Monday Apr 27th, 2020
Join us for the Making History Gala as the Hagen History Center celebrates the opening of the first floor of its new exhibit building on Thursday, July 9, 2020. (Note the date has been changed to July 9.) The gala will unveil this new jewel on West 6th Street and its place in Erie’s rich history.
Saturday Apr 25th, 2020
This diary is presented exactly as Clara Petrat wrote it. April, May, June pages are missing from the diary.
Friday Apr 24th, 2020
This Friday, Jeff Sherry, Museum Educator, discusses an early uniform used in the battle of 1812 for a regular infantry private.
Wednesday Apr 22nd, 2020
Looking across Peach Street from the Selden fountain, one can’t help but notice an elaborate building that most residents of our region will recognize. Now known as the Erie Club, it was the home of Charles Manning Reed (1803-1871), a member of the city’s most prominent family during the nineteenth century. I say “prominent” because the family name is found 42 times in the 1888 book, more than any other. C.M. Reed’s Grandfather, Seth Reed was a Revolutionary War veteran and is noted to be the first settler in Erie County in 1795.
Tuesday Apr 21st, 2020
For the second year in the row, Penn State Behrend marketing students have worked on a project to write marketing plans for the museum to attract visitors under the age of 30. This is a demographic the museum staff knew hasn’t been effectively reached.
Saturday Apr 18th, 2020
Clara Petrat diary was written on brown bag paper. She was a member of a German immigrant family and lived at 313 W. 17 St. She was a student at Erie High School Class of 1904. The diary begins in March. Since you will see the diary exactly as she wrote it, her punctuation and capitalization mistakes improve as she goes to English Class. The first few pages of the diary are fragmented and some of the script is missing.
Friday Apr 17th, 2020
Museum Educator, Jeff Sherry discusses a typical uniform of a Sailor from the War of 1812.
Wednesday Apr 15th, 2020
We all “play favorites”, don’t we? I have favorite collections at the Museum (Griswold cast iron, women’s clothing and hand embroideries). We have favorite colors, sports teams and Presidential candidates (we won’t go there, I promise). Well, I have a favorite monument in Perry Square downtown. Once a working water fountain, this 6 -foot -tall carved piece of granite is located behind the Civil War monument if you are coming from the West. It has seen a little wear over the years. The “cups” on each corner had a brass tube coming from above for water and one is even labeled “ice water”. Years of rough winters have made the inscribed writing a little hard to read but upon closer inspection, you can make out: “Presented to the City of Erie May 30, 1883 by Geo. D. Selden”. I had to research who George Selden was and why he would give a fountain to the city.
Tuesday Apr 14th, 2020
The story of Erie and the 1918-19 Spanish flu pandemic.
Written by Valerie Myers of Erie Times News.
