“Winter Wonderland”

Posted by on Dec 16, 2022 in | Comments Off on “Winter Wonderland” Few people may be aware that one of the most memorable and popular holiday songs of all time, “Winter Wonderland,” was written in a small town in northeastern Pennsylvania. For the folks of Honesdale, Wayne County, holiday festivities would be incomplete without celebrating the song and its writer, Richard “Dick” Smith, with the annual Winter Wonderland festival and parade. Born in Honesdale in...
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Repressing Disease in Cattle: The Career of Pennsylvania Veterinarian Leonard Pearson

Posted by on Sep 12, 2022 in | Comments Off on Repressing Disease in Cattle: The Career of Pennsylvania Veterinarian Leonard Pearson In 1900 there were 224,248 farms and nearly a million dairy cows in Pennsylvania. The livelihood of dairy farmers depended almost entirely on the health of their cows. Dairy cows were vulnerable to a variety of diseases, but the most feared was tuberculosis. In Pennsylvania, bovine tuberculosis killed more cows than any other infectious disease, and it often destroyed entire herds. Bovine...
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Loretto Perfectus Walsh, First Woman to Serve in the U.S. Armed Forces

Posted by on Oct 28, 2019 in | Comments Off on Loretto Perfectus Walsh, First Woman to Serve in the U.S. Armed Forces At the age of 20, Loretto Perfectus Walsh (1896–1925) became the first woman to enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces in March 1917, just weeks before the U.S. entered World War I. Women had served in the American military since 1901 but as nurses only. Walsh joined the U.S. Navy and was sworn in as a chief yeoman. She was expected to perform the same duties and was entitled to the same benefits and...
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Julia C. Collins

Posted by on Dec 13, 2016 in | Comments Off on Julia C. Collins Recognized as one of the first African American women to have published a novel, Julia C. Collins is an enigma. Little information is available about her life. Her maiden name and the date and place of her birth are all unknown. Her education is a mystery. One record that does exist appeared after her marriage to S. (Stephen or Simon) C. Collins of Williamsport, Lycoming County, indicating that...
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The Gender of Assimilation: The Carlisle Indian Industrial School Experiment

Posted by on May 8, 2015 in | Comments Off on The Gender of Assimilation: The Carlisle Indian Industrial School Experiment In his celebrated 1702 book Magnalia Christi American (The Glorious Works of Christ in America), Puritan minister Cotton Mather described local Native Americans. “The men are most abominably slothful; making their poor Squaws, or Wives,to plant and dress, and barn, and beat their Corn, and build their Wigwams for them; which perhaps may be the reason for their extraordinary Ease in Childbirth,”...
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Currents

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Currents It’s a Zoo! When the Zoological Society of Philadelphia was organized at the home of Dr. William Camac (its first presi­dent) on March 21, 1859, it was the first of its kind in North America. In spite of its auspicious beginnings, the early years of the Philadelphia Zoo – now touted as “America’s First Zoo”­ – were dampened by the Civil War, which not only...
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LeRoy Patrick (1915-2006)

Posted by on Nov 24, 2013 in | Comments Off on LeRoy Patrick (1915-2006) The record of civil rights in Pennsylvania is checkered at best. Proponents realize that it requires much more than legislation to guarantee equality for all Pennsylvani­ans. More often than not, it takes courageous private cit­izens to stand up in the face of bigotry, discrimination, and oppression. One such individual was the Reverend Dr. LeRoy Patrick (1915-2006), of Pittsburgh. Patrick died...
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Christy Mathewson: Baseball’s Gentleman and Tragic Hero

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Christy Mathewson: Baseball’s Gentleman and Tragic Hero   On Wednesday, September 23, 1908, twenty thousand baseball fans packed New York City’s Polo Grounds to watch the hometown New York Giants host the reigning World Series champion and archrival, the Chicago Cubs. The contest would determine first place in the race for the coveted National League pennant. Right-handed pitcher Christy “Matty” Mathewson (1880–1925), a thirty-seven-game winner,...
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