Industrial Heritage Trails

Posted by on Apr 12, 2016 in | Comments Off on Industrial Heritage Trails America’s first significant industries date back to the 18th century with the iron plantations in Pennsylvania and the development of the factory system in New England textile mills. Preservation of our industrial heritage, however, is a fairly recent phenomenon, beginning for the most part after World War II. Prior to the war, federal programs and even private initiatives were designated...
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Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter

Posted by on Aug 21, 2015 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter Topics in the Summer 2013 Newsletter: Stories from the Homefront: Pennsylvania in the Civil War Opens in September New PaHeritage.org Website Trailheads: 250 Years on the Pennsylvania Trails of History Welcome New PHF Members Welcome New State Museum Affiliate Members PHF Board Harrisburg SciTech High School Docents Washington Crossing Historic Park Visitor Center Pennsylvania Lumber Museum...
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Second Growth at the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum

Posted by on Jun 19, 2015 in | Comments Off on Second Growth at the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum Charlie Fox appreciates the eye-catching curves and retro craftsmanship in the designs of most vintage automobiles, but his connection to a particular 1917 Ford Model T pickup truck is more about historical significance and less about aesthetics. The fully restored truck, a new addition to the remodeled Pennsylvania Lumber Museum’s visitor center, is similar to the vehicles that carried...
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Looking Back at the Year: 2013

Posted by on Dec 2, 2013 in | Comments Off on Looking Back at the Year: 2013 As 2013 draws to a close it’s time to look back at several of the highlights we covered in the Trailheads blog this year. As always, the historic sites and museums along the Pennsylvania Trails of History faced challenges with patience and perseverance, as paid and volunteer staff worked to provide engaging programs, tours and exhibits for visitors and for their local communities. The ongoing...
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The Beauty and Bounty of Penn’s Wood

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Beauty and Bounty of Penn’s Wood Pennsylvania’s beauty – the gently sweeping valleys, the broad rivers, the rugged mountains and the rolling hillsides – is the bounty which lured waves of settlers to the New World more than three centuries ago. Founder William Penn, entrepreneur and seventeenth century land promoter, heavily advertised his province as “the land good, the air clean and sweet, the springs...
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Potter County: At the Edge of the Forest

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Potter County: At the Edge of the Forest Potter, one of the Com­monwealth’s larger counties in size, but one of the smaller in population, is located in the center of what is popularly called the northern tier. Its location on a highly dissected plateau with narrow, steep­-sided valleys made travel diffi­cult and settlement hesitant. Even today with modern tech­nology, the pace of life is slower than in Pennsylvania’s more...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Barns of Chester County Pennsylvania: A Bicentennial Overview: “So Your Children Can Tell Their Children” by Berenice M. Ball published by the Women’s Auxiliary to Chester County Hospital, 1974, contains 256 pages with 378 illustrations including original art and photographs The book’s profit will also benefit Chester County Historical Society. The author, Mrs. Bell,...
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“A Veritable Stone Wall of Death”

Posted by on Nov 28, 2013 in | Comments Off on “A Veritable Stone Wall of Death” “Flee for your life; do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley; flee to the hills, lest you be consumed.” The Lord’s angels commanding Lot to leave the city of Sodom. Genesis 19:17   It was a beautiful, sunny day-a welcome respite from a September of rain and hard frosts that had swollen the Sinnemahoning Creek and its tributary Freeman Run to unusually high levels....
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Shorts

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Shorts The descendants of natural­ist John Bartram and members of the John Bartram Associa­tion will celebrate the centennials of the association and the family reunion during the weekend of June 25-27 [1993]. The event will feature tours of Historic Bartram’s Garden, speakers, bus tours, and a gala picnic on the grounds to commemorate the family’s first reunion in 1893. To obtain...
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Beloved, Beleaguered, and Belittled: Ole Bull’s New Norway

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Beloved, Beleaguered, and Belittled: Ole Bull’s New Norway It is said that, on certain autumn days, a visitor to one particular mountain top in Potter County can still hear the haunting violin strains of nineteenth century music legend Ole Bull, drifting ever-so-faintly amidst the whispering pines and the soft murmur of Kettle Creek wending its way through the valley below. It seems that the trilling of the songbirds and the chattering of resident...
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