Pennsylvania’s Bicentennial Time Capsule

Posted by on Apr 17, 2026 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania’s Bicentennial Time Capsule In 1976, Reynolds Metals Co. created 56 aluminum time capsules as a gift to the United States. These identical capsules were given to the governors of the 50 states, as well as four territories, the National Archives, and the Bicentennial Wagon Train Pilgrimage. At that time, Reynolds was the world’s third largest aluminum and packaging company and the second largest in the United States. The...
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Pennsylvania in Watercolor: Revisiting Nick Ruggieri’s Bicentennial Series

Posted by on Dec 1, 2025 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania in Watercolor: Revisiting Nick Ruggieri’s Bicentennial Series   In 1971, the Harrisburg Patriot-News commissioned local artist and newspaperman Nick Ruggieri (1908–96) to create a series of paintings depicting Pennsylvania scenes—both historic and contemporary — across all 67 counties. The project was intended to be the capital city newspaper’s contribution to the upcoming Bicentennial, a national celebration in which the Keystone State was expected...
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Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania 50

Posted by on Jun 11, 2025 in | Comments Off on Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania 50 Rising from the rolling hills and lush farmlands of Lancaster County is a sprawling complex of exhibit buildings, train tracks, and historic railroad equipment. Together, they tell the story of how railroads changed the lives of people for more than two centuries. For 50 years now, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania has preserved and interpreted the commonwealth’s rich railroad history. It has...
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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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The Longest Walk in Pennsylvania

Posted by on Jun 3, 2021 in | Comments Off on The Longest Walk in Pennsylvania   In the summer of 1978, cars on the Pennsylvania Turnpike slowed as they carefully drove past a procession of American Indians walking along the superhighway. The group, closely packed into the road’s shoulder, carried colorful banners and a sacred pipe. Some beat drums and chanted prayers for peace as they marched ahead. As these marchers continued across Pennsylvania, they were joined by...
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Soldiers to Governors: World War II

Posted by on Nov 25, 2020 in | Comments Off on Soldiers to Governors: World War II More than 1 million Pennsylvanians served in the Armed Forces during World War II. Five of these servicemembers would later be elected as Pennsylvania’s governor. Carrying on the great American tradition of citizen-soldiers, these civilians or members of the National Guard left their homes and families to volunteer to fight for their country during a crucial period in history. The Pennsylvania...
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Paying It Forward: The Legacy of Genevieve Blatt

Posted by on Dec 31, 2019 in | Comments Off on Paying It Forward: The Legacy of Genevieve Blatt When she was a judge on Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court, Genevieve Blatt (1913-96) was known to instruct her law clerks that she didn’t want to see them typing. “She was very insistent that we had other people who could perform that task for us,” said Mary K. Kisthardt, a former law clerk for the judge who is now a professor of law at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law....
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“Keeping with the Dignity of the Commonwealth”: 50 Years of the Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence

Posted by on Dec 1, 2019 in | Comments Off on “Keeping with the Dignity of the Commonwealth”: 50 Years of the Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence The stately Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence overlooking the Susquehanna River at 2035 North Front Street in the Uptown neighborhood of Harrisburg, Dauphin County, reaches its half-century mark in 2018, a milestone that is being observed with a variety of events and programs throughout the year. The Georgian Revival mansion was completed in 1968, during the term of Gov. Raymond P. Shafer, its...
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Wrench in the Machine: The Shapp Gubernatorial Campaign’s Media Blitz of 1966

Posted by on Nov 11, 2019 in | Comments Off on Wrench in the Machine: The Shapp Gubernatorial Campaign’s Media Blitz of 1966 Pennsylvania and machine politics were synonymous for years, even into the 1960s when reformers and direct primaries thwarted old-style machine politics in other states. Political machines with their control over patronage and nominations had dominated Pennsylvania’s politics since the Civil War, but even the direct primary failed to usher in a new, more open system. That changed suddenly when...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Nov 5, 2019 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter Forty some years ago, when I was in elementary school, I took a field trip with my science class to The State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg to see the dioramas of Pennsylvania’s wildlife in Mammal Hall. Walking around the dark, circular gallery, I peered through windows into the fascinating, realistic habitats of 13 mammals, from the common to the locally extinct, and was transported to...
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