In Sligo, Ireland a bronze family waits forever on the quay—one small reminder of events that sent more than 30,000 people from that port city toward places like Pennsylvania’s coal towns. Read the full story.
Taken in the late 1860s or early 1870s, this rare photograph looks across Pottsville at a city in transition—before its skyline fully took shape. From Coal Street, familiar landmarks reveal how power, industry, and ambition shaped the town we know today. Read the full story.
In 1855, Pottsville raised a monument to Henry Clay - the “Great Compromiser” whose vision for canals, rails, and industry helped unleash the Coal Region’s boom in the 19th century. I trace the statue's history and why Clay’s ideas appear in today’s fights over infrastructure, trade, and partisanship. Read the full story.
Step back to June 21, 1888, when over 200 veterans of the 96th Pennsylvania returned to Gettysburg to unveil their regimental monument. Hear veteran Henry Royer’s stirring keynote about sacrifice, brotherhood, and the war’s true cause - slavery. His speech was a moving tribute to comrades both living and fallen. Read the full story.
Learn more about the Irish Memorial in Philadelphia, dedicated to those who fled famine and hardship in the 1840s. Learn how these immigrants overcame discrimination to shape Pennsylvania’s mining towns and America itself. A tribute to resilience and hope, this monument tells an enduring tale. Read the full story.
In February 2024, I had the opportunity to visit Dublin, Ireland and made a stop at a memorial to those lost in the Potato Famine of the 1840s. The events in Ireland during the 1840s had reverberations in Pennsylvania's Coal Region as thousands of Irish immigrants fled their homeland and sought a new life in the anthracite coal fields. Read the full story.
As World War II drew to a close, Sgt. Irvin Schwartz laid out a proposal to honor the Pine Grove area servicemembers when they returned home.