Historic Districts in Pennsylvania: An Evolving Sense of Place

Jim Thorpe, originally named Mauch Chunk, is a small and picturesque borough of well-preserved 19th-century buildings perched on the side of a mountain along the Lehigh River in Carbon County. It once served as an important railroad and coal shipping center. As these industries waned in the 20th century, the town sought new economic purpose by marketing its scenic appeal as the “Switzerland of...
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Bucks County

As one of the three original counties of Pennsylvania created shortly after William Penn arrived in his nascent colony in 1682, Bucks County has a heritage that reaches back to the very beginnings of the Commonwealth. Long before Penn’s arrival, the intrepid settlers of the Dutch and Swedish colonies farther down the Delaware River had ex­plored the wooded banks of the river as far as the...
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You Can Go Home Again: An Interview with James A. Michener

James A Michener is a man of diverse talents, boundless energy, and seemingly countless interests. He is naturally inquisitive, passionately curious. He is fascinated by the world around him and the people who inhabit it. He collects stories about far-away places as effortlessly as one gathers seashells on the shoreline in summer. He is the Ultimate Con­noisseur. Of people. Of places. Of things....
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Currents

Fancy That! “Capricious Fancy: Draping and Curtaining, 1790-1930,” an exhibition tracing the history of design sources for draping and curtaining American and European interiors during the span of nearly one hundred and fifty years, will open at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia on Monday, December 6 [1993]. On view will be a selection of rare books, prints, and trade catalogues drawn...
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Bookshelf

The Genius Belt: The Story of the Arts in Bucks County, Pennsylvania edited by George S. Bush James A. Michener Art Museum in association with The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996 (174 pages, cloth, $40.00; paper, $29.95) Bucks County had known artists as neighbors for years, but in this handsome and richly illustrated book, novelist and native son James A. Michener writes that two...
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Currents

The Circle is Unbroken “Jane Piper and Her Circle: Three Gen­erations of Painters in Philadelphia” will open at The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, on Saturday November 4 [2000]. Featuring more than one hundred and twenty-five paintings and works on paper, the exhibition expands a traveling retrospective of works by the Philadelphia painter and teacher Jane Piper...
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Broadway Takes a Bow in Bucks County: A Conversation With Kitty Carlisle and Anne Kaufman Schneider

The late afternoon sun streams brightly through large windows, belying the simple fact that it is mid-February. Outside, down below, on the streets in this concrete canyon known as New York City, traffic roars, searing the frosty air with the screams of wailing sirens, the staccato of blaring taxi cab horns, and the shouts of frenzied (if not frightened) pedestrians. The din is deafening. Inside...
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Letters to the Editor

The Day Duse Died It was a pleasure, indeed, to have the opportunity to read and to learn from Donald Miller’s article, “Romancing the Stone: Benno Janssen, Architect of Ele­gance,” in the Fall 2000 edition. Janssen’s architectural legacy remains, thanks to the efforts of many, vital and appreciated. I was especially interested in the author’s discussion of visitors...
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George Nakashima House, Studio, and Workshop

George Nakashima (1905–1990) was an internationally acclaimed Japanese American architect, modern furniture designer, and woodworker, who won numerous awards for his work and his furniture. He was a leading innovator of twentieth-century furniture design and a father of the American craft movement. He was born in Spokane, Washington, to Katsuharu and Suzu Nakashima, and grew up in the forested...
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