Ask A Curator Day

Posted by on May 8, 2015 in | Comments Off on Ask A Curator Day Sarah Buffington was quick with her response. The longtime curator at Old Economy Village in Ambridge, Beaver County, had expected the question and she was ready. “Probably a static electricity machine,” she said. “The communal Harmony Society had a science museum, which we’ve recreated. They tried to make electricity in the 1820s and ’30s. It didn’t work...
read more

Lenape Country by Jean R. Soderlund

Posted by on May 8, 2015 in | Comments Off on Lenape Country by Jean R. Soderlund Lenape Country Delaware Valley Society before William Penn by Jean R. Soderlund University of Pennsylvania Press, 272 pp., $39.95 In Lenape Country, Jean R. Soderlund, professor of history at Lehigh University and editor of William Penn and the Founding of Pennsylvania (University of Pennsylvania, 1983), masterfully recounts the story of the strong, proud and, at times, fierce people who once...
read more

Gulielma Penn’s Dressing Box

Posted by on May 8, 2015 in | Comments Off on Gulielma Penn’s Dressing Box   Gulielma Maria Springett Penn never lived in Pennsylvania. When her husband William Penn, founder and proprietor of the colony, made his first trip from England to America in 1682, she was too ill to make the journey with him. She had been deceased for five years before Penn’s second trip in 1699. Although Gulielma was unable to ever experience the splendor of the Penn country estate on...
read more

Art of the State 2014 / Pennsbury Manor Naturalization Ceremony

Posted by on May 8, 2015 in | Comments Off on Art of the State 2014 / Pennsbury Manor Naturalization Ceremony Art of the State 2014 Before Philadelphia artist Michael Pavol could start painting his award-winning Josie, the work needed a subject – and a small, plastic skull. Pavol’s inspiration came in the form of a young girl who had little interest in the artist, his camera or his vision for the canvas. Pavol struggled to occupy the girl’s attention long enough to allow his camera to capture the...
read more

Pennsbury Manor Welcoming Visitors for 75 Years

Posted by on May 8, 2015 in | Comments Off on Pennsbury Manor Welcoming Visitors for 75 Years The year 2014 marks the 75th anniversary of the opening of Pennsbury Manor, the reconstructed estate of Pennsylvania’s founder William Penn (1644-1718), located along the Delaware River near Morrisville in Bucks County. On March 9, 2014, in commemoration of the anniversary, the original 1681 charter from King Charles II of England granting the land that became Pennsylvania to Penn was...
read more

Executive Director’s Letter

Posted by on May 8, 2015 in | Comments Off on Executive Director’s Letter On Wednesday, March 19, Governor Tom Corbett and First Lady Susan M. Corbett unveiled a portrait of Hannah Callowhill Penn (1671–1726) to hang in the Governor’s Office in the State Capitol with the Commonwealth’s early leaders and governors. This corrects an omission dating to the original furnishing of the Capitol in 1906. It also reflects the increasing scholarship about the proprietor’s...
read more

Executive Director’s Letter

Posted by on May 8, 2015 in | Comments Off on Executive Director’s Letter In January I enjoyed my first opportunity to spend several hours modestly researching at the Pennsylvania State Archives. I donned white cotton gloves and searched through many boxes of postcards looking for images that would reveal to our visitors the Commonwealth’s rich diversity with minimal need for words or labels. This collection, Manuscript Group 213, spanning from the 19th century to the...
read more

News

Posted by on Dec 2, 2013 in | Comments Off on News Ancestry.com Pennsylvania In an innovative partnership with Ancestry.com the Pennsylvania State Archives is making family history records available free of charge to Commonwealth residents. Ancestry.com began digitizing selected collections held by the State Archives that are of interest to genealogists four years ago. To date millions of pages have been digitized at no cost to the Pennsylvania...
read more

Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter

Posted by on Dec 2, 2013 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter Topics in the Winter 2014 Newsletter: Charter Day 2014 Trails of History Winter Hours and Contact Information Exhibits Collections Advancement Project New Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Members New State Museum Affiliate Members State Museum Planetarium   pennsylvania-heritage-foundation-newsletter-winter-2014...
read more

Historian of Pennsylvania Exceptionalism: Samuel W. Pennypacker

Posted by on Dec 2, 2013 in | Comments Off on Historian of Pennsylvania Exceptionalism: Samuel W. Pennypacker Reflecting on “the play of forces” that propelled him to Pennsylvania’s governor’s office in 1903, Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker (1843–1916) confidently declared, “there is no such thing as an accident” (a notion popularized by Sigmund Freud, the founding father of psychoanalysis). This was not to say chance plays no part in history because he pronounced with equal certitude: “To every man certain...
read more