Made in America 1800-1900: Fine Ceramics from Commission Collections

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Made in America 1800-1900: Fine Ceramics from Commission Collections The decorative arts department of the William Penn Memorial Museum in Harrisburg, ad­ministered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, houses a collection of fine American ceramic pieces spanning the years from 1800 to 1900. Many of these examples are very familiar, but some are quite surprising and not as well known. This sampling from the collections can help to trace the design...
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Armstrong County

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Armstrong County Editor’s Note: With this article, this magazine begins a series to highlight historical events and persons within various counties. Focus will also be directed at the counties’ historical societies.   Kittanning, the seat of Armstrong County, is the oldest identified Indian town in Western Pennsylvania. While the state is planning celebrations to commemorate the Revolutionary...
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Letters to the Editor

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Letters to the Editor Quite a Rau I was intrigued by John C. Van Horne’s article on William Herman Rau in the Fall 1996 issue of Pennsylvania Heritage [see “‘The Greatest Highway to the West’: Photographer William H. Rau Documents the Pennsylvania Railroad”]. I edit a similar magazine in Alabama, and we have exchanged copies with your magazine for years. I always enjoy seeing what our...
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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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PHMC Highlights

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on PHMC Highlights PHMC leadership has recently been in the news. Executive Director Barbara Franco has been elected chair of the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) for a two-year term. AASLH, based in Nashville, Tennessee, traces its roots to 1904. It provides leadership and support for members who preserve and interpret state and local history to make the past more meaningful for all...
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Pennsylvania Copperheads: Traitors or Peacemakers?

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Copperheads: Traitors or Peacemakers? Panic swept through Philadelphia in 1860, gripping manufacturers and merchants in its throes as southern slave states threatened to leave the federal union. The South had grown into an enormous market for Philadelphia’s merchants, and the city’s textile manufacturers depended on Dixie to supply the cotton they needed. Fears of secession and resulting massive unemployment prompted Mayor Alexander...
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Pennsylvania German Lemon Pie Recipe

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania German Lemon Pie Recipe A recipe for lemon pie is one of a number of traditional Pennsylvania German recipes contained in Manuscript Group 514, Rupp Family Papers, recently acquired by the Pennsylvania State Archives. The new accession documents five generations of the Rupp family of Cumberland County descended from Johanes Jonas Rupp, born in 1729 in the Duchy of Baden and who arrived in Pennsylvania in 1751. First...
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A Century of Wine: Viniculture of the Harmony Society

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on A Century of Wine: Viniculture of the Harmony Society The Harmony Society was a religious communal group that immigrated to the United States in 1805 from Württemberg, Germany. Members established their first home just north of Pittsburgh in the small community of Harmony, Butler County, near Zelienople. After ten years the Harmonists moved to the Indiana Territory and established their second community which they also called Harmony, now known as...
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