Echoes of the PAST
This issue of Pioneer America Society Transactions (PAST) contains four articles from papers presented at the 2014 conference in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, as well as two On-the-Road pieces. The first of these articles is The Rousculp Barn: Situating a Pennsylvania Bank Barn in Time and Spaceby Timothy Anderson. Tim gives us an interpretation of the westward progression of the Pennsylvania-German cultural landscape through the detailed analysis of the site, situation, and history of a single (and relatively rare) structure, the Rousclup barn in Perry County, Ohio. Although written for a broad audience, barn enthusiasts in particular will find this an important article.
SUNY Geneso undergraduate student Katherine Berdan gives us The House on The Hill: A Spatial Study of Visitors to the Jackson Sanatorium, 1858-1914. Built as a health resort in 1858, the Jackson Sanatorium in Dnasville, New York gained widespread recognition for its early use of hydrotherapy for pain relief. Katherine’s use of historical document research and geographic information systems to examine the people who visited the sanatorium — where they came from and why — results in an interesting analysis of the changing demographics of health spa patrons, specifically the number of women visitors.
Ralph Hartsock and Daniel Gelaw Alemneh give us a look at research techniques in their article Access to Geographical Information in Library Catalogs: a Case Study. Digital technologies adopted by libraries give us access to an extraordinary variety of historical data. While historical maps have long been used by researchers, and present their own unique set of issues, geographic information on other types of historical data has been quite difficult to collate. Ralph and Daniel examine, through the use of case studies in both music and maps, the latest methods of gathering place-based information. While their examples are specific to the University of North Texas library, the information they provide will be of use to anyone attempting to organize historical data by location.
Through the use of numerous modern images, extant drawings, and plan-views, The German Heating Oven and the Smoke-Free Parlor by Arthur Lawton gives us a comprehensive look at the issues surrounding domestic fires for heating and cooking, and fire management if a domestic fire got out of control. Art examines the widespread evolution, adaptability, and use of the German cooking oven in domestic structures. This article takes us through the German heating oven’s inception as a means of providing ember-free smoke to the attic (for vermin control) through its evolution to a free standing stove, and the images Art provides clearly illustrate the oven’s adaptability over time.
Rounding out the volume are two On The Road articles: Wayne Brew’s The French Connection II: Interstate Route 11 – A Biography of a Highway in Pictures and Keith Sculle’s “I Like Gas Stations” – Jerry Davis’s Hobby. Wayne picks up his trip down Route 11 in Scranton, Pennsylvania and takes us through Knoxville, Tennessee. Wayne has undertaken this project to examine and document the vernacular architectural landscape along the entire length the route, and some absolute gems were uncovered on this leg of his journey. Our cover image is one of Wayne’s photographs, truly an homage to adaptive reuse! While on the topic of adaptive reuse, Keith found another adaptive reuse gem in Henrietta, Oklahoma in Jerry Davis’ restored 1938 Sinclair gas station. Documenting these structures (restored or not) is important, and I urge others with similar photographs and stories to submit them to PAST.
Finally, this issue of PAST would not be possible without the help of Deborah Slater. Her web and image editing skills give the journal a truly professional look (check out both the web-based journal and the printed edition). I hope you find this issue of PAST as enjoyable as I have.
– Paul Marr, Professor of Geography, Shippensburg University
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