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The Pennsylvania Barn . ......................................... .......... BOOK Those interested in reviewing books should contact Nicholas Ciotola at [email protected]. Publishers and authors can send review copies to the Editor, Western Pennsylvania History, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, 1212 Smallman Street, Pittsburgh, PA, 15222. Crossroads of Commerce: The Pennsylvania The Most Learned Vourn i Ai erica. Under the Sotthern Sun: Stories of the Real Italy Railroad Calendar Art of Grit Teller A Life of Elizabeth Cr.em Fe g and the Americans Who Created It By Dan Cupper, photography by Ken Murry By Anne M. Ousterhout By Paul Paolicelli (Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books, 2003) (University Park: Penn State University Press, (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003) 150 color and 70 b/w photos, 184 pp., 2004) xxi + 263 pp., $24.95 hardcover $29.95 paperback Endnotes, index, xx + 391 pp., $35 hardcover This second book by Pittsburgh native Paul Starting in 1925, the Pennsylvania Railroad A full-length biography of "America's first great Paolicelli takes readers through the southern commissioned an oil painting of a PRR engine female savant" who educated herself in litera- Italian regions of Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, for its wall calendars. Teller painted 27 of the ture, history, and languages. Born to a wealthy and Sicilia in an attempt to explore the complex 33 annual scenes plus three times that many family in 1737, Fergusson was at the center of and ever-changing concept of heritage among images in later life. The book includes stories of the cultural and intellectual world of colonial Americans of Italian descent. Explores many Pittsburgh's role as the western terminus of the America. She was especially known for hosting aspects of southern Italian society including its line and later as a crossroads for the PRR. Local a Saturday evening salon during the 1770s but history, economics, politics, and the cultural landmarks captured included the Edgar Thom- later infamous for her financial troubles, bad practices that have been passed down for gen- son Works in Braddock, a coal mine romances, and political indiscretions. erations. A must-read for Italian Americans complex near Johnstown, and the Conway yard interested in their ancestral roots. along the Ohio River along with many period The Soldiers' R vol P r yianus in Arms research photos. Revised from 1992 with a new and the Forging of Earl Ame dertity epilogue. By Gregory T. Knouff (University Park: Penn State University Press, Groundhog Day 2004) By Don Yoder Footnotes, index, 320 pp., $45 hardcover (Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books, 2003) An examination using journals and other 60 b/w photos, bibliography, index, 160 pp., records to discern why common Americans $19.95 hardcover fought in the Revolution. Reasons varied but An in-depth look behind the yearly festivities in were usually driven by localist concerns, from Punxsutawney on February 2. The author traces defense of local communities to political its European origins as a pagan mid-winter advancement. Also compares these views to the festival to a Christian celebration called Candle- better-known philosophical ones, and examines mas that became associated with weather- how motivations shifted during the course of predicting animals. The groundhog in history the war. is also explored, from mythological status to its culinary role in celebrations of a century ago. The author was cofounder of the Penn- sylvania Folklife Society and longtime editor of Pennsylvania Folklife journal. 46 WESTERNPENNSYLVANIA HISTORY I SPRING2004 TRIMCEt TAMZUS MAN ml' ~A1~YO! world. We are front row witnesses to nineteenth the career and style of Dan Rice, Carlyon also century rural and urban America when the circus examines the social, economic, and political came to town. aspects of mid-19th century America as the In Pittsburgh, Rice's energy, ambition, and country painfully transformed itself from a engaging personality propelled him from a car- "small, agrarian republic ... into a large, indus- riage driver to the owner and main attraction of trialized, interconnected democracy." Dan Rice: The Most his own circus, "Dan Rice's Great Show." Dan The author, a graduate of Clown College, Rice often was billed in the newspapers as "The traveled with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum Famous Man You've Only Original Humorist." & Bailey Circus for three years. Among his other Never Heard Of Rice was renowned for his combination of occupations, he worked as an actor and univer- By David Caryon wise-cracking humor, animal acts, and musical sity professor and served in the Army. David (New York: Public Affairs, 2001) Illustrations, compositions. He began his career touring the Carlyon holds a Ph.D. in Theatre from North- endnotes. xix, 507 pp., $30 hardcover hills of Western Pennsylvania with a "learned" western University and a law degree from pig. He later interjected a form of high-brow Berkeley. always say that if an event or person is sig- clowning when he appeared as the English play- In 1853, an Arkansas newspaper styled nificant, then there usually is a Pittsburgh wright, William Shakespeare. His act embraced Rice's circus as "the greatest show on earth" connection. This is certainly no truer than the popular music of the day including songs by years before other circuses exploited the in the case of Dan Rice. Never heard of him? his friend, Stephen Foster. Clad in red, white, phrase. According to Carlyon, Rice became the Neither had I until author and researcher, David and blue striped tights, with chin whiskers and best circus clown this country has ever known. Carlyon, walked into the Carnegie Library in a top hat (he may even have influenced the That clown and the world that he impacted dis- Oakland seeking background information on image of "Uncle Sam" as drawn by Thomas appeared over a hundred years ago - disap- early nineteenth century Pittsburgh and refer- Nast), he debated political issues of the day. peared so thoroughly that we were no longer ences to Rice in the local newspapers. Finally, he campaigned for several public aware that he even had existed. Combining Between 1830 and 1840, the population of offices including a brief run for President. extensive research and elegant prose, Carlyon Pittsburgh almost doubled in size as thousands Born into gentile poverty in New York City in takes us deep into that world and introduces us of immigrants flowed into town. Pittsburgh was 1823, Rice was the son of Daniel McLaren and to the most famous man that - until now - we the original gateway to the west and served as a Elizabeth Crum. Manhattan in the first half of had "never heard of." natural magnet that drew tinkers, tailors, car- the nineteenth century was perilously wild with penters, farmers, and even entertainers and gang violence attending most public activities Audrey Abbott lacone, Manager, Carnegie Library clowns. One of these was Dan Rice who arrived from elections to the theater. As a young boy, of Pittsburgh, Beechview here in 1837 traveling from Buffalo, NY and Rice learned to survive and even thrive in these leading a horse. conditions. Obscure to us today, Dan Rice was a sig- How he acquired the name "Rice" is subject nificant phenomenon in the world directly pre- to conjecture. Carlyon speculates on the origins ceding and just following the Civil War. Rice of the name and why young Dan selected the rose to national prominence as he combined the moniker that became a household word. elements of animal trainer, strongman, vocalist, The book is similar in scope and style to Ken lecturer, and blackface performer in the glitter- Emerson's Doo-dah! Stephen Foster and the ing world of the circus. The author, David Carlyon, Rise of American Popular Culture (Simon & takes us on an amazing journey through this Schuster, 1997). As he traces the evolution of BOOKREVIEWS 47 The Pennsylvania Barn: were well conceived and substantiated with Its Origin, Evolution, and empirical field investigations, additional field- work in Europe conducted for this new edition Distribution in North further supports his hypothesis. In particular, America, Second Edition he located other sub-regions of Switzerland By Robert F. Ensminger where substantial numbers of forebay barns (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, were located, including one canton where fore- 2003). Illustrations, diagrams, maps, bay barns show an unmistakable resemblance appendices, glossary, bibliography, index. to those in Pennsylvania. However, he also xvii + 348 pp., $28 paperback addresses the immigration of Swiss Mennonite farmers from these cantons to Germany and ubiquitous form on the agricultural land- eventually southeastern Pennsylvania. This treatment of the subject allows the reader to genealogical corroboration was lacking in the scape of the Mid-Atlantic region, the gain a thorough understanding of the origin, first edition, and its presence in the second edi- Pennsylvania Barn stands as a testament evolution, and widespread distribution of this tion makes a more solid case for a Swiss origin to the ingenuity of Swiss-German farmers who barn type in North America. Specifically, Ens- for the Pennsylvania Barn. Another issue that began constructing it in southeastern Pennsyl- minger identifies the diagnostic features that was not completely addressed in the first edition vania in the early 18th century. Functional as make the Pennsylvania Barn what it is: a two- was the contribution of English settlers to the well as aesthetic, the barn was adopted by the story, multi-purpose structure banked into a development of the Pennsylvania Barn. This is English, Scots-Irish, and others who, with the hillside, with a cantilevered forebay that rectified in the second edition, where he credits Germanic groups, carried it with them when extends out over the first story. This ingenious the English with the design for several barn sub- migrating to the backcountry of Pennsylvania, arrangement saved time and effort by allowing types, which are predominantly located in the Maryland, Virginia, and points farther south, and farmers to drop feed down from the storage counties of most intense English settlements westward to Ohio, Indiana, and beyond.
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