saturday, June 30, 2001. The exhibit interprets these experiences through objects and artifacts originally belonging to members of the...
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