Life of a Portrait: Laura Wheeler Waring’s Anna Washington Derry

Posted by on Mar 12, 2020 in | Comments Off on Life of a Portrait: Laura Wheeler Waring’s Anna Washington Derry Until recently, painter Laura Wheeler Waring (1887-1948) has been relegated to the sidelines in artist histories. A member of the African American elite, she specialized in portraits and figurative painting and did not share the hand-to-mouth experience of many of her fellow artists. Rather, she worked as an art instructor and choir director for nearly 40 years at the institution now known as...
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Daisy Lampkin: A Life of Love and Service

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Daisy Lampkin: A Life of Love and Service The March 11, 1965 front-page, banner headline of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, oldest newspaper in the United States west of the Allegheny Mountains, de­clared: “Alabama Race Tensions Mount … Marchers Defy Ban by Wallace.” The editorial page posed the ques­tion: “What Peace in Selma?” Just one day earlier, March 10, Pittsburgh’s Daisy Lampkin, whose life of...
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Black Cultural Development in Pennsylvania Since 1900

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Black Cultural Development in Pennsylvania Since 1900 The cultural history of Blacks in America is varied and diverse. At the same time, it is deeply inter­woven into the whole of America’s cultural fabric. Yet, the significant cultural contributions of Black Amer­icans have been overlooked. Because of this omission, it was not until the beginning of the twentieth century that the art of Afro-Americans began to receive the recognition it so...
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Shorts

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Shorts “Making History,” a major exhibit illustrating how evidence from the past is discovered in documents, books, artifacts, objects, and photographs at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, will remain on view through Saturday, May 27 [1995]. The exhibit will also examine the ways in which selections drawn from the society’s extensive holdings have been used to...
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In King’s Shadow: Bayard Rustin and the 1963 March on Washington

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on In King’s Shadow: Bayard Rustin and the 1963 March on Washington On Wednesday, August 28, 1963, a quarter-million African American and white civil rights activists walked the one-mile length of the National Mall from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial to rally for better jobs and freedom for the nation s blacks. The signature event of the March on Washington occurred in the late afternoon when the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his...
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Letters

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Letters Cover Stories The covers of Pennsylvania Heritage are among the best I have ever seen, but the cover of the Fall 2006 issue was sheer genius! The moment I saw this issue, I just had to pick it up. Also, I couldn’t put it down, neglecting my routine chores and tasks. Thank you for the way you “cover” our history and heritage. Your magazine makes me feel as if I’m part of...
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Innovative African Americans in Pennsylvania History

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Innovative African Americans in Pennsylvania History “Once [I was arrested] for standing in the road to prevent trucks from entering a housing construction site where no Blacks were employed, [and] a second time for leading a demonstration against a slum landlord [by conducting a prayer service in the street].” Those are the words of LeRoy Patrick (1915– 2006), minister, civil rights leader, former member of the Pennsylvania Historical and...
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Henry “Harry” T. Burleigh

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Henry “Harry” T. Burleigh Early Life in Erie One year after the end of the American Civil War, Henry “Harry” T. Burleigh was born in Erie, on December 2, 1866, into an African American family which still sang the songs of slavery. Burleigh was the son of Henry Burley and Elizabeth Waters. After her husband died, Elizabeth changed the family name to Burleigh. The younger Burleigh recalled that the slave songs were...
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