From the Executive Director

Posted by on Oct 21, 2024 in | Comments Off on From the Executive Director Yesterday, I attended a birthday party for a very special deer — the Court House Deer — who makes his home outside the Luzerne County Courthouse in Wilkes-Barre. This statue, which just celebrated its 158th birthday, was recently conserved through funding in part by a Keystone Historic Preservation grant from the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission. It is very different from most of...
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From the Executive Director

Posted by on Jul 24, 2023 in | Comments Off on From the Executive Director Everyone has family stories. I recall sitting at the dinner table as a child, listening to my parents talk about their grandparents and great-grandparents — where they had lived and the things they had done. One story I heard was about a woman, Ellen Webster Palmer, who founded the Boys Industrial Association in Wilkes-Barre to educate and entertain “breaker boys,” the child laborers at coal...
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Community Initiative Awards for 2021

Posted by on Sep 12, 2022 in | Comments Off on Community Initiative Awards for 2021 The Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (PA SHPO) has announced the winners of its Community Initiative Awards to recognize accomplishments made in 2021. These awards acknowledge the hard work and dedication of outstanding organizations, municipalities, agencies and individuals whose work is advancing and expanding the definition of historic preservation in Pennsylvania. The awards...
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Agnes: Pennsylvania’s Most Devastating Natural Disaster

Posted by on May 13, 2022 in | Comments Off on Agnes: Pennsylvania’s Most Devastating Natural Disaster The late Paul Beers, the longtime columnist for the Harrisburg Patriot-News, once wrote that some Pennsylvanians are “amazingly complacent” about the threat of flooding despite living in a state that is quite vulnerable. Back in the day, around the midpoint of the 20th century, when old-timers in Pennsylvania spoke of “the big one,” they were referring to the 1936 flood — floods plural,...
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Pennsylvanians at Meuse-Argonne: The 28th, 79th and 80th Divisions in the Last Major Offensive of the Great War

Posted by on Oct 28, 2019 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvanians at Meuse-Argonne: The 28th, 79th and 80th Divisions in the Last Major Offensive of the Great War Pennsylvanians served with honor and distinction in World War I, with more than 297,000 men from the Keystone State engaged in the conflict as part of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), established in July 1917 to join the Allied Powers (France, Great Britain, Russia and Italy) in the fight against the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Turkey and Bulgaria). The majority of...
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Craft Brewing: Another Revolution in Pennsylvania

Posted by on Dec 13, 2016 in | Comments Off on Craft Brewing: Another Revolution in Pennsylvania The history of brewing beer in Pennsylvania has seen heights of success and pits of disaster. The commonwealth grew from colonial home-brewing roots to become a recognized industrial center, home to some of the most notable brewers in America before the disaster of Prohibition. After bouncing back with Repeal, Pennsylvania clung to its established favorites longer than any other state, savoring...
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Shop Pomeroy’s First by Michael J. Lisicky

Posted by on Sep 1, 2016 in | Comments Off on Shop Pomeroy’s First by Michael J. Lisicky Shop Pomeroy’s First by Michael J. Lisicky History Press, 160 pp, paper, $19.99 Entrepreneur George Pomeroy (1853-1925) and two partners opened their first department store in Reading, Berks County, in 1876, beginning a retailing enterprise that lasted more than 100 years. Pomeroy’s stores were not flashy, not exclusive, but always offered medium-priced goods for the average family. Until 1990...
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Historic Districts in Pennsylvania: An Evolving Sense of Place

Posted by on Jun 6, 2016 in | Comments Off on Historic Districts in Pennsylvania: An Evolving Sense of Place Jim Thorpe, originally named Mauch Chunk, is a small and picturesque borough of well-preserved 19th-century buildings perched on the side of a mountain along the Lehigh River in Carbon County. It once served as an important railroad and coal shipping center. As these industries waned in the 20th century, the town sought new economic purpose by marketing its scenic appeal as the “Switzerland of...
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From the Editor

Posted by on Dec 2, 2013 in | Comments Off on From the Editor The beginning of a new year entices us to look back upon the previous year and contemplate our progress, taking into account both successes and failures. But 2014 is even more significant for Pennsylvania Heritage and its loyal readers. With this edition we mark the magazine’s 40th anniversary. That’s 157 editions filled with, as we like to say, “everything Pennsylvania.”...
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From Wilkes-Barre to the Wild West: George Catlin, Indian Painter

Posted by on Dec 2, 2013 in | Comments Off on From Wilkes-Barre to the Wild West: George Catlin, Indian Painter His early exposure to American Indians indelibly impressed northeastern Pennsylvania native George Catlin (1796–1872). His mother Mary “Polly” Sutton Catlin (1770–1844), married in 1789 to Putnam Catlin (1764–1842), formed his earliest impressions of Native Americans. With her mother Sarah Smith Sutton (1747–1834) she was captured and held captive at the age of seven by Iroquois. The day was...
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