Lots Going On

Congratulations to Walter Rybka, senior captain of the US Brig Niagara and director of the Erie Maritime Museum, on receiving the National Maritime Historical Society’s Rodney Houghton Award for Best Feature Article in Sea History magazine. Capt. Rybka’s article, “The War of 1812 on the Inland Seas,” appeared in the Spring 2012 issue of the magazine, which is dedicated to “The Art, Literature, Adventure, Lore & Learning of the Sea.” Thanks to editor Deirdre E. O’Regan and PHMC web administrator Heather Myers, if you click here, you can read the article as it appeared in the magazine. Rybka has also written a book, The Lake Erie Campaign of 1813: I Shall Fight Them This Day, published by the History Press (and available in the museum store at the Erie Maritime Museum).

On a related note, ERIEBANK is hosting a photo contest for its 2013 wall calendar, which will focus on Niagara. Go here for details on how to enter.

Excavations in the Priestley laboratory, from JPH website

This Sunday afternoon (July 22) at 3 p.m., the Friends of Joseph Priestley House will host Steve Warfel, senior curator of archaeology at the State Museum of Pennsylvania from 1980 to 2007, for a talk about archaeological findings at Priestley House. Warfel has directed excavations at a number of PHMC sites in addition to Priestley, including Ephrata Cloister and Eckley Miners’ Village. The program is free, although if you would like to take one of the regularly scheduled tours at 1 or 2 p.m. (the 3 p.m. tour is cancelled on the 22nd), the site admission fee is $6 for ages 12 to 64, $5.50 for those 65 and older or with AAA discount, $4 for youth age 3 to 11.

Other activities going on this weekend include: Lock, Stock, and Barrel, July 21-22 at Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum; Celtic Heritage Festival, July 21 at Graeme Park; Garden Highlights, July 22 at Pennsbury Manor; Vietnam Revisited, July 21-22 at Pennsylvania Military Museum; and Living History Day, July 21 at Old Economy Village.

More to report next week, but I’ll leave you with this video showing great times at Pennsylvania Lumber Museum’s 2012 Bark Peelers’ Convention.