Oley Valley Archives - Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine

Searching for Mountain Mary: The Life and Legend of an Early Pennsylvania Saint

Posted by Patrick Donmoyer on Nov 30, 2021 in | Comments Off “There, underneath this mountain stone, Lies Mary Young, who lived alone, High on the lofty mountainside, Beloved and honored till she died.” —Ralph Bigony, 1846 Enshrined in works of art and immortalized in poetry, the life and deeds of Mountain Mary, or Anna Maria Jung (1744–1819), has become one of the preeminent legends of early southeastern Pennsylvania, embodying the spirit of the...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by Kyle Weaver on Nov 29, 2021 in | Comments Off Pennsylvania is home to some of the most acclaimed mural paintings in the nation, including those in our own State Capitol created by Violet Oakley, the first woman in the country to receive a public mural commission in 1902 (see “To Form a More Perfect Union,” Fall 2019), and those found on the walls of many U.S. post offices in the state, installed as part of public work projects between 1934...
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Shorts

Posted by PA Heritage Staff on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off The distinctively decorated furniture of Soap Hollow in Somerset County (see “Makers’ Marks and a Master’s Touch” by Edna V. Brendlinger and Robert B. Myers in the winter 1986 edition) is on view at the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, from Saturday, March 27, through Monday, May 31, 1993. Soap Hollow furniture, made during the second half of the nineteenth...
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Executive Director’s Message

Posted by Brent Glass on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off The masthead to the left of this message includes the names of current members of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I can proudly report that these men and women are an extraordinary group of citizen volunteers and elected public officials who actively represent Pennsylvania’s history and museum community in all deliberations and programs of our agency. Field trips made by...
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Daniel Boone Homestead

Posted by PA Heritage Staff on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off Visit the actual site where the legendary frontiersman Daniel Boone (1734-1820) was born and raised – and learn how the Keystone State was settled in the eighteenth century. This fascinating historic site in Berks County interprets the life of the Boone family and examines the heritage of the region’s early settlers – among them English Quaker, German, Swiss, Huguenot, and...
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Bookshelf

Posted by PA Heritage Staff on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off The Lincoln Highway by Brian A. Butko Stackpole Books, 1996 (321 pages, paper, $16.95) Established in 1913, the Lincoln Highway became the first automobile roadway to cross the United States. It stretched east from New York’s Tunes Square to San Francisco at a time when rural roads were little more than rutty wagon paths. The Lincoln Highway Association was organized “to procure the...
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Presence from the Past: A Gift to the Future Through Historic Preservation

Posted by Brent Glass on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off The United States is a nation and a people on the move. It is in an era of mobility and change … The result is a feeling of rootlessness combined with a longing for those landmarks of the past which give us a sense of stability and belonging … If the preservation movement is to be successful, it must go beyond saving bricks and mortar. It must go beyond saving occasional historic...
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A Kentucky Frontiersman’s Pennsylvania Roots: The Daniel Boone Homestead

Posted by Sharon Silverman on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off Mere mention of the name Daniel Boone conjures images of an American icon: trailblazer of the Wilderness Road, preeminent Kentucky frontiersman, defender of early settlements, a crack shot with a long rifle. Boone’s real and folkloric exploits are so well-known that his character is often overlooked, as is the fact that his personality took shape during a boyhood not spent in...
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Preserving Philadelphia: A Conversation with Charles E. Peterson, F.A.I.A.

Posted by William Kashatus on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off Those who know Philadelphia realize that it is an enormously important city with an illustrious, prestigious past. By many it is called the birthplace of a nation, by others the cradle of liberty. The United States was created in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. The principles of the American Revolution were...
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The Value of Pennsylvania History

Posted by Brent Glass on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off George W. Bush won the presidential election of 2000 because the fifty states cast more electoral votes for him, even though more people actually voted for his opponent, Albert A. Gore Jr. The election reminded Americans about a curious institution called the Electoral College, and an equally peculiar system known as federalism in which each state conducts elections according to distinct laws...
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