Blog

Take a tour of the beautifully restored Wood-Morrison Home.

Clara Petrat’s diary is shown here exactly as she wrote it in her 1900 brown bag diary.

Visit John Brown Tannery with Museum Educator, Jeff Sherry.

There is no doubt the closing of the world’s markets during 2020 will have a devastating impact on the world’s economies. Looking back to the Great Depression and reading the analyses of what went wrong does not provide a clear, unequivocal answer to what caused the economic crisis that began with the fall of the stock market on Oct. 24, 1929.

Erie County has had its share of famous personalities over the years.  Bob Hope had his first marriage here and President Taft visited his friend Charles Strong here (in what is Gannon’s Old Main), just to name a few.  So, I do believe our fair corner of the Commonwealth has provided happiness for many a visitor.  One of the earliest visitors here was General Lafayette, American Revolutionary War hero.   In this blog, I want to write about not only his visit as explained in the 1888 book, but a little of what the curatorial department at the Historical Society does, and some of the objects we have in the collection related to this exciting time.

Take a tour of the 3rd Floor of the Watson-Curtze Mansion with Museum Educator, Jeff Sherry. 

Four American Presidents have been assassinated over the course of our nation’s history. The assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy are well known to most Americans and the images of those tragic events are familiar to all. The assassination of William McKinley would propel Theodore Roosevelt to the White House, leading to a period of great expansion as the United States became a world power. But what of James A. Garfield? The 20^th President has become largely just a name to most. A little known in a long line of forgettable names to occupy the office during the last half of the 19^th Century. Canice Millard’s book: Destiny of the Republic brings a remarkable story to life.

Excerpts from Clara Petrat's diary for July 28-August 15.

On Sunday, December 17, 1944, Sgt. Kenneth Ahrens of Erie, Pennsylvania, would experience an event that would mark one of the worst moments of the Battle of the Bulge. Ahrens would survive and lead a productive life in Kentucky, but December 17, 1944, would no doubt linger in his memory.

As we remain in quarantine due to the outbreak of Covid 19, medical response and care is on everyone’s mind.  Many historical references have been made to what we are currently living through such as the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1918.