Changing Values: The Whitetail’s Challenging Existence

Posted by on Dec 1, 2025 in | Comments Off on Changing Values: The Whitetail’s Challenging Existence   Deer have lost some of the cachet they once held in Pennsylvania. Their values — ranging from ecological, aesthetical and recreational to nutritional, financial and, of course, personal — have endeared many Pennsylvanians to whitetails throughout the state’s existence, but probably never more so than during European colonization and the Great Depression — when venison helped many families...
read more

Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Dec 1, 2025 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter What comes to mind when you think of Pennsylvania? The features in this edition spotlight perspectives on commonwealth culture through a painter’s scenic landscapes, a sculptor’s three-dimensional portraits of historical and folkloric figures, the state animal, and a popular food product. In the early 1970s, artist Nick Ruggieri was commissioned by the Harrisburg Patriot-News to select a...
read more

Recovery of the Bald Eagle in Pennsylvania: A Conservation Success Story

Posted by on Mar 29, 2024 in | Comments Off on Recovery of the Bald Eagle in Pennsylvania: A Conservation Success Story   Easily recognizable by its white head and tail, dark brown body, hooked yellow beak, and large black talons, the bald eagle is truly a majestic bird. In Pennsylvania, as well as most other parts of North America, bald eagles are apex predators, atop the avian food chain. Humans have been their only primary adversary over the past couple of centuries. When Columbus arrived in America in...
read more

Repopulating and Managing Black Bears in Pennsylvania

Posted by on Sep 12, 2022 in | Comments Off on Repopulating and Managing Black Bears in Pennsylvania Three species of bears inhabit North America: black bears, polar bears and brown bears (including Alaskan brown bears and grizzlies). The only bear living in the eastern United States, and one that is thriving in Pennsylvania, is the American black bear (Ursus americanus). Pennsylvania’s bear population as of 2022 is estimated to be around 16,000, the result of sound, science-based wildlife...
read more

Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Sep 12, 2022 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter The State Museum of Pennsylvania has recently installed in its first-floor gallery a long-term exhibition, A Place for All, focusing on three episodes of the Civil Rights Movement in the commonwealth — struggles for integration at Highland Park swimming pool in Pittsburgh, Girard College preparatory school in Philadelphia, and the suburban community of Levittown in Bucks County. The stories were...
read more