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.
Monday Apr 13th, 2020
It’s almost open! The new exhibit building will be open in July 2020!
Completion of the building has been a multi-year process. After securing an exhibit of national significance for Erie in 2017, a building was planned in 2018 and built in 2019. Now the first floor of the building and the major exhibit will be unveiled in 2020.
The first floor of the new exhibit building will feature two galleries, including the exhibit of national significance and Erie and the American Dream. Both will open in July.
Sunday Apr 12th, 2020
Today’s stunning AND delicious #SundayRecipe comes from the Cast Iron Casseroles magazine, published in 2018 by Hoffman Media and was baked in a well-loved family heirloom.
Saturday Apr 11th, 2020
Every Saturday, we will feature a blog post From the Archives. This Saturday we feature diary excerpts from Clara Petrat, daughter to German immigrants who moved to Erie. In her diary, Clara talks about her mom falling ill and having to miss commencement. Something so many people are experiencing now.
Friday Apr 10th, 2020
Join Hagen History Center Museum Educator, Jeff Sherry, as he discusses the standard field uniform of an Union Corporal.
Wednesday Apr 8th, 2020
The writing style of the 1800s is a bit more “flowery” that we tend to use today. Some of the words used then paint a picture and feel for the community that are still applicable today. On the first page of the 1888 book, words describing Erie are: “Gem City of the Lakes”, Beautifully Located, Its Great Wealth and Prosperity, Fine Natural Advantages, Pure Drinking Water, Efficient Departments of the Municipal Government, Magnitude of its Many Manufacturing Institutions, Many Millions Invested, Thousands of People Daily Employed and Health and Wealth”. Do we still refer to our city by any of those words today? Why not?