Letters

Off The Charts

A cousin regularly shares her copy of Pennsylvania Heritage with me. She gave me her Winter 2009 issue over the holidays, and I write to tell you that your publication is off the charts. I enjoyed the magazine so much that I’d be hard pressed to pick a favorite article. The interview [“William C. Kashatus: Bringing History to Life” by Ted R. Walke] was outstanding – this should be required reading for every student and teacher in Pennsylvania. I read that Mr. Kashatus is a prolific writer and I’m interested to learn if he is working on another book.

Bill Jackson
Haverford, Pa.

William C. Kashatus, who has been enlightening and entertaining readers of Pennsylvania Heritage since 1987, is completing work on Dapper Dan Flood: The Controversial Life of a Congressional Power Broker, which will be released by the Penn State Press in early 2010.

Outstanding Service

It was with great pleasure that I read of the thirty-fifth anniversary of the founding of Pennsylvania Heritage, and I would have been remiss if I did not write to congratulate you on this milestone [Winter 2009]. All of Pennsylvania’s museum community values the tremendous help you provide to us through both direct coverage of events and publications and indirectly through the use of images from our collections. This is the kind of outstanding service to the greater community that Dr. S. K. Stevens [PHMC executive director from 1956 to 1972] would have been very, very proud of in the magazine.

I also thank you for keeping the exceptionally high standards of editorial work that you do with the magazine. Truly, the magazine is seamless in terms of its quality. Such an achievement is hard to reach and even more difficult to maintain over the life of a publication.

Congratulations again. I look forward to writing you again in thirty-five years on the seventieth anniversary of Pennsylvania Heritage.

Peter S. Seibert
Harrisburg, Pa.

Peter S. Seibert is president and CEO of the Heritage Center of Lancaster County, which administers the Heritage Center Museum and the Lancaster Quilt and Textile Museum, both of which are located in downtown Lancaster, adjacent to the historic Lancaster Central Market.

Congratulations on the thirty-fifth anniversary edition of Pennsylvania Heritage. The editing and style are flawless, elegant, and brilliant!

David J. Morrison
Harrisburg, Pa.

David J. Morrison is assistant to the president of Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC), founded in 1964.

I received the latest issue of Pennsylvania Heritage, which was a lovely early Christmas gift. I am amazed how sharp and clear the images are. Clearly much effort is spent on image selection, reproduction, and the overall design of the publication. I’ll make sure the bridge world knows about this edition [“Hands-On History: Driving a Call to Action for Pennsylvania’s Historic Bridges” by Susan M. Zacher]. Job well done!

Eric Delony
Santa Fe, N.M.

Eric DeLony served as chief of the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) from 1986 until his retirement in 2003. Nationally recognized as a historic bridge expert, he revised his cover story for the Winter 2000 edition of Pennsylvania Heritage, “Bridging the Past for the Future.”

Wish You Were Here!

Recently one of your readers, Jack Demmler – a former classmate of mine at Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh – forwarded to me a copy of “Wish You Were Here!” that appeared in the Summer 2008 edition of Pennsylvania Heritage.

The recipient, in 1908, of the postcard featuring a photograph of the Mountain House at Cresson, Cambria County, was my grandfather, Horace G. Womsley. He died when I was ten years old, in about 1943. He was, I believe, in the casualty insurance business and lived on Highland Avenue in Pittsburgh. I’m sorry, but I can shed no light on who EBG, the sender of the postcard, might have been.

Robert B. Womsley
Highlands, N.C.