The Historic National Road

Posted by on Dec 1, 2023 in | Comments Off on The Historic National Road Distinctive seven-sided toll houses like the one shown on this early 20th-century postcard marked the route of the National Road in southwestern Pennsylvania. The National Road was the first highway planned and funded by the federal government and was intended to connect the East Coast with the country’s western frontier by opening a route through the Allegheny Mountains. Construction of the...
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An Appeal for “Smoke Control”: Lois Bainbridge on the 1948 Donora Smog

Posted by on Sep 18, 2023 in | Comments Off on An Appeal for “Smoke Control”: Lois Bainbridge on the 1948 Donora Smog   “The zinc works has ruined Donora & Webster,” wrote Lois Bainbridge to Gov. James Duff on October 31, 1948. “There is something in the Zinc Works causing these deaths. . . . [The] awful acid & smoke . . . eats the paint off your houses. Even fish can’t live in the Monongahela River, the bank on which the mill is situated.” Lois Bainbridge was a resident of Webster, a town in...
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“I Must Be an Abolitionist”: Pennsylvania Liberty Man Francis Julius LeMoyne

Posted by on Oct 24, 2019 in | Comments Off on “I Must Be an Abolitionist”: Pennsylvania Liberty Man Francis Julius LeMoyne In 1839, when William Lloyd Garrison (1805–79) and his allies lost control of the abolitionist movement in Warsaw, New York, African Americans could only vote in seven states. In the North, free blacks could neither sue nor own weapons, and their wages were disproportionate with those of their white counterparts for the same type of work. The Slave Power seemingly strengthened its influence in...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Oct 22, 2019 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter Sometimes Pennsylvania history occurs outside the boundaries of the Keystone State. Throughout the past, Pennsylvanians have traveled to other parts of the U.S. or have gone abroad to make their marks in the commonwealth’s history. Pennsylvania’s involvement in World War I is a good example, when soldiers from the state joined their fellow American servicemen in the Allied fight against the...
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Jackie Ormes, African American Woman Cartoonist

Posted by on Jun 13, 2017 in | Comments Off on Jackie Ormes, African American Woman Cartoonist Born Zelda Mavin Jackson in Pittsburgh in 1911 and raised in Monongahela, Washington County, Jackie Ormes was the first African American woman cartoonist. At the height of her career, her cartoons and comics reached more than a million readers across the nation through the black press. When the Jim Crow era was in full swing and racial stereotypes were prevalent, Ormes broke down barriers of...
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Pennsylvania Heritage Recommends

Posted by on May 8, 2015 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Heritage Recommends Gettysburg Religion Refinement, Diversity, and Race in the Antebellum and Civil War Border North In the borderland between slavery and freedom, Gettysburg remains among the most legendary landmarks of the American Civil War, asserts Steve Longenecker, author of Gettysburg Religion: Refinement, Diversity, and Race in the Antebellum and Civil War Border North (Fordham University Press, 2014,...
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Washington County: From Ice Age to Space Age

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Washington County: From Ice Age to Space Age Southwestern Pennsylvania was for centuries a happy hunt­ing ground for Indians who were living there as long as two thousand years ago. In fact, as the result of archaeological discoveries made at the Meadowcroft Rock Shelter near Avella between 1973 and 1975, University of Pittsburgh anthropologists have proven conclusively that Ice Age people roamed the forests of Washington County even...
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In Celebration of Covered Bridges

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on In Celebration of Covered Bridges We crossed the Susquehanna river by a wooden bridge, roofed and covered in on all sides, and nearly a mile in length. It was profoundly dark, perplexed with great beams, crossing and recrossing at every possible angle, and through the broad chinks and crevices in the floor the rapid river gleamed far down below like a legion of eyes. We had no lamps, and as the horses stumbled and floundered...
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Uniontown’s Prince of the Gilded Age

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Uniontown’s Prince of the Gilded Age Nothing captures the attention of the press more than a good scandal. In Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in January 1915, it had one. The financial collapse of coal baron Josiah V. Thompson, and the ruin of his bank, summoned a reporter from the New York Tribune to the Fayette County seat. Stepping off at the Pennsyl­vania Railroad station, the unidentified reporter hurried to Thompson’s office...
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In the Public’s Best Interest

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on In the Public’s Best Interest Edward Martin distin­guished himself as soldier, governor, senator and, above all, as honored citizen of the Ten Mile area in Pennsylvania, the small rural community in which he was born. His full and varied life had led him from the front lines of battle to the diplomatic circles of the nation’s capitol. The people whose lives he touched knew him as a dignified, loyal and honest...
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