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I went to my first Renaissance Faire with my wife-to-be in San Rafael, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, sometime in the late 1980s. So much of those days are forgotten now, but I remember the jugglers in the forest, the games of strength, and the pleasure of being much younger
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The Chesapeake Bay watershed’s six states and the District of Columbia are on a “pollution diet” that sets standards for how much they must reduce phosphorous, nitrogen and sediment pollution.
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Before the lawyer walked into her Bellefonte cafe two years ago, Wendy Fultz had never heard of baked oatmeal.
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SPRING TOWNSHIP — With a checklist covering manure management, soil loss and agricultural erosion in hand, Daina Beckstrand made her way to Guided Path Farm on what was one of 100 similar stops to be made this year.
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Twenty-five years after a reactor at Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded and melted down, its surroundings are well-explored territory, including the abandoned workers' town of Pripyat, two kilometers (about a mile) from the plant. The guides who take visitors through the area know exactly where to go and, more important, what to avoid.
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The center of Tropical Storm Lee lurched across Louisiana's Gulf Coast on Sunday, dumping torrential rains that threatened low-lying communities in a foreshadowing of what cities further inland could face in coming days.
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President Barack Obama's own job may be on the line as he presents his plan for job creation this week, with the nation's unemployment rate mired at 9.1 percent and his popularity at a record low.
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The National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Katia is trekking across open ocean with little change in strength but it is forecast to regain hurricane strength during the day.
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UNIVERSITY PARK — Okay, Joe and Jay. You need some help.
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WILLIAMSPORT — The State College Spikes aren’t playing like a team ready to end a last-place season.
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Much like a modern version of the Pied Piper, Robyn Graboski and her husband, Randy Romesberg, slowly navigated their ATV up the trail leading from their forested home, followed by eight spotted fawns.
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UNIVERSITY PARK — It is a rare Saturday when Penn State’s starting middle linebacker does not register a tackle.
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• Through Aug. 30: The Boalsburg Heritage Museum presents “Pennsylvania Civil War 150: The Boalsburg Commemoration.” According to the museum’s website, the exhibit features letters written between 1839 and 1893 by Boalsburg resident Daniel Keller, who served with the Pa. 148th Volunteer Regiment, to his family members; a ceremonial sword that belonged Dr. Calvin Fisher, an assistant surgeon for the 148th; and an extensive collection of U.S. flags from different time periods that was lended to the museum by Boalsburg resident Jim Sorensen. Visit www.boalsburgheritage
museum.org or call 466-3035. -
Over the next four years, Pennsylvania, along with many other states, will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Organizations are scheduling re-enactments, exhibits, lectures and other events. In addition, scholars and history buffs are re-examining the causes, issues and repercussions of the bloodiest conflict in American history.
Penn State University Libraries will participate in the commemoration by hosting two exhibits that examine various facets of the Civil War, including slavery and abolitionism, the common soldier’s battlefield experience and construction of cultural memory of the conflict. The exhibits were designed with the purpose of correcting common misperceptions of the war, as well as illustrating how the war affected Centre County and Penn State.
“You’ve got this synergy coalescing around the 150th anniversary,” said Jim Quigel, head of Historical Collections and Labor Archives at Paterno Library.
“Home Front to Battlefront: Celebrating the Civil War Legacy” will be on display through Oct. 7 in the Eberly Special Collections Library, 104 Paterno Library. The exhibit draws upon an array of primary source materials including family letters, diaries, photographic images, historical lithographs, broadsides and official government records. Among the themes explored are slavery and abolitionism, sectionalism, and health and medical conditions during the war.
“There’s more than just the military aspect (of the war),” Quigel said. “There’s the social aspect.”
The exhibit is curated by Quigle. Other HCLA staff members who contributed interpretative cases to the exhibit include Barry Kernfeld, Gwen Johns, Doris Malkmus, Jenna Sabre, Meredith Weber and student intern Desa Amos.
“Civil War from the Stacks,” which will be on display through Sept. 24 in the Diversity Studies Room, 203 Pattee Library, presents recent scholarship that gives a richer, more nuanced view of the war. The exhibit, composed of books from the University Libraries’ collection and images from the Library of Congress Collection of Civil War photographs, explores topics such as religion and slavery, the impact of Hollywood movies and television on the public’s perception of the war, and the role of black politicians during the Reconstruction era.
“Scholars are taking another look at the Civil War to clear up any misconceptions,” said Angela Breeden, exhibit coordinator for the University Libraries.
For the “Home Front to Battlefront” exhibit, Quigel and his assistants created several display cases of original and digitized artifacts that illustrate various aspects of the Civil War. The stark reality of slavery is highlighted by a set of shackles that borrowed from the Charles L. Blockson Collection at Paterno Library. Contrary to what people may assume, Quigel said, the shackles were used in the mid-18th century in Bristol, R.I. While northern states had mostly abolished slavery by that time, he added, northern merchants and shippers frequently transported slaves across states. Visitors of the exhibit can also view an original copy of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” an anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe that was published in 1852.
Local residents may not be aware of just how close to home the Civil War hit. “Home Front to Battlefront” features a number of documents, photos and items that illustrate the impact of the war on the Penn State community. When the war started in 1861, Quigel said, the university, then known as the Farmers High School of Pennsylvania, had just graduated its first class. Visitors to the exhibit can read a letter written by the father of a student to Evan Pugh, the first president of Penn State. In the letter, the father accuses Pugh of encouraging his son to abandon his studies and join the war effort. Also displayed is a revolver that belonged to George Atherton, who served in the Connecticut militia in the Civil War before he became president of Penn State in 1882.
“Civil War in the Stacks” complements the Special Collections exhibit by giving people the opportunity to delve deeper into the war’s themes. Breeden selected about 50 books that examine the Civil War from various angles and sought out materials written by Penn State faculty members. “Making and Remaking Pennsylvania’s Civil War,” which explores the impact of the war on Pennsylvania, was edited by Penn State history professors William A. Pencak and William A. Blair. The book won the 2002 Philip S. Klein Book Prize for best book that illuminates the history of Pennsylvania from the Pennsylvania Historical Association.
Other books that present unique views of the war, Breeden said, include “The Civil War As a Theological Crisis” by Mark A. Noll, which examines the role of religion in the war; and “Women at the Front: Hospital Workers in Civil War America” by Jane E. Schultz.
“The role of women in the Civil War is an important topic and this book addresses it,” Breeden said.
To bring the exhibit to life, Breeden said she felt it was important to include images that would interest visitors. She downloaded images from the Library of Congress Civil War Photography Collection that complemented the subject matter of the books, then created posters with the images and summaries of the books.
Breeden emphasized that the “Civil War in the Stacks” exhibit is open to the entire community, not just Penn State. The books highlighted in the exhibit, she added, “would be equally interesting to the scholar, student or layperson.”
“We’re living in a time of war,” she said. “I think that the more you understand about history, the more perspective you have.” -
ACOUSTIC BREW SERIES, Center for Well-Being, Lemont, www.acousticbrew.org
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One of the highlights of the opening day of the Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair is the fair queen coronation, which will take place at 7 p.m. at the Southside Stage.
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While the Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair is known to showcase rising stars, it’s played host to some of the big names from country music’s past.
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