Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter – Spring 2020

Posted by on Oct 15, 2020 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter – Spring 2020 Topics in the Spring 2020 Newsletter: PHF Sponsors Opening Reception for Violet Oakley Exhibition PHF Cosponsors Workshops in Archaeology, with Focus on PA’s Native American Cultures America250PA Honors Servicemembers and Veterans   pennsylvania-heritage-foundation-newsletter-spring-2020...
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Pennsylvania Polymath: Samuel Stehman Haldeman

Posted by on Jun 8, 2020 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Polymath: Samuel Stehman Haldeman Samuel Stehman Haldeman was a pioneer in American science with an uncompromising empirical bent who made definitive contributions in geology, metallurgy, zoology and the scientific study of language. His groundbreaking lifework touched nearly seven decades of science and included identification of one of the oldest fossils in Pennsylvania, elucidation of a plan for an anthracite coal furnace for...
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Trailheads

Posted by on Mar 13, 2020 in | Comments Off on Trailheads Summer is the busiest season on the Pennsylvania Trails of History. Daytrippers enjoy a wealth of options for guided or free-range touring. Families find places to create lasting memories and help stave off the dreaded “learning loss” of summer. Outdoor enthusiasts break up their recreational time, or wait out bad weather, with a gallery visit or two. Numerous summer camp offerings are available...
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Battlefield Pennsylvania by Brady J. Crytzer

Posted by on Mar 6, 2020 in | Comments Off on Battlefield Pennsylvania by Brady J. Crytzer Battlefield Pennsylvania A Guide to the Keystone State’s Most Sacred Ground by Brady J. Crytzer Westholme Publishing, 288 pp., cloth $28.00 Ironically, the soil of Pennsylvania, founded by pacifist and Quaker William Penn, was soaked with the blood of its inhabitants. Brady J. Crytzer’s Battlefield Pennsylvania documents the many battles waged in this state. Some near present-day...
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Frontier Rebels by Patrick Spero

Posted by on Mar 6, 2020 in | Comments Off on Frontier Rebels by Patrick Spero Frontier Rebels The Fight for Independence in the American West, 1765-1776 by Patrick Spero W. W. Norton & Co., 268 pp., cloth $27.95 Frontier Rebels is a brief, engaging and elegantly written account of violence on the Pennsylvania frontier in the decade leading up to the American Revolution. Several recent historians have demonstrated that the Revolution had a strong western as well as...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Dec 17, 2019 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter Welcome to the first issue of the 45th volume of Pennsylvania Heritage. Since the publication of the premiere edition of December 1974, more than 750 features on Pennsylvania history, culture and natural history by leading authors in their fields, as well as hundreds of columns and news items, have been printed in our quarterly magazine. In this anniversary edition we continue our tradition of...
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From the Executive Director

Posted by on Nov 4, 2019 in | Comments Off on From the Executive Director As the state’s history agency, the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission holds historic objects and documents in trust for the people of Pennsylvania. The breadth of these collections is staggering. Within the Pennsylvania State Archives, we preserve some of the oldest documents in the state, such as William Penn’s 1681 Charter, the 1682 Great Law of Pennsylvania, and 33 deeds starting...
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“Restless Progress in America”: Drawing the Mason-Dixon Line

Posted by on Aug 22, 2017 in | 0 comments “When I found I had crossed that line,” recalled Harriet Tubman, “I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything . . . I felt like I was in Heaven.” Such was the power of the Mason-Dixon Line. Within 75 years of its completion to resolve an eight-decade-long dispute between two colonial proprietors, a boundary line drawn in the 1760s by two English...
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Representing Pennsylvania’s “Precious Heritage”: Art of the State 50

Posted by on Jun 13, 2017 in | Comments Off on Representing Pennsylvania’s “Precious Heritage”: Art of the State 50 Art of the State is an annual juried exhibition that has been showcasing the work of Pennsylvania’s artists at The State Museum of Pennsylvania since 1968. The body of art that has been exhibited reflects half a century of creative endeavor in the Keystone State. Through the years, exhibitors have shared their ideas and engaged viewers in the categories of painting, photography, craft,...
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The Oshnock Archaeology Collection

Posted by on Jun 13, 2017 in | Comments Off on The Oshnock Archaeology Collection Archaeologists at The State Museum of Pennsylvania plan to spend this summer entering thousands of Native American artifacts collected from western Pennsylvania into a database that will organize the objects according to specific sites and locations. It’s a lot of work, but not nearly as much as curators typically tackle when inventorying similar collections, thanks to the brothers...
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