Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Hope Abandoned: Eastern State Penitentiary By Mark Perrott Pennsylvania Prison Society and Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, 1999 (105 pages, cloth, $28.00) The images by Pittsburgh photographer Mark Perrott of Philadelphia’s “modern ruin,” Eastern State Penitentiary, are haunting in their portrayal of a medieval-looking fortress that is falling into grave disrepair....
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Circles and Cycles – Working the Monongahela River Towboats: A Personal Portrait

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Circles and Cycles – Working the Monongahela River Towboats: A Personal Portrait A river is not defined by its banks. If it were, a simple line drawing would suffice to delineate it. People who work on it and live along its banks tell us what the Monongahela River is: it is about the people as much as the geography. This was a valley of steel and is still a valley of coal. The river defines the char­acter of the valley and affects people in ways they always aren’t...
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The 1948 Donora Smog

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on The 1948 Donora Smog As early as 1881, the cities of Chicago, Illinois, and Cincinnati, Ohio, had passed laws in attempts to control several types of pollution. Air pollution, however, remained an uncontrolled, unrecognized health hazard until tragedies in the twentieth century demonstrated its lethal effects. In 1930, smog covering the Meuse River Valley in Belgium sent sixty people to their graves, and in 1952...
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Letters to the Editor

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Letters to the Editor Dreams Do Come True I enjoyed the update about The Dream Garden, the Maxfield Parrish mural installed at the Curtis Building in Philadelphia [see “Executive Director’s Message,” Fall 2001]. We can only hope that it will be saved for Philadelphians. I had heard that Parrish created another mural for the employee cafeteria, which was, I believe, located near the top of the...
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Current and Coming

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Current and Coming First in the West More than fifteen organizations in western Pennsylvania are collaborating to commemorate the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with a wide array of events, activities, and programs, such as exhibitions, reenactments, lectures, workshops, living history presentations, and performances. Participants include local and regional governments, educational organizations,...
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Current and Coming

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Current and Coming Anniversary Activities The French and Indian War was £ought in south western Pennsylvania between 1754 and 1760 as France, Great Britain, and Native America battled for control of one of the most important pieces of real estate in North America. This highly coveted and hotly contested point of land, at the time called the Forks of the Ohio, is now the City of Pittsburgh. In the eighteenth...
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Out and About

Posted by on Nov 24, 2013 in | Comments Off on Out and About Ben’s Big Birthday Bash To mark the three hundredth anniversary of Benjamin’s Franklin’s birth on January 17, 2006, the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary, a private, non-profit alliance, is spearheading a year-long observance dedicated to educating the public about the senior states­man’s enduring legacy and inspiring renewed appreciation for the values he embodied. Projects...
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Charleroi Historic District

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Charleroi Historic District Charleroi, in eastern Washington County, possesses a formidable concentration of historic and architecturally significant residential and commercial buildings. Nearly seventeen hundred of the borough’s buildings have earned designation as the Charleroi Historic District, added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 9, 2007. Developed in 1890 by capitalists and real estate...
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Building a Brand for Pennsylvania Products

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Building a Brand for Pennsylvania Products Over the centuries most Pennsylvanians have traded their team of horses for cars, their work boots for street shoes, and their plows for computers. yet we still hanker for a taste of our rural roots. While many of us may be weekend gardeners, farmers are lifetime gardeners, producing a quality, diverse food supply for the world year-round. What better way to support local farmers than by...
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The “War History” of Corporal Funk

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on The “War History” of Corporal Funk Share...
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