Hughestown, PA native Joe Toye enlisted days after Pearl Harbor, jumped into Europe with Easy Company, 506th PIR, and was gravely wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. He came home to Pennsylvania, built a life at Bethlehem Steel, and later was portrayed by Kirk Acevedo in HBO’s Band of Brothers. Read the full story.
On October 8, 1871, Peshtigo, Wisconsin vanished in a wall of fire, leaving more than 1,200 dead. It remains the nation's deadliest wildfire. This podcast episode traces the disaster’s origins and its eerie legacy that lingers today. Listen to the latest episode of the Public History podcast.
On the first anniversary of Pearl Harbor, the Pottsville Republican displayed flags of the Allied “United Nations” on its Mahantango Street headquarters. This patriotic gesture reminded the Coal Region of the global fight against fascism and honored the sacrifices made for victory in World War II. Read the full story.
See Aachen through the eyes of the 26th Infantry - block by block, house by house. This short YouTube documentary pairs restored combat footage with today’s streets, then lands beside Irvin Schwartz’s letters from our “Letters from War” project, where 57mm guns and sniper fire turned a city into hell. Read the full story.
In October 1944, Staff Sergeant John T. Stocker of Williamstown, PA was killed during Operation Market Garden in Holland. Weeks later, his mother received a solemn letter from General James Gavin detailing her son’s bravery and sacrifice during World War II. Read the full story.
The Great Depression hit Pennsylvania’s Coal Region hard. Collieries shuttered, jobs vanished, and families scraped by with bootleg mining, relief drives, and New Deal work. In my latest RealClear Pennsylvania column, I trace the collapse from Black Tuesday to efforts in towns like Williamstown and Lykens to survive the depression—and what lingers today. Read the full story.
A 1942 photo captures a coal miner’s joy as he collects his paycheck in West Pittston, PA during World War II. Learn how miners balanced booming wartime demand with labor strikes, Federal seizure of mines, and a landmark UMWA settlement in 1943. Read the full story.
A photograph of Corporal Harry Kimmel appeared in a July 1942 edition of the West Schuylkill Press-Herald of Tremont, PA. Learn more about the World War II soldier from Donaldson, PA. Read the full story.
Step back to July 1, 1938, as aging Civil War veterans from Pennsylvania returned to Gettysburg’s battlefield for its 75th anniversary—a poignant final gathering that bridged living history and an uneasy world on the brink of another war. A moving testament to our fading links to the past. Read the full story.
Sergeant Walter Baranowski was wounded while serving as a paratrooper in France one week after D-Day. Read the full story of his evacuation from the front lines.