The Bicentennial Raft

Posted by on Aug 13, 2026 in | Comments Off on The Bicentennial Raft In concurrence with the national Bicentennial events of 1976, Pennsylvania counties and local municipalities also staged celebrations for the nation’s birth. Smaller events such as parades, picnics and performances were frequently held throughout the state during the year. One unusual event held in the north-central part of the commonwealth was the Bicentennial Raft project. After the...
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The American Red Cross Uniform of Mary Sharp

Posted by on Feb 24, 2025 in | Comments Off on The American Red Cross Uniform of Mary Sharp Lock Haven native Mary Sharp (1912–89) was an elementary school teacher when the United States entered World War II. With a desire to make a direct contribution to the war effort and possessing a sense of adventure, she enrolled in the American Red Cross. After completing an extensive interview and testing process for overseas volunteers, she was assigned as a recreational worker with the U.S....
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The Seventh Annual Community Initiative Awards

Posted by on Nov 18, 2024 in | Comments Off on The Seventh Annual Community Initiative Awards Each May, to celebrate National Historic Preservation Month, the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (PA SHPO) announces the winners of its annual Community Initiative Awards. PA SHPO started the awards program in 2016 to recognize the hard work and dedication of outstanding organizations, municipalities, agencies and individuals that advance and expand the definition of historic...
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Agnes: Pennsylvania’s Most Devastating Natural Disaster

Posted by on May 13, 2022 in | Comments Off on Agnes: Pennsylvania’s Most Devastating Natural Disaster The late Paul Beers, the longtime columnist for the Harrisburg Patriot-News, once wrote that some Pennsylvanians are “amazingly complacent” about the threat of flooding despite living in a state that is quite vulnerable. Back in the day, around the midpoint of the 20th century, when old-timers in Pennsylvania spoke of “the big one,” they were referring to the 1936 flood — floods plural,...
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Tough and Determined: Pioneering Newspaper Editor Rebecca F. Gross

Posted by on Jun 13, 2017 in | Comments Off on Tough and Determined: Pioneering Newspaper Editor Rebecca F. Gross On a night in the winter of 1947-48, Rebecca F. Gross, 42 years old and the editor of a 10,000-circulation daily newspaper in the small town of Lock Haven, Clinton County, was scheduled to have dinner with two luminaries of the time: Robert Capa, the internationally famous war photographer, and John Steinbeck, the novelist and future Nobel laureate. The dinner was an event set up for members of...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Jun 13, 2017 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter Historical research is often motivated by a personal connection to a subject. Two articles in this issue of Pennsylvania Heritage come from authors who have investigated individuals significant to their own lives and found links to broader themes in Pennsylvania history. David D. Hursh became intrigued by his maternal great-grandfather, Rudolph M. Hunter, after years of hearing family lore about...
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Piper J-3 Cub

Posted by on May 11, 2015 in | Comments Off on Piper J-3 Cub Even before the William Penn Memorial Museum was under construction in the early 1960s, PHMC Executive Director S.K. Stevens had initiated an ambitious plan to acquire objects for a massive Pennsylvania “transportation exhibit.” The gallery was to be arranged chronologically, starting with a pair of Indian moccasins, on to wagons and carriages, then to locomotives and automobiles, and ending...
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Clinton County: Still Part of Penn’s Woods

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Clinton County: Still Part of Penn’s Woods Clinton County, one of the sixth-class counties of Pennsyl­vania, occupies 900 square miles of river valley and mountain land near the geographical center of the state. Nearly two-thirds of the area re­mains forested, al though most of the trees are second growth after a near denuding of the land by a booming lumber industry in the second half of the last century. It was in the wood­lands of...
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Centre County

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Centre County Centre County, as its name implies, geographically is Pennsylvania’s central county. The first known residents to inhabit its lands were the Munsee and Shawnee Indians from the Delaware River. Before 1725 these Indians began to move westward, first to the Susquehanna, later to the Ohio. The Iroquois, who claimed the Susquehanna country, assigned one of their chiefs – a man best known...
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Lycoming County: Many Call It Romantic

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lycoming County: Many Call It Romantic Its heritage is so rich that it’s hard to adequately­ – and accurately – portray the roles Lycoming County has played in the Commonwealth’s history. Since its settlement in the mid­-eighteenth century, it has had, according to Sylvester K. Stevens, author of the 1946 guide to the Keystone State’s sixty-seven counties, My Penn­sylvania, “one of the most...
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