Thomas T. Taber Museum

Today I approached Williamsport like a tourist and visited a few places I wouldn’t normally consider. First I drove out to the Olde Barn Centre in Muncy. This antique store is housed in a huge barn way out in the countryside. It is quite similar to the antique malls in Lewisburg. Unfortunately I did not find their antiques very interesting so I only bought a cheap print of a German village. I don’t know if antiquing is ever going to be one of my hobbies. The artwork I’ve seen is really bad and you can’t even find any decent trinkets. Maybe I should check out some of the high end antique stores instead of these glorified country stores.

The Olde Barn Centre is near the Lycoming Mall so I could not resist a visit to the mall. I went to Borders and bought a book on Pennsylvania Caves and Other Rocky Roadside Wonders by Kevin Joseph Patrick. Pennsylvania has many caves which are popular tourist attractions but I have not been in one since I was a kid. That curious mental block which prevents residents from visiting local tourist attractions has prevented me from even thinking about Pennsylvania’s caves. But I do remember Penn’s Cave which you tour in a motorboat and I vaguely recall Indian Echo Caverns. All I remember is that we visited some Indian cave and got some Indian blankets which we had for a very long time after that. It was probably this place which is in Central PA.

Pennsylvania Caves and Other Rocky Roadside Wonders (9780811726320): Kevin Joseph Patrick: Books ISBN: 0811726320 ISBN-13: 9780811726320

Instead of going home after my trip to the mall as usual, I went downtown and made an unprecedented visit to the Lycoming County Historical Society’s Thomas T. Taber Museum.  Of course, I knew exactly where this museum is located but I have not entered the place in years, not even for a social event. Actually, although I drive through or around downtown fairly often I never really go downtown on any kind of business. I’ve probably been to New York City more often then I’ve been downtown this year.

I did have a reason for finally checking out this museum. I’ve recently become more interested in historical societies after visiting the Lancaster Heritage Center Museum and browsing the Union County Historical Society web site. As part of my effort to explore the state I have ventured into Pennsylvania Dutch country which requires a lot of background information to understand. I have found several reasons to take an interest in the Pennsylvania Dutch:

1. Technically all of Central Pennsylvania is Pennsylvania Dutch country although us northerners are not particularly aware of this.
2. The Pennsylvania Dutch are more accurately known as the Pennsylvania Germans and this includes many religious groups besides the Amish and Mennonites.
3. Pennsylvania German Folk Art is interesting from a design perspective because it uses an unique style of font, Fraktur, and hex symbols. As a web developer I can see the potential in adapting Pennsylvania German Folk Art for local web designs.
4. I am currently studying German to prepare for my trip to Berlin. German is still spoken in Pennsylvania and you can find some material written in German (usually associated with the Pennsylvania Dutch).
5. There is a form of shamanism practiced by the Pennsylvania Germans known as braucherei. I’ve been interested in shamanism for a long time and never knew that there was a local variety. There are even Central PA New Age groups that practice this form of shamanism. There was a workshop in Selinsgrove recently.

The Taber Museum did not have much of anything associated with the Pennsylvania Dutch. The only thing that caught my eye was a fine example of fraktur folk art by Henry Young. I have put a red border around the Henry Young fraktur in the image below.

Recently I bought a very fine example of fraktur on eBay. I guess this does not qualify as folk art because it is only a scrap of writing, although it is a fine piece of calligraphy. I think it might be a Himmelsbrief or “heaven’s letter” but Jesus is addressed in the third person so maybe not.

So if you find anything written in German in a Central PA antique shop there is a good chance that it will be a piece of Pennsylvania German Folk Art. If the dealer thinks it is merely German you may be able to buy something really valuable for far less than it is worth. Actually I doubt that Central PA antique dealers are that misinformed but I have seen Pennsylvania German Folk Art on eBay that is not properly identified by the seller.  Also the fraktur I bought was surprisingly inexpensive so even the genuine article might not be worth much.

The Thomas T. Taber Museum has a very impressive model train collection, the LaRue Shempp Model Train Exhibit. After my visit to the museum I saw the movie Unstoppable which was just released. This film is set in Pennsylvania so everyone is eager to see it. It is an exciting action film about a runaway freight train. Unfortunately the movie uses a lot of fictitious names for Pennsylvania towns and it was partly filmed in Ohio but otherwise it really captured this aspect of the state. We have freight trains near where I work so I see them all the time. Here is a link to the Lycoming Valley Railroad which runs trains in Newberry.

Before I left the museum I bought a hundred dollars (yikes!) worth of books to aid my exploration of Pennsylvania:

This book on railroads should interest anyone who liked the movie but I hope it will also point me in the direction of some other interesting places to visit in Pennsylvania.

Railroads of Pennsylvania: Fragments of the Past in the Keystone Landscape (9780811726221): Lorett Treese: Books ISBN: 0811726223 ISBN-13: 9780811726221

I also bought this book on the Pennsylvania Dutch Country which should clarify the extent of this culture.

The Pennsylvania Dutch Country (PA) (Making of America) (9780738524580): Irwin Richman: Books ISBN: 0738524581 ISBN-13: 9780738524580

And finally I bought their book on my hometown. I’m pretty sure I’ve met one of the authors, Robin Van Auken, several times because she was involved in many local web sites.

Williamsport: Boomtown on the Susquehanna (PA) (Making of America) (9780738524382): Jr., Louis E. Hunsinger, Robin Van Auken: Books ISBN: 0738524387 ISBN-13: 9780738524382

Next week I will be taking a bus trip to the King of Prussia Mall. This will be on Black Friday so it will be a madhouse. I still have plans to explore Philadelphia as extensively as New York City. Ultimately the main purpose of all this travel is to improve my knowledge of the region so I can find work when I need to.