Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Jun 19, 2015 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter Summer is a good time to connect with the past in Pennsylvania. The state features an abundance of museums, memorials and historic structures – including the sites on the Pennsylvania Trails of History – that are especially active in the summer, presenting and commemorating our history. Festivals and special events across the commonwealth also link us to our heritage with food,...
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A Home for History: S.K. Stevens and the Campaign for the William Penn Memorial Museum and Archives

Posted by on May 11, 2015 in | Comments Off on A Home for History: S.K. Stevens and the Campaign for the William Penn Memorial Museum and Archives by Curtis Miner On December 23, 1959, Dr. S.K. Stevens (1904-74) sent out a final, end-of-the-year message to members of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC). It came in the form of a brief, typewritten memo, informing them that Governor David L. Lawrence (1889-1966) had that morning signed a spending bill for the construction of a museum and archives building. “I think this...
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Trails for the Holidays

Posted by on May 8, 2015 in | Comments Off on Trails for the Holidays As summer turns to fall and you start to wonder where the time went, rest assured that the Pennsylvania Trails of History still have much to offer before 2014 winds down. Take some time to explore your favorite site – or make a first visit – and see if the pace doesn’t slow just a bit. Between changing exhibits, special events and our regular offerings, it isn’t difficult to find...
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Executive Director’s Letter

Posted by on May 8, 2015 in | Comments Off on Executive Director’s Letter On Wednesday, March 19, Governor Tom Corbett and First Lady Susan M. Corbett unveiled a portrait of Hannah Callowhill Penn (1671–1726) to hang in the Governor’s Office in the State Capitol with the Commonwealth’s early leaders and governors. This corrects an omission dating to the original furnishing of the Capitol in 1906. It also reflects the increasing scholarship about the proprietor’s...
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White Glove Service at The State Museum: It’s Not What You Might Think

Posted by on Dec 2, 2013 in | Comments Off on White Glove Service at The State Museum: It’s Not What You Might Think Sometimes hands-on history projects require gloves. White cotton gloves, to be precise. In June 2012 three curators at The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, donned gloves and began the first of an orderly series of planned inventories of the museum’s collections known as the Collections Advancement Project (CAP). By the end of summer three more curators joined the team and the...
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Violet Oakley, Lady Mural Painter

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Violet Oakley, Lady Mural Painter When Violet Oak­ley accepted the commission – and challenge – of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to decorate the State Capitol then under con­struction in Harrisburg, she announced that the subject of her mural series would be “The Romance of the Found­ing of the State.” In 1902, the ardent lady mural painter, then twenty-eight years old and the only one of her kind,...
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Frederick J. Osterling and a Tale of Two Buildings

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Frederick J. Osterling and a Tale of Two Buildings There was much to build in a growing industrial city like turn-of-the-century Pittsburgh, and many of the important architectural com­missions went to Frederick J. Osterling, a versatile designer, a respected businessman and a prominent – if occasionally controversial – architect. But when Osterling received that commission of which all archi­tects dream, it resulted in the sudden...
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Centre County

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Centre County Centre County, as its name implies, geographically is Pennsylvania’s central county. The first known residents to inhabit its lands were the Munsee and Shawnee Indians from the Delaware River. Before 1725 these Indians began to move westward, first to the Susquehanna, later to the Ohio. The Iroquois, who claimed the Susquehanna country, assigned one of their chiefs – a man best known...
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Currents

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Currents Chester County Centennial The Chester County Historical Society, West Chester, has marked its one hundredth anniversary by mounting an exhibition entitled “Presenting Your Past: A Centennial Celebration.” The exhibit highlights the extraordinary collections acquired by the historical society during its first century. Objects on view include significant pieces selected from the...
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A Capital Idea! A Brief and Bumpy History of Pennsylvania’s Capitols

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on A Capital Idea! A Brief and Bumpy History of Pennsylvania’s Capitols A mere one hundred or so miles separate Philadelphia’s Chestnut and Harrisburg’s Third streets. But the path­ – metaphorically, at least­ – between the Keystone State’s first and final capitol build­ings seems far longer and rockier than geography suggests. From the Commonwealth’s earliest days, when the government met in Philadelphia’s elegant State...
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