The inspiration for the Henszey-Pyle Fund include the interest that Anne and Kenneth have in the history of the community in which they grew up and their belief in the value of the study of history. Anne is the great-great-grand daughter of Moses and Mary Irvin Thompson and great-grand daughter of John Hamilton all of whose contributions to regional history are honored at the Centre Furnace Mansion and within the Centre County Historical Society. Kenneth, who acquired a love of the study of history growing up in State College, is the Henry M. Jackson Professor of History and International Studies Emeritus at the University of Washington where he has taught history for over fifty years.
History is an interpretive art, based on available evidence. Accordingly, the interpretations are, at times, controversial and contested. The Centre County Historical Society strongly supports freedom of speech and the First Amendment rights of our speakers, authors, and writers. The Society does not necessarily endorse or support all views, conclusions, and opinions expressed, yet believes they merit entry into the marketplace of ideas and the scrutiny it affords.
The Henszey-Pyle Distinguished Author Series is underwritten by the Anne Hamilton Henszey Pyle and Kenneth B. Pyle Educational Fund for Regional Heritage Preservation (Henszey-Pyle Fund.) The Series is coordinated by CCHS Board of Governors member Dr. Ford Risley.
Past programs that have been held by Zoom may be found on the CCHS YouTube Channel.
Slavery and the Underground Railroad in South Central Pennsylvania
Sunday, September 22, 2024
By Cooper H. Wingert
RSVP Required
Cooper Wingert, historian and author of 10 books about the Civil War and the Underground Railroad, will present Slavery and the Underground Railroad in South Central Pennsylvania, Sunday, September 22, 2:00 p.m., at the American Philatelic Society, Bellefonte. Based on new archival research, this talk will illuminate how the Underground Railroad consisted of white and Black people whose actions were more open than many think.
Wingert’s first book, The Confederate Approach on Harrisburg, won the James I. Robertson Jr. Award in 2012. He also has published a seminal article in The Journal of American History—the leading academic journal in the field—on northern resistance to laws mandating the return of fugitive slaves to southern owners. A scholar completing his Ph.D. in history at Georgetown University, Wingert serves as Assistant Director of the National Park Service project titled “Slave Stampedes on the Southern Borderlands.”
Slavery & the Underground Railroad in South Central Pennsylvania is an illustrated talk based on Wingert’s book which shows how the region became a battleground in the fight against slavery. Freedom seekers journeying through the state connected with free Black communities and white allies willing to shelter and assist them. Runaways and antislavery activists employed legal maneuvers, and sometimes violence, to resist slave catchers and undermine federal fugitive slave laws. Based on new archival research, the talk illuminates how the Underground Railroad consisted of white and Black people whose actions were more open than many think, and whose legacies continue to have an impact today.
Books can be purchased online for pick up the day of the event or at the Centre Furnace Mansion.
Please note that this program will be held at the American Philatelic Society, located at 100 Match Factory Place, Bellefonte.
This program is free and open to the public. Donations are appreciated.
Charles Fergus
Lay This Body Down
Tuesday, May 2, 2023, 7:00 p.m.
State College native Charles Fergus writes mysteries set in Pennsylvania in the Jacksonian Era of the 1830s. He will present a talk and book signing about his third Gideon Stoltz Mystery, Lay This Body Down.
Learn more about Charles Fergus HERE.
Ford Risley
Reporting the Civil War
Sunday, March 26, 2023, 2:00 p.m.
The talk will examine how the war was reported during a time when newspapers and magazines became essential reading for Americans. A colorful cast of newsmen from the North and South reported the conflict in words and pictures.
Thomas E. Range II and Lewis Lazarow
Penn State Blue Band
Sunday, October 23, 2022
”From its humble beginnings as a six-member all-male drum and bugle corps to its current membership of over 300 instrumentalists, silks, and majorettes, the Blue Band has provided the soundtrack to the Penn State experience.”
Mary E. Stuckey
Deplorable: The Worst Presidential Campaigns from Jefferson to Trump
Sunday, April 10, 2022
The word “unprecedented” was often applied to Donald Trump. But was he really that unusual? Deplorable begins with that question, and examines nine presidential elections between 1800 and 2020 to discover just what makes elections deplorable and how often and why such elections recur in American politics.
Stephen Browne
George Washington’s First Inaugural Address and Why It Still Matters
Sunday, March 14, 2021
Stephen Howard Browne is a Liberal Arts Professor of Rhetoric at The Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of five books, including, most recently, The Ides of War: George Washington and the Newberg Crisis, and The First Inauguration: George Washington and the Invention of the Republic.
This program is available to view on YouTube.
Charles Fergus
Nighthawk’s Wing: A Gideon Stoltz Mystery
Sunday, April 18, 2021
This program is based on Fergus’s latest historical mystery, “Nighthawk’s Wing,” set in 1836 in fictional Colerain County, Pennsylvania featuring a young Pennsylvania German sheriff trying to solve crimes in a clannish Scots-Irish community in the central Pennsylvania backcountry.
Learn more about Charles Fergus HERE.
Dr. Kurt Carr
First Pennsylvanians: The Archaeology of Native Americans in Pennsylvania
February 2, 2020
Carr has been the Senior Curator of Archaeology at the State Museum of Pennsylvania since November 2007.
Rebecca Inlow
The Rowland Story: Beauty from Ashes
September 27, 2020
Rebecca Inlow tells the story of coal mines and railroads and a 1,000-seat single screen movie theatre that has defied all odds to survive more than a century in a small town. Rebecca, a Board member and volunteer at the Rowland Theatre will also share images of small treasures from the past century that have been found as work has continued on the lower balcony floor.
This program is available on YouTube.
R. Thomas Berner
A Two Newspaper Town
October 18, 2020
Retired journalism professor R Thomas Berner, who worked for both newspapers, the Pennsylvania Mirror and the Centre Daily Times, shares some memories of those days.
This program is available to view on YouTube.
Russell Frank
Among the Woo People: A Survival Guide for Living in a College Town
January 15, 2019
Frank worked as a reporter and editor for newspapers in California and Pennsylvania for 13 years before joining the journalism faculty at Penn State in 1998.
Peter Gilmore
Irish Presbyterians and the Shaping of Western Pennsylvania, 1770-1830
March 31, 2019
Peter Gilmore, adjunct lecturer in history who teaches at Carlow University, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Roger L. Geiger
American Higher Education since World War II: A History
January 28, 2019
Dr. Roger L. Geiger, distinguished professor of higher education emeritus at Pennsylvania State University.
Dr. Patrick Parsons
Pennsylvania: The Cradle of Cable Television
January 15, 2017
Presented by Dr. Patrick Parsons, College of Communications, Penn State
William W. Donner
The Pennsylvania German Groundhog Lodges and Versammlinge
March 26, 2017
Presented by William W. Donner, Department of Anthropology, Kutztown University
Dr. Carolyn Kitch
Pennsylvania in Public Memory: Reclaiming the Industrial Past
January 25, 2017
Presented by Dr. Carolyn Kitch, Temple University
Dr. Amy S. Greenberg
Lady First: The World of First Lady Sarah Polk
March 26, 2017
Amy Greenburg is the George Winfree Professor of History and Women’s Studies at Penn State University.
Dr. Gary Cross
Consumed Nostalgia: Memory in the Age of Fast Capitalism
October 15, 2017
Presented by Dr. Gary Cross, Distinguished Professor of Modern History at Pennsylvania State University.
Simon J. Bronner, Ph.D.
The Past and Future of Pennsylvania German Studies—and Pennsylvania German Identity
January 28, 2018
Presented by Simon J. Bronner, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor Emeritus of American Studies and Folklore and Founding Director Emeritus of the Center for Pennsylvania Culture Studies at Penn State Harrisburg.
Roger L. Williams
Evan Pugh’s Penn State: America’s Model Agricultural College
March 25, 2018
Presented by author Roger L. Williams, past Associate Vice President and Executive Director of the Penn State Alumni Association.
Ralph Seeley
Native People and Their Paths in Central Pennsylvania
August 26, 2018
Ralph’s greatest legacy stems from his love of the outdoors which he has shared with and helped to instill in generations of Centre Countians.
Dr. Sally McMurry
Pennsylvania Farming: A History in Landscapes
September 9, 2018
Presented by Dr. Sally McMurry, Professor Emerita of History, Penn State University
Lee Stout
The History of Beaver Stadium
October 23, 2016
Lee Stout, Historical Society Board member, is a Librarian Emeritus and former Head of Public Services and Outreach for Special Collections at the Penn State University Libraries.
Harry West
The History of Beaver Stadium
October 23, 2016
Harry West is Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering.