The series features award-winning broadcast journalist Tracey Matisak, as well as talent from Pennsylvania Humanities Council’s speakers bureau. Interactive presentations are featured on topics ranging from Pennsylvania folk music to African Americans in the Civil War to environmental pioneer Rachel Carson. Filmed in front of live audiences at different venues, each episode shines a spotlight on some of Pennsylvania’s most intriguing cultural landmarks and communities.

Episodes continue to air on Temple University Television.

Or, you can still catch them on our YouTube channel.

Steeltowns, Coalfields and the Unbroken Circle delivers unique musical stories of life in American towns over the last century. With guitar, banjo and harmonica, folk musician Tom Breiding captivates audiences while they learn about the history behind West Virginia’s coal industry and about generations of industrial workers from Pittsburgh.  This episode was taped at the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area’s Pump House in the Pittsburgh area.

“Humanities on the Road is inspired by what the Pennsylvania Humanities Council does everyday in communities across Pennsylvania,” said Interim Director Laurie Zierer. “This is an honor for PHC and recognizes talent, like Tom Breiding, that we have right here in our own state.”

“The Telly Awards has a mission to honor the very best in film and video,” said Linda Day, Executive Director of the Telly Awards.  “Pennsylvania Humanities Council’s accomplishment illustrates their creativity, skill, and dedication to their craft and serves as a testament to great film and video production.”

Episodes from Season One of Humanities on the Road begin airing on Pittsburgh Community Television on Thursday, July 5. Click here to view the schedule.

Episodes continue to air on Temple University Television.

You can still catch them on our YouTube channel.

Episodes will continue to air on Temple University Television or you can still catch them on our YouTube channel.

The commonly known history of Pennsylvania women is skewed mainly to the state’s two largest cities – Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. But Josephine Dunn, our next Humanities on the Road presenter and professor of Art History at the University of Scranton, will tell you that is a mistake. Strong women have made history throughout the state, and she has focused her research for the past five years on just such women in Northeastern Pennsylvania. In Dunn’s talk, “Alive to the Call: Women in History in Northeastern Pennsylvania,” she brings light to the many important women in this region.

Dunn points out that historically it often only takes one person to create change. The suffragist movement in the Scranton area started primarily with one woman, Kate Ryan Chapman, who organized sympathizers into a formidable force. The Scranton suffragists went from 12 to 1500 supporters in the span of one year under her leadership. In 1913 the Pennsylvania Senate voted on a suffrage amendment, resulting in a tie. Chapman gatheredenough petition signatures to convince the sway vote senator to change his mind, despite the fact that he did not support women’s suffrage. She became an officer in the state suffrage convention and lived to see her work pay off when American women got the vote in 1920 with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.

Chapman is just one example of the many women Dunn will discuss at the taping on May 2^nd. The event will take place at 2:00 PM at the Wyoming County Cultural Center at the Dietrich Theater in Tunkhannock. The taping is free and open to the public, so contact the site for more information on how you can be part of the audience. To learn more about women’s suffrage in America you can view related documents at the National Archives. To learn more about general women’s history visit the National Woman’s History Project.

-E.H.

Roger Lane is considered a veteran of the Commonwealth Speaker program. For years, he has represented the PHC by traveling to organizations all over the state to talk about various history-related topics such as the presidency of FDR and the struggles of everyday life in the 1900s. His current topic, "Abraham Lincoln and the Paradox of Greatness," explores Lincoln's claim on posterity, which rests not just on his victory in the Civil War, but also on the unique combination of Lincoln's personal qualities, his historical context and the American imagination. In this presentation, Roger discusses how Lincoln became one of America’s best known and most honored leaders despite the fact that he was unknown and relatively inexperienced when he ran for president. Roger points out that he chose this topic because it is timely. As the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War continues this year, topics relating to this tumultuous time in history continue to be popular.

"One hundred and fifty years after the Civil War," Roger says.  "Lincoln is still - and always - relevant."

Roger, a retired Professor of Social Sciences at Haverford College, was once named a "Top Ten Prof" by Philadelphia Magazine. Despite his love of teaching, he admits he enjoys being a speaker because it is often different from being in the classroom.

"What I like best about being a speaker is the audience.  Professional historians usually talk either to college students or fellow scholars, but the audiences who come to my Commonwealth Speakers programs are intelligent and well-informed. They bring a wider range of life experiences with them."

Being a speaker has taken Roger to many organizations in many communities - and the audiences' enthusiasm for the topic is always inspiring. "I enjoy speaking to varied groups," Roger says. "Especially those who ask good, and sometimes unexpected, questions.”

Judging from his popularity, they enjoy speaking with him too.

Eligible non-profits can apply to bring Roger to their organization by filling out a Commonwealth Speaker application. Visit our website to learn more about the program, view our requirements and download an application.

About the Commonwealth Speakers Program:

For more than twenty years, the Speakers program has contracted educators and scholars from around the state to provide quality presentations on a variety of topics including music, folk and traditional arts, and American history.  The 2012-13 roster offers presentations on these topics and much more. Organizations interested in celebrating the Civil War Sesquicentennial should take note of the talks offered in the Civil War Era, African American Experience,  Pennsylvania History and Culture and Women through History categories.  Presentations on general history topics are available as well.

More resources:

Many of our Humanities on the Road episodes have explored the Civil War. To learn more, check out the links below:

"Lincoln and the Widow Bixby" with Judith Giesberg at Laurel Hill Cemetary

"Saluting Camp William Penn" with Don Scott at the National Archives at Philadelphia

"Deserter Country" with Robert Sandow at the Union League

"Thaddeus Stevens" with Steven Anderson at the National Civil War Museum

We received great feedback from the public! In fact, this was the largest response PHC has ever received from a survey. As an added bonus, the first ten people to respond received a Humanities on the Road DVD of their choice. We want to give a special shout-out to the 'first 10': Susan from Media, Linda from Harrisburg, Nancy from Philadelphia, Christine from Rutledge, Silas from Allentown, Gloria from Philadelphia, Maria from Mars, Karen from Harrisburg, Galen from Newville and Janis from Reading. Thank you to everyone who took our survey.

So, what did you tell us about Humanities on the Road? The episodes most viewers watched were "Lincoln and the Widow Bixby" presented by Judith Giesberg at the Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia and  "Thaddeus Stevens: The Politics of Freedom" presented by Steven Anderson at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg. Both episodes focused on how regular citizens were impacted by the Civil War. You can watch these episodes, as well as other episodes from seasons 1 & 2, on PHC's YouTube page. Here's a clip of "Lincoln and the Widow Bixby":

A majority of the responders (63%) rated Humanities on the Road series as 'excellent' and even more responders (91%) told us they learned more about the humanities and the PHC as a result of watching the show. Here's a sampling of what other responders has to say:

"What I like the most (about the series) is that there is no other programming focusing on these issues anywhere on TV, and this makes each show a great resource for learning more about topics that you would otherwise only read about it books."

"I love the diversity of presentations that enlighten me about traditions and history and talents that are new to me. Most topics are entirely new to me and I learned so much."

"PHC does a wonderful job of providing programs that entertain and educate. I look forward to hearing more programs in the future."

PHC thanks all of our responders for taking the time to share their opinions. We invite readers to share their thoughts with us in the comments section.

Remember to visit the blog for more Humanities on the Road news and information about our current Commonwealth Speakers program.

In "Blacks and Jews on Stage and Screen," Warren Hoffman, who is Director of Arts and Cultural Programming at the Gershman Y in Philadelphia, uses clips from two films, The Jazz Singer and Liberty Heights and the play, Fires in the Mirror, to spark discussion of the “other” in American society – a role played by both groups throughout history. He asks the audience at Temple Sholom in Broomall to consider how the separate histories of each group, histories filled with discrimination and slavery, connect Jews and African Americans in surprising ways.

“[Film] is a way to see traditions or experiences of people we may or may not get to see in our everyday lives or learn something more about them,” Hoffman says. “The power of film allows us to engage with very particular moments in time and create that dialogue. The power of these films is reminding us of what that history was.”

Visit our Youtube page to watch this episode and all of Season 2's episodes. Thanks to all who voted!

We invite you to join us in the new year for a Humanities on the Road marathon on Monday, January 2nd. Episodes will begin airing at 9:00 am and continue through the day on PCN-TV. In honor of the occasion, we are asking our viewers to vote for their favorite episode and post comments on our HOTR message board. Voting ends January 31st.

Thanks for watching!

Middleman is a career educator and currently serves as Artistic Director of the Philadelphia Classical Symphony.  He is known as an “extremely versatile musician” and beloved in the Philadelphia music scene. Recently, PHC asked him to reflect on Dvorak’s influences and legacy.

What should we know about Antonin Dvorak and the New World Symphony?

Dvorak’s New World Symphony (NWS) was composed in New York in the fall of 1892, making it nearly 120 years old but if it is showing any signs of aging, I certainly don’t see them. Dvorak’s New World Symphony is still the single most popular symphony ever composed on American soil. On the grounds of durability alone the NWS stakes a major claim. And the main reason it stays so popular is that this big-boned, big-hearted music is beautiful, lofty and inspiring. All this on just musical grounds, apart from the fascinating stories about America it tells. Yet it also has its own little mysteries we may never fully understand.

Can you explain these mysteries?

There are great works such as Beethoven's Fifth Symphony that are immaculately crafted, amazingly balanced and that have something new to say – musical masterworks akin to Leonardo's Mona Lisa, in which every element pulls together in perfect balance of form with expression. Then there are works such as George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue, and his opera, Porgy and Bess, that are filled with formal flaws and are sometimes thought of as artful collections of tunes.  In these works the balance between expression and form is not totally convincing,  but their communicative thrust is so sincere and strong we love and admire them all the same. I would place Dvorak's NWS in just this category. Although we are not accustomed to thinking of high-brow music in this way, Dvorak wanted to play both sides. He worshipped the serious Austrian-German idealistic traditions of Beethoven and Brahms. But he also was at heart a kind of folklorist like Pete Seeger who wanted to root his music in the expressions of people close to the earth.

Where does the story of the New World Symphony begin?

The story is incredible! Back in Prague in the 1870s the unknown Dvorak made a big hit with his Slavonic Dances. These pieces smacked of bagpipes, swirling skirts and the sensuality of Eastern European music hitherto scorned by European elites. These Dances represented all social strata and implied that Gypsies could sit at the table of high art along with the barons. Very populist for their time, and the Slavonic Dances swept the boards and went right to the top of the BillBoard charts and helped make Dvorak into the Elvis of his time. He was 51, scraggly, earthy, plain-spoken, shy and retiring, when he settled in New York later in 1892, but he was a pop icon whose salary was five times higher than the mayor of New York.

When the American patron Jeanette Thurber brought Dvorak over here, he was expected to repeat a similar synthesis by bringing the music of African Americans and American Indians to the table of high art. Dvorak believed that these indigenous groups were more authentically American, and that the future of American music depended upon including music reflective of their experience. All of the other existing American composers were like little German-trained  Brahms clones writing in the old German style.  Mrs. Thurber recognized that Dvorak had this populist streak in him that would make him the perfect torchbearer to be the founder of a new and distinct kind of American music.  For the NWS Dvorak based some of his music on African spirituals and also on themes derived from a literary source, the Song of Hiawatha, by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow.

How did your presentation take hold with the Altoona Symphony?

By the happiest accident! I must say that I had the greatest luck to attend a party on the Bard College campus in New England a couple years ago where I met the marvelous conductor, Theresa Cheung. I found out she directed the Altoona Symphony at which I had been confirmed to tape a Humanities on the Road presentation on Dvorak's New World presentation. We were both entranced by the idea of telling the story of Dvorak's American adventure with live music as a sort of Leonard Bernstein-patterned commentary with live orchestra. Through the enormous diligence of PHC’s Assistant Director Laurie Zierer and the rest of the staff, we worked for a year to make it happen. I've never had more fun in all my life!

Tune in for a night of beautiful music! Watch “Dvorak’s New World” on PCN-TV this Friday, December 9 at 6pm. Watch it again on December 10 at 2pm and December 12 at 10am. Visit the show page for more information and resources. Missed the episode on PCN-TV? This episode will be available on our YouTube page after December 12.

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Camp William Penn, which operated from 1863-1865, was based in northwest of Philadelphia and trained almost 11,000 black soldiers and several hundred white officers who fought in major battles of the Civil War, tracked Abraham Lincoln's assassins and cornered Confederate Robert E. Lee. We asked Scott to talk about this little know slice of Philadelphia history and why it is important to him.

What will viewers learn from your Humanities on the Road episode on Camp William Penn?

The episode will provide fascinating historical information about Camp William Penn, the largest and first official Civil War facility to train black federal soldiers. A major focus will be on the incredible life stories of several soldiers, including a slave named Josiah Walls. Josiah was forced to serve with Confederate forces, but was captured by Northern federal forces and then joined the 3rd United States Colored Troops before likely being inspired by a speech of the great Frederick Douglass on the grounds of Camp William Penn. After this service, Josiah, with the equivalent of a one-year education, would go on to become a state and U.S. politician as well as own and operate what was reputed to be the largest farm in the Florida. I will also discuss accounts of horrific battles and stories of courage, survival and victory, including stories of three Medal of Honor recipients from the camp and the major abolitionists who helped to organize and/or delivered stirring speeches to the men. Those freedom fighters included Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Lucretia Mott, who lived next store to the camp.

How did you first hear about the story of Camp William Penn?

I first learned about Camp William Penn as a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer's Montgomery County bureau. I wrote stories about the community of LaMott, formerly called Camptown, where Camp William Penn began on land adjacent to the home of the famous abolitionist Lucretia Mott, today known as Cheltenham Township. Then in 1989, I saw the movie Glory starring Denzel Washington about the 54^th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. I had never been so moved by a movie depicting multiple black men as heroes. I immediately realized that that depiction of the 54^th Massachusetts, essentially a state militia, was just the proverbial "tip of the iceberg," especially considering that the troops trained at Camp William Penn were among the nation's first federal forces. They were the first regiments organized directly under Abraham Lincoln's United States Colored Troops bureau with its major training facility at 1210 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. Since then I've also written dozens of articles for my Journal-Register newspaper chain and several national publications.

Your book, Images of America: Camp William Penn, is full of moving pictures and stories of the USCT. Is there a particular story that inspired you?

There are so many favorite stories in the book! Probably the most representative is the story of the chaplain of the 6th Regiment, the Reverend Jeremiah Asher, whose grandfather, Gad Asher, was captured as a slave in Guinea during the mid-1700s and brought to New England via the Middle Passage. There, in the Connecticut area, Gad agrees to replace his so-called master in the Revolutionary War and is promised freedom once his service is over.  After serving in such battles as Bunker Hill, Gad loses his sight while his owner reneges on the agreement once the warrior returns home. Gad is forced to serve the dishonest man for many more years before being able to purchase his freedom. Yet, Gad passes on his religious fervor to his grandson, Jeremiah, who becomes a preacher at the Shiloh Baptist Church in Philadelphia before the outbreak of the Civil War. Jeremiah’s dedication to the black liberation movement and the principles of America convince him to leave his wife and children and provide religious sustenance to the 6th USCT of Camp William Penn, likely the fiercest and most battle-tested unit from the facility. In the end, Jeremiah also pays an incredible price for his service.  The Ashers' generational story reflects the courage of just one black family and its dedication to the American Republic's ideals. They gave everything to this country even though personal liberation was often kept out of their reach.  There can be nothing more valiant. I will be expanding on many of the topics in an upcoming Schiffer Publishing book scheduled for release next year.

Learn more about the United States Colored Troops and how they contributed to the war. Watch “Saluting Camp William Penn” on PCN-TV this Friday, December 2 at 6pm. Watch it again on December 3 at 2pm and December 5 at 10am. Visit the show page for more information and resources. Missed the episode on PCN-TV? This episode will be available on our YouTube page after December 3.