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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Executive Director’s Message

This year marks the three hundredth anniversary of the Charter of Privileges, a document issued by William Penn on October 28, 1701, that served as the Commonwealth’s constitution for seventy-five years. Few documents in our history have had greater significance in defining the political traditions of Pennsylvania. The influence of the Charter of Privileges is even evident in the basic...
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Shorts

Offering a comprehensive view of the emergence and influence of French impressionism on American artists of the late nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries, “American Impressionism from the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery” will be on view at the Southern Alleghe­nies Museum of Art at Ligonier Valley from Friday, March 2, through Sunday, April 22, 2001. For more information,...
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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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Slaves at the President’s House

President George Washington arrived in Philadelphia on the morning of Sunday, November 21, 1790, exhausted and depressed. The journey north from Mount Vernon, his beloved Virginia plantation, had not been pleasant. Heavy rain made the roads impassable at various points along the route, extending the journey from two to three days. A drunken coachman overturned the president’s baggage wagon...
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Black Settlement on Yellow Hill

Anyone who has ever read about the Battle of Gettysburg or visited the historic American Civil War battlefield undoubtedly learned about the generals, the courageous soldiers who fought in the grisly three-day encounter, and the thousands that lost their lives on that hallowed ground in Adams County. The stories of the famous engagements that took place at Little Round Top, Devil’s Den, and the...
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