Media Watch (Print and TV)

I’ve been keeping a list of items the last couple of weeks and now those items have coalesced into a post, as they will do. The first two on the agenda are publications projects that have received awards from national organizations.

The Civil War in Pennsylvania: A Photographic History, which features many images not previously published, has received an Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History’s (AASLH) 2013 Leadership in History program. The book, by Michael G. Kraus, David M. Neville, and Kenneth C. Turner, was published by the Senator John Heinz History Center as part of Pennsylvania Civil War 150 (whose other partner organizations include PHMC, the Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania). It was one of only two entries from Pennsylvania to receive AASLH awards this year. As luck would have it you can purchase it at shopPAheritage.com.

Entered alongside other Scholarly Journals from organizations with budgets less than $750,000, Drake Well Museum’s Oilfield Journal has received an honorable mention from the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) Publications Design Competition for 2013. Drake Well was one of only two Pennsylvania awardees in that budget range and (based on a quick scan of the list) one of only a handful of history museums/historic sites among all prize winners (and I'm not the only person who noticed this). This is not Oilfield Journal’s first recognition from AAM—in fact, it’s a three-peat (previous wins were in 2008 and 2010). Hearty congratulations to everyone involved with this excellent publication.

From print, we move on to several very different television projects that have ventured along the Trails of History in recent weeks…

BBC Film Crew at Washington Crossing from PhillyBurbs.com

During the last week of June, a crew from the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) was on site at Washington Crossing Historic Park filming for a two-part documentary by British broadcaster and writer Melvyn Bragg. The documentary, Melvyn Bragg’s Radical Lives, will explore the revolutionary thinking of Thomas Paine and John Ball. You can read more about the Washington Crossing filming, which was focused on Mr. Paine, here. No airdate for BBC2 has been announced, and it is unclear whether it will make its way to BBC America, but we’ll keep you posted.

MTV personality Lenay Dunn (she hosts 10 on Top, a celebrity/pop culture countdown--and yes, I had to Google it) recently visited Pennsbury Manor to film a segment called “Summer Jobs” where volunteer coordinator Hannah Howard outfitted her in period clothing and taught her various 17th-century chores, and curator Todd Galle demonstrated beer brewing. If you had told me four years ago, when Trailheads started, that I would EVER write a sentence that combined “MTV” and “Pennsbury,” I would have said you were seriously wacko. But here we are. We’ll try to share info on when it airs so you can catch it (or DVR it or look for it online—whatevs).

Fourth of July Visitors at Erie Maritime Museum (photo by John Baker)

“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.” Heard it? When meteorologist Ray Petelin of Pittsburgh’s WTAE-4 explored the weather science and history behind this well-known saying, he featured the Erie Maritime Museum and Flagship Niagara. It’s really a fun piece and includes Capt. Wes Heerssen talking about modern shipboard weather forecasting and his take on the old saying (spoiler alert: it’s true). Watch it here.