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.

History and Change

The January program page has info on upcoming events.

My Twitter feed yesterday included a tweet from PA Museums (statewide association of museums and historical organizations) retweeting PA House Majority Leader Rep. Dave Reed (R-Indiana County), who shared historian Michael Beschloss's tweet of the oldest known photograph of a presidential inauguration. The photo, in the collection of the Library of Congress, shows the 1857 inauguration of PA's only president, James Buchanan. Rep. Reed noted that Buchanan's home, Wheatland, is open as a museum in Lancaster.

This is called oldest known photograph of inauguration—James Buchanan 1857: #LOC pic.twitter.com/Nd8TdTymnH

— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) January 18, 2017

The New York Times recently featured an article, "From Mystery to History: Pennsylvania's Bygone Lumber Industry," exploring the photography of William T. Clarke, who documented life and work in the lumber region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Clarke's work is the subject a new book, Wood Hicks and Bark Peelers, by Ronald E. Ostman and Harry Littell, published by Penn State Press in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Lumber Heritage Region and PHMC. Linda Ries, formerly on staff at the PA State Archives, worked with the authors to identify Clarke's work and research his biography; Ries also wrote the intro to the book. The State Archives holds a significant collection of Clarke's glass plate negatives and prints, and we used quite a few Clarke images in the "Challenges and Choices" exhibit at the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum. The Times article includes a slideshow of images from the State Archives and other repositories. Littell and Ostman's book is available from Penn State Press, online retailers, or at the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum.

One of my favorites - "Feeding the hogs, logging camp near Nine Mile Run" (Potter County), W.T. Clarke (RG-6, PA State Archives)

We've included info in previous posts about a new play, Gunpowder Joe: Joseph Priestley, Pennsylvania, and the American Experiment, by Anthony Clarvoe. The play makes its debut this weekend at Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble. Following Sunday's (Jan. 22) matinee at 3 pm, there will be an informal symposium. Director Laurie McCants provided a description:

"This isn’t a formal presentation; rather it’s a “chat” with the creative team (actors, designers, playwright, director, composer, choreographer, Priestley electricity machine builder, Bucknell engineering student Eli Raeker-Jordan), our consultants (Dee Casteel and Pat Martino, Chemistry Department, Joe Tranquillo, Engineering Department, Bucknell) and others (Priestley scholar Mary Ellen Bowden from the Chemical Heritage Foundation, Tom Bresenhan of the Friends of the Joseph Priestley House, and there’s a very slim chance that Steven Johnson, author of THE INVENTION OF AIR, might show up!)."

I'll note that Dee Casteel is the current president of the Friends of Joseph Priestley House and Pat Martino is a board member. The play runs through Feb. 5; tickets are available on the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble website.

PHMC Keystone Summer Interns, 2015 (photo Amy Jukus)

PHMC's Keystone Summer Internship Program is currently accepting applications for the 2017 program, which runs from May 15 to August 4. Internships provide an opportunity to network with public history professionals, explore career options, and complete a project that advances their interests as well as PHMC's. (Not to mention a chance to write for Trailheads - that's the real prize.) Keystone internships are unpaid; students must be enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program and are strongly encouraged to pursue academic credit through their home institution. Applicants are asked to specify their areas of interest and/or preferred location (in Harrisburg or at one of the Trails of History sites). Initial review will match applicants with potential mentors, who will contact students for interviews. The application deadline is Feb. 10. More information, including the application form and list of other materials required (essay, transcript, and letter of recommendation), is available on PHMC's website.