Shorts

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Shorts 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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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf The Genius Belt: The Story of the Arts in Bucks County, Pennsylvania edited by George S. Bush James A. Michener Art Museum in association with The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996 (174 pages, cloth, $40.00; paper, $29.95) Bucks County had known artists as neighbors for years, but in this handsome and richly illustrated book, novelist and native son James A. Michener writes that two...
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Archaeology in Black and White: Digging Somerset County’s Past During the Great Depression

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Archaeology in Black and White: Digging Somerset County’s Past During the Great Depression In 1994, a small team of archaeologists drove south from temporary lodgings in Somerset, in southwestern Pennsylvania, on State Route (S.R.) 219, to a point just north of Meyersdale, turned left into Indian Dig Road, and then left again onto Pony Farm Road. The archaeologists traveled a short distance up hill along this unpaved dirt road, before pulling their battered – and much maligned...
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Somerset Historical Center: Portraying the Pioneer Spirit of Southwestern Pennsylvania

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Somerset Historical Center: Portraying the Pioneer Spirit of Southwestern Pennsylvania While there are many similar stories to be told on the subject of historical and social evolution in all regions of Pennsylvania, there are also many tales unique to every city, town, or county. Southwestern Pennsylvania has its share of unique stories, and no museum interprets the saga of this region so succinctly as the Somerset Historical Center. Adding to the effectiveness of docu­menting...
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1872 Morgan Coverlet at Somerset Historical Center

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on 1872 Morgan Coverlet at Somerset Historical Center Objects and artifacts are crucial to telling the story of southwestern Pennsylvania’s pioneer life and the changes encountered by the region’s early settlers, ordinary people – farmers, millers, traders – who helped propel westward expansion. The Somerset Historical Center owns a collection of twenty-two coverlets made in Somerset County, including five bearing the...
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Executive Director’s Message

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Executive Director’s Message A crater in a reclaimed coal mine in Somerset County hardly seems a potential site for a national memorial. However, as everyone knows by now, a dramatic story of terror and courage took place in the airspace above western Pennsylvania and ended with the fatal crash of United Airlines Flight 93 near Shanksville during the terrible morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Since that tragic day,...
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September 2001 Meeting of Historic Preservation Board

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on September 2001 Meeting of Historic Preservation Board In the dizzying aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans realized that their lives would be forever changed. Terrorism even impacted the routine – and frequently mundane – ways in which business had been conducted. For its September 2001 meeting-held, incidentally, on Tuesday, September 11 – the Commonwealth’s Historic...
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Letters to the Editor

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Letters to the Editor Brick-End Barns Upon receiving the Winter 2002 edition of Pennsylvania Heritage, I was fascinated to see “Lost & Found,” showing a fanci­ful brick-end barn in Lancaster County that was, unfortunately, demolished for the building of an outlet mall. I have discovered a brick-end barn still standing in Antrim Township, Franklin County, that is similar to the one illustrated. In...
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Executive Director’s Message

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Executive Director’s Message September 11, 1777. On this date, two hundred and twenty­-five years ago, George Washington and his army suffered a devastating defeat at the Battle of Brandywine. A flanking action ordered by Sir William Howe, commander of British forces, nearly led to a complete rout. Surprised and mis­informed about his opponent’s plans, Washington man­aged an orderly but embarrassing retreat. The...
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Life on Wheels: Camping in Pennsylvania

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Life on Wheels: Camping in Pennsylvania Does father crave to fish for trout and bass and pike and musky? Take him auto-touring. Does sister want to dip in the surf, or study art, or see the world? Toke her automobile vacationing. Has grand-dad the “hoof and mouth disease” so that he craves the green of far-away courses? Auto-comp him to a dozen golf courses. Does mother sigh for a rest from doily routines? Take her...
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