Editor’s Letter

“A century hence, they will not be here as I see them,” John James Audubon wrote in his journal on December 12, 1826, during a trip to England to raise money for the publication of The Birds of America. Audubon was feeling disconcerted about encroaching human activity in the American wilderness that would destroy nature’s “many brilliant charms,” among which he laments, “The Eagle scarce ever alight.” Years later, it seemed that Audubon’s prediction might prove accurate in that case, as bald eagles teetered on the brink of extinction by the mid-20th century because of habitat destruction, the use of lead shot in waterfowl hunting, and pesticides in the environment. By 1983 in Pennsylvania, for instance, there were only three bald eagle nesting pairs found in existence. In this edition’s cover story, wildlife enthusiast Joseph A. Luxbacher examines the bald eagle’s biological characteristics, life cycle, and nesting and reproduction habits and charts the bird’s course from endangerment to recovery in the Keystone State, with a look at the commonwealth’s current bald eagle management practices.

Much has been written in the pages of this magazine and elsewhere about the religious community at Ephrata Cloister; however, most studies tend to focus on the austere lifestyles of the celibate Brothers and Sisters of the sect, their daily work routines, and their creative output in the form of music, printed books, medieval-style architecture, and illuminated fraktur manuscripts. Less has been published about the Householder members of the Ephrata community, who lived in their own homes outside the cloister property and could marry and have children. At least seven of these Householders were clockmakers, creating the intricate movements that kept time for the structured daily schedules of the Ephrata society. In the article “Clocks of the Cloister,” museum docent and Ephrata Cloister Associates board member George Douglas Gehr tells the stories of these artisans and describes the clocks they made, in addition to exploring the workshop at the cloister, where the Brothers constructed simple tall wooden cases to house the clocks.

In the previous edition, we featured biographical pieces on two Pennsylvanians who had a hand in shaping the new nation in its early years — Black civil rights leader and entrepreneur James Forten and Swiss emigrant and politician Albert Gallatin. In this issue, regular contributor Jennifer Eaton examines another extraordinary founder. British emigrant Esther DeBerdt Reed had been in Philadelphia for scarcely five years before the start of the Revolutionary War and lived to only 33 years of age; yet, as Eaton points out, her significance should not be underestimated. In “Hastening the Deliverance of Her Country,” Eaton illustrates how the daughter of a wealthy British merchant, who reluctantly came to America to be with her husband, soon became devoted to the cause of liberty in her new homeland, rallying women into an association that not only supported Washington’s troops in the war but also became a prototype for women’s activist organizations to come.

As we celebrate Pennsylvania Heritage’s 50th year of publication, we mark in this issue some other significant anniversary events throughout the state — in Trailheads, Joseph Priestley House’s 250th commemoration of the discovery of oxygen; in Hands-On History, Pearl S. Buck International’s celebration of 60 years of carrying on their namesake’s legacy through intercultural education and humanitarian aid; and in PHMC Highlights, a State Museum exhibit marking 50 years of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater in the National Register of Historic Places.

Kyle R. Weaver
Editor