Bushy Run Battlefield

Commemorating the military encounter in August 1763, during which the British – led by Col. Henry Bouquet – triumphed over united Native American forces, Bushy Run Battlefield in Westmoreland County offers both guided and self-guided tours. This battle marked the turning point in Pontiac’s Rebellion and decided the territorial fate of the frontier. During the summer, special...
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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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Executive Director’s Message

This year’s observance of Pennsylvania Archaeology Week, October 9-17, calls attention to the rich and diverse heritage of Native Americans. It also gives us an opportunity to recognize the unique research and invaluable preservation efforts undertaken by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC). The PHMC has earned a national reputation for its pioneering efforts in...
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Bookshelf

Crossroads of Commerce: The Pennsylvania Railroad Calendar Art of Grif Teller by Dan CupperGreat Eastern Publishing, 1992 (184 pages, cloth, $69.95) From its infancy as a mere sixty-one mile track running through central Pennsylvania’s deep forests and river valleys, the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) eventually emerged as a giant of the railroading industry, known throughout the world for...
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Bookshelf

The Indian Industrial School, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 1879-1918 by Linda F. Witmer Cumberland County Historical Society, 1993 (166 pages, cloth, $29.95) The Indian Industrial School, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 1879-1918, is a photo­graphic essay tracing the origins and development of the educational institu­tion established in the Cumberland County seat by Captain Richard H. Pratt. The Indian...
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Bookshelf

Coal and Coke in Pennsylvania by Carmen DiCiccio Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1996 (223 pages, paper, 16.95) Coal and Coke in Pennsylvania began in 1991 as a written guide for the nomination of soft coal operations and coke extractive facilities in western Pennsylvania to the National Register of Historic Places. During the project, diverse sources were consulted, including...
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Meet Mister Rogers, Everybody’s Neighbor

“The greatest gift that you can give anybody,” says Fred McFeely Rogers, “is the gift of your honest self. And that’s what I try to do with the Neighborhood.” Television personality, writer, composer, and beloved neighbor worldwide, Rogers speaks of his vision for Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, the longest running program on Public Broadcasting System (PBS). But...
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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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Currents

A Glass Act By the opening of the twentieth century, western Pennsylvania, with twenty-nine companies in full production, had emerged as the undisputed glass manufacturing capital of the United States (see “Currents,” Spring 1998, and “Curator’s Choice,” Summer 1998). The manufacture of glass in the region can be traced to the late eighteenth century, when both the...
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Lost and Found

Lost So much has changed since historian Brian A. Butko wrote The Lincoln Highway (1996) that Stackpole Books will publish a revised edition in 2002. Mid-twenti­eth-century businesses along the coast-to-coast highway, including gasoline stations and drive-in movie theaters, are rapidly being replaced by huge shopping plazas and sprawling housing developments. One of the most recent causalities...
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