Trailheads: Arts Edition

A Facebook post by Old Economy Village last week about an art exhibition in New York intrigued me, and I did a little online research. OEV posted links to articles in The New York Times and Forbes about the work of woodcarver Francis Cape. Cape researched and recreated benches from about a dozen “utopian” groups, including Ephrata Cloister and the Harmony Society (OEV was their third and final home). The exhibit, “Utopian Benches,” has been touring the country and is currently on view at the Museum of Art and Design and the Murray Guy gallery in NYC; images of the exhibit as installed at Arcadia University in 2011 are here. There is also a new book by Cape, We Sit Together: Utopian Benches from the Shakers to the Separatists of Zoar, available from Princeton Architectural Press. I think it would be wonderful if it sparks folks to see and learn more about the communities these benches came from.

As part of the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Bushy Run, a new monument will be dedicated on Saturday, Aug. 3, at 11:00 am at Bushy Run Battlefield. The monument honors Native Americans, Highlanders, and frontier rangers who were involved in the 1763 battle, which was part of Pontiac’s Rebellion. The monument was designed by painters Robert Griffing and John Buxton and bronze sculptor Wayne Hyde. The Bushy Run Battlefield Heritage Society, which operates the site in partnership with PHMC, raised the funds for the monument. (We should be able to share a photo after the official unveiling.) For a full schedule of events for Aug. 2-4, click here.

If you visit Eckley Miners’ Village tomorrow or Sunday for the 1940s Weekend (go here for details), you can also check out “Coal Country,” an exhibit of paintings and sculptures by Frank “WYSO” Wysochansky. The exhibit will be on view in the Visitor Center until August 31. (BTW, stretching the theme a bit here--what's art without coffee?--Eckley recently unveiled the package photo selected for their new site-branded coffee.)

Women of Eckley who worked as extras on The Molly Maguires film
(photo submitted for the coffee packaging by Bob Zoshak--it's worth
a visit to Facebook to see the comments from folks who knew them)

Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum’s Civil War Days (tomorrow and Sunday) features a wealth of activities, living history presentations, and speakers (go here for the complete schedule). Saturday’s line-up of speakers includes Stephen Recker, talking about rare images of Antietam, and sculptor Gary Casteel, who created the Longstreet memorial at Gettysburg Battlefield. (Also, don’t miss the new exhibit, “I Thee Wed: Rural Pennsylvania Wedding Attire, 1830-1930.")

Have a wonderful and artful weekend (art being very subjective and so it's really whatever it means to you and I wouldn't dream of dictating that to you but just hope that you have a good weekend)!

Geez, It's Hot!

Keystone College Iron Pour at Scranton Iron Furnaces via Facebook

Speaking of hot, Scranton’s Keystone College has been awarded a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts Our Town program. The grant will support their efforts to teach local students the art and science of working with molten iron—they are a key partner in the Arts on Fire Festival at the Scranton Iron Furnaces. You can read more about the grant award here. “Through Our Town, the NEA supports creative placemaking projects that help transform communities into lively, beautiful, and sustainable places with the arts at their core. Projects encourage creative activity, develop community identity and a sense of place, and help revitalize local economies. All Our Town grant awards are made to partnerships that consist of at least one nonprofit organization and a local government entity.” Congratulations to Keystone College and their partners on this grant.

Ephrata Cloister is offering visitors behind-the-scenes tours of the collections storage building with curator Kerry Mohn on Fridays this summer, 1-3 pm. The tours are included in regular admission and are part of an effort to explore new ways for visitors to experience the site. (On a somewhat related note, archaeological studies going on at Ephrata this summer have found some interesting stuff—you can read a brief report on the “Chronicle Ephrata” blog here.)

There was some nice press recently for Pennsbury Manor’s Colonial Camp program (click here). Last I heard there were still a few spaces available for Old Economy Village’s history camp, being held the next two weeks (go here for details).

L to R: Oliver Hazard Perry, C. Wolf, Chief Mate Billy Sabatini (photo by Megan Sabatini)

Oliver Hazard Perry (aka Joe Lengieza, Flagship Niagara League’s Marine Operations Manager) threw out the first pitch at the Erie Seawolves game on July 12. The players wore special “Don’t Give Up the Ship” jerseys that were to be auctioned to benefit Flagship Niagara (read more about that here or like Flagship Niagara’s Facebook page to see photos). This is the 2013 season’s third (that I know of) intersection between minor league baseball and Trails of History sites—on July 12 the Wilmington Blue Rocks game benefitted Brandywine Battlefield, and Eckley Miners’ Village was featured at a Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders game on June 11 (see photos here).

Events this weekend—
Ephrata Cloister: Family Picnic Fun Raiser, Sun. July 21, 4-8 pm; performance by Steven Courtney and the Suitcase Band, 6:30. $5 per family.
Graeme Park: Celtic Heritage Festival, Sat., July 20, 10 am-7 pm, Sun., July 21, Noon-6 pm. Age 13-17, $5 per day; Age 18+, $10 per day.
Pennsbury Manor: Preserving the Harvest (open hearth cooking demonstration), Sun., July 21, 1-4 pm. Included in regular admission.
Pennsylvania Military Museum: VIETNAM Revisited, Sat.-Sun., July 20-21, 10 am-4 pm. (For images and info from previous years, click here.)

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.