Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Apr 15, 2020 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter August 18, 2020, will mark the centennial of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote. In issues of Pennsylvania Heritage leading to this significant anniversary, we will be featuring articles on the early 20th-century movement that led to suffrage as it played out in Pennsylvania, as well as the stories of women’s achievements in the Keystone...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Mar 9, 2020 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter Football, fine art, and festivals. Throughout the years, Pennsylvanians have received national acclaim in all three fields. Each has become a vital part of our shared heritage, engaging residents and representing the commonwealth’s rich and diverse culture. In this edition, you’ll find three outstanding features on prominent examples of these activities in the Keystone State. Football has been...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Feb 3, 2020 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter “You can give humanistic value to almost anything by teaching it historically.” So wrote American philosopher William James in an address he delivered in 1907. Even such disciplines as “geology, economics and mechanics,” he continued, are “humanities when taught with reference to the successive achievements of the geniuses to which these sciences owe their being.” By extension, the features in...
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Sol Mednick’s Photography

Posted by on Jan 14, 2020 in | Comments Off on Sol Mednick’s Photography In the mid-1950s, photographer Sol Mednick (1916–70) created this untitled gelatin silver print. Although no documentation has been found that describes the process by which the artist composed this mysterious, abstract image, it is clear that the camera was not the only tool used to achieve the strange effects in its composition. During the darkroom printing process Mednick apparently exposed...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Dec 17, 2019 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter Welcome to the first issue of the 45th volume of Pennsylvania Heritage. Since the publication of the premiere edition of December 1974, more than 750 features on Pennsylvania history, culture and natural history by leading authors in their fields, as well as hundreds of columns and news items, have been printed in our quarterly magazine. In this anniversary edition we continue our tradition of...
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Helen Behal’s Jewish Welfare Board Uniform

Posted by on Dec 11, 2019 in | Comments Off on Helen Behal’s Jewish Welfare Board Uniform Although the Armistice of November 11, 1918, brought an effective end to combat in World War I, many U.S. soldiers remained stationed in Europe well into 1919. In some cases, this was to maintain order while the Allies moved toward a peace treaty, but mostly it was part of a winding down process known as demobilization, which involved preparing soldiers for their imminent return to normal life...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Dec 1, 2019 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter In Pennsylvania Heritage, we often run stories related to current anniversaries. Anniversaries give us the opportunity to focus on moments that have remained significant from our shared past — in our case as a community of Pennsylvanians — to gain a better perspective on what came before us and how the achievements, challenges and even misfortunes of history can instruct us in the present. Three...
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William Curtis Truxal’s Footlocker

Posted by on Nov 12, 2019 in | Comments Off on William Curtis Truxal’s Footlocker William Curtis Truxal (1882–1960) was a 34-year-old attorney residing in Somerset when the Pennsylvania National Guard unit he commanded, Company C of the 10th Infantry Regiment, was mustered into federal service for World War I on July 15, 1917. A graduate of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, he had first enlisted in the guard as a private in February 1914, and by October of that...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Nov 5, 2019 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter Forty some years ago, when I was in elementary school, I took a field trip with my science class to The State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg to see the dioramas of Pennsylvania’s wildlife in Mammal Hall. Walking around the dark, circular gallery, I peered through windows into the fascinating, realistic habitats of 13 mammals, from the common to the locally extinct, and was transported to...
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Charles Lenker’s M1917 Doughboy Helmet

Posted by on Nov 3, 2019 in | Comments Off on Charles Lenker’s M1917 Doughboy Helmet Charles W. Lenker (1896–1973) of Palmyra, Lebanon County, entered the Army from Lebanon on April 2, 1918, and wore this M1917 steel combat helmet during his service in World War I (also see inside front cover). It is preserved today not only as a relic of the war but also as a fine example of early helmet folk art with its painted record of a soldier’s military service. The steel combat helmet...
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