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The Great Conemaugh Valley Disaster—Flood and Fire at Johnstown, Pa.
On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam on the Little Conemaugh River in southwest Pennsylvania, which held back the Lake Conemaugh reservoir, about fourteen miles upstream from Johnstown, failed after an unusually torrential rainfall. A little after…
Punxsutawney
Although the first settlers-other than Native Americans-came to the Punxsutawney area in the early nineteenth century, growth was relatively slow. By 1850 the town’s population had reached barely 100 inhabitants. The predominant industries were…
View of Ephrata
To anyone interested in bird’s-eye views of Pennsylvania towns during the late nineteenth century, the name of Thaddeus Fowler appears on a seemingly endless number of panoramic images. He was the most prolific of all the view makers, drawing and…
Tags: aerial views, cities, lithographs, Pennsylvania, prints, United States
Pittsburgh
Thaddeus Fowler was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. He ran away from home at age fifteen, and four years later he enlisted in the Union Army at the start of the Civil War. Wounded at the Battle of Bull Run, he was honorably discharged in 1863 and…
Tags: cities, lithographs, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, prints, United States
Shenandoah, Pa.
The borough of Shenandoah is located about fifteen miles southwest of Hazelton, within the Western Middle coalfield of Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region. Laid out in 1862 in reaction to the burgeoning need for coal during the Civil War, the…
Tags: aerial views, cities, Pennsylvania, prints, United States