February Roundup

If you're a planner, be sure to check out the list of Trails of History sites that will be open on Charter Day, March 11. The full March program page should be up next week (which is a good thing, since March starts next week.)

A week with a Monday holiday plus two days of training and meetings equals...say it with me...a Trailheads roundup!

Garden at Eckley Miners' Village (photo by AKF)

The folks at Eckley Miners' Village have installed a new lobby exhibit to supplement their long-term orientation exhibit. You can view the new exhibit, which focuses on daily life in the Village, in the Visitor Center during regular operating hours.


The Pennsylvania Lumber Museum posted about the role of African Americans in the Civilian Conservation Corps (1933-1942). Like the U.S. Army on which its structure was modeled, the CCC was racially segregated. It is estimated that roughly 10 percent of the 194,500 men who served at CCC camps in Pennsylvania were African American. You can read a much more detailed account in the post below (or find it on the museum's Facebook page).

Friends of Conrad Weiser Homestead President David Sonnen (via Facebook)

Friends of Conrad Weiser Homestead board members David Sonnen (above) and Lynn Otto (who I'm guessing took this photo) recently sat down with Jo Mercer of Y102 IHeart Radio in Reading. They were guests on Mercer's "Roundtable" program to talk about the upcoming season at the Homestead, which will reopen on Charter Day.


Okay, this isn't Trails of History as such, but he's still our only Pennsylvania President. The Library of Congress has announced that the papers of Lancaster's own James Buchanan (@POTUS15) and Harriet Lane Johnston, who served as her uncle's official White House hostess, have been digitized and are now available online.

This weekend...

Interior exhibit at Drake Well Museum and Park (via Facebook)

Tomorrow, Feb. 24, Drake Well Museum and Park offers this month's "Something More Saturday," which provides family-friendly activities in addition to the regular exhibits (see above). The theme is Games, so you know it will be fun. All activities are included in regular admission. The program runs 10 am-3 pm.

Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum has a half dozen workshops and programs on their "Winter Learning for Adults" schedule for tomorrow (Feb. 24). Space is still available, as far as I can tell from the website. You'll find the details and online registration on the website. Hurry!

February 28 is the last day to view the Anthracite Heritage Museum's African American History Month exhibit, "Granville C. Smith: African-American Business and Community Leader." The exhibit documents Mr. Smith's career in Scranton over a 34-year period as owner-operator of the G.W. Brown Company and influential member of numerous community organizations. The temporary exhibit is located in the museum lobby and is free of charge; regular admission rates apply to view the rest of the exhibits.

On this Day in History - February 23

• 1868 - W.E.B. DuBois is born. DuBois wrote his first major book, The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study, in 1899 while teaching at the University of Pennsylvania; it was the first sociological case study of an African American community.
• 1910 - The first radio contest takes place in Philadelphia. This national contest involved wireless telegraphers in "tests of speed and accuracy in receiving and transmitting American Morse telegraphic code signals via radio."
• 1954 - Children at Arsenal Elementary School, Pittsburgh, are the first to receive Dr. Jonas Salk's polio vaccine.