Lost and Found

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lost and Found Lost Battleship Number 38, the third vessel christened USS Pennsylvania, was launched in March 1915. Between stints in World War I and World War II, she served as a flagship and took part in fleet exercises. USS Pennsylvania sustained only minor damage in the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, where she was dry-docked. After assisting in eight World War II campaigns, the ship was...
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Currents

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Currents Journey in Time Prom the first interior scenes of Pennsbury Manor, in which light seems to caress each object-pewter bowl, chair, blanket chest-viewers of “Historic Pennsylvania: A Journey to America’s Past” will know this is masterful cinematography. As the camera moves a short distance from the mansion’s front door to the lush banks of the Delaware River, a dazzling...
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Currents

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Currents Xanthus Smith It is Sunday, March 9, 1862. Smoke hangs thick in the air. The water is littered with debris. The air even tastes bitter. Cannon roar. Cries of men pierce the din. Ironclad titans, the vessels Monitor and the Merrimac, clash in one of the fiercest confrontations of the Civil War. This is the Battle of Hampton Roads. Today, museum-goers are able to revis­it the Battle of Hampton...
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Pennsylvanians-at-Arms: The Pennsylvania Military Museum

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvanians-at-Arms: The Pennsylvania Military Museum From provincial militia units that predate the American Revolution to this very day, Pennsylvanians have mustered their courage and taken up arms to defend their homes, defeat tyranny abroad, and champion the freedom of people at home and throughout the world. By accepting their call to duty, Pennsylvania’s brave citizen-soldiers have built a proud military tradition that, ironically, grew...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Wealth, Waste, and Alienation: Growth and Decline in the Connellsville Coke Industry By Kenneth Warren University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001 (297 pages, cloth, $30.00) In less than three-quarters of a century, the Connellsville coke industry, situated in southwestern Pennsylvania, mushroomed from slight beginnings into a key supplier essential to the iron and steel industries. It then fell victim...
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David McNeely Stauffer’s Little Known Legacy to Lancaster

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on David McNeely Stauffer’s Little Known Legacy to Lancaster “Nothing con­tributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose – a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.” A passage from Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s 1818 clas­sic Frankenstein may be a most unlikely source, but these words characterize the equally unlikely life of Lancaster County native David McNeely Stauffer (1845-1913). Born in Richland...
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“Thank God there are only three McCormicks”

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on “Thank God there are only three McCormicks” The McCormick boys arrived at St. Michael’s Home for Boys in July 1939. Art was seventeen, I was fourteen, and Mike was seven – a trio of orphans who would now live with two hundred and fifty hard-knock boys at this Catholic orphanage in Hoban Heights, near Pittston in Luzerne County. Those were hard times, and many boys at St. Mike’s came from rough backgrounds. They came from...
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“He, on the Whole, Stood First”: Gifford Pinchot

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on “He, on the Whole, Stood First”: Gifford Pinchot President Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946) was a talented and gifted public servant. Of his friend and adviser, Roosevelt wrote, “I believe it is but just to say that among the many, many public officials who, under my administra­tion, rendered literally invaluable service to the people of the United States he, on the whole, stood first.” Among Pennsylvania’s...
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Robert Edwin Peary (1856-1920)

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Robert Edwin Peary (1856-1920) On Tuesday, April 6, 1909, Robert Edwin Peary accomplished an achievement worthy of the legendary explorers of history. Exhausted from sleep deprivation, in temperatures of forty degrees below zero, after sailing thousands of miles on the ship Roosevelt, with teams of dogs, and with the knowledge that more than 750 men had died in failure, Peary, along with Matthew Henson, four Eskimos, and...
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Bedford Springs Hotel

Posted by on Nov 24, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bedford Springs Hotel This surely is a wonderful place to rest,” wrote an unidentified Laura to a Mrs. C. Brown Jr., of Charleroi, Washington County, on a postcard of the Bedford Springs Hotel postmarked June 28, 1928. “Wish Doc could stay forever,” she continued. “He feels a lot better.” Located one mile south of Bedford, Bedford County seat, Bedford Springs attracted attention as early...
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