Preserving Pieces of Pennsylvania’s Past: An Inside Look at the Building of the Commonwealth’s Collections

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Preserving Pieces of Pennsylvania’s Past: An Inside Look at the Building of the Commonwealth’s Collections Associations between butterflies and buttons, Conestoga wagons and cannon, sculpture and arrowheads, or fossils and founder William Penn’s original Charter may seem tenuous, even obscure and, perhaps, nonsensical. But a relationship does exist: they are among the one and a half million objects and thirty thousand cubic feet of manuscripts, records, maps and photographs in the custody and...
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Expanding A Vision: Seventy-Five Years of Public History

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Expanding A Vision: Seventy-Five Years of Public History Three-quarters of a century ago, it proba­bly surprised no one that the first act of the Pennsylvania Historical Com­mission, not long after its creation in 1913, was to survey all monuments and memorials in the Commonwealth’s sixty­-seven counties. At that time it was universally assumed that public history involved com­memoration and the rituals associated with recognizing significant...
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Grave Sites, Petroglyphs, and Relics: The Turn of the Century Archaeology of David Herr Landis

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Grave Sites, Petroglyphs, and Relics: The Turn of the Century Archaeology of David Herr Landis Thousands of years ago, travelers from northeastern Asia­ – ancestors of Native Americans – followed the animals they hunted into what had once been inaccessible regions of Alaska. Over the newly-formed land bridge at the Bering Strait they came, eventually spreading across the North American continent, including the territory that became Pennsylvania. In the Commonwealth, as...
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PHMC Highlights

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on PHMC Highlights PHMC staff, volunteers, and dignitaries dedicated the new visitor center on Saturday, September 29, at Pennsbury Manor, the country estate of William Penn overlooking the Delaware River in Bucks County. Three times larger than the former facility, the center includes an auditorium, classroom with video conferencing capability, storage for the extensive collection of artifacts, space for public...
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PHMC Highlights

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on PHMC Highlights To celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the New Deal, the PHMC created an attractive commemorative poster. Kathleen Alsvary of the Publications and Sales Division designed the poster and Bureau for Historic Preservation historian Kenneth C. Wolensky authored the historical context appearing on the reverse. Commemorating Pennsylvania’s role in the New Deal economic recovery programs during...
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Advanced Technology “Rubs” the Ancient Past

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Advanced Technology “Rubs” the Ancient Past With more than 400,000 visitors, the Pennsylvania Farm Show, held each January, is a terrific opportunity to highlight the best of Pennsylvania agriculture. It’s also an exciting venue to showcase Pennsylvania archaeology and remind the public that archaeological sites are important endangered resources that need protection. Since 1980, PHMC’s Bureau for Historic Preservation and The...
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When the Susquehanna River Was Pennsylvania’s Flour Highway

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on When the Susquehanna River Was Pennsylvania’s Flour Highway The flour trade industry in the Susquehanna River watershed is one of the lesser known stories in Pennsylvania’s history, but it is among its most significant sagas. Millers were among the first tradesmen to arrive in the New World to sustain the settlers. The Keystone State’s rich farmlands produced abundant flour for local and regional markets with a consistent surplus for export to foreign...
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