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    State Museum Announces New Exhibition of Chairs from Chippendale to Knoll

    October 23, 2013
    State Museum Announces New Exhibition of Chairs from Chippendale to Knoll

    ​News for Immediate Release

    Oct. 23, 2013

    State Museum Announces New Exhibition of Chairs from Chippendale to Knoll

    Harrisburg - The State Museum of Pennsylvania today announced a new exhibition titled “Chairs from the Collection of The State Museum.” Opening Sunday, Nov. 3, the exhibition features a sampling of chairs from the museum’s collection.

    The chairs cover a variety of styles including large and small, plain and fancy and practical and whimsical. It mirrors the diversity of other collections in the museum’s holdings, and represents the diversity of Pennsylvania, its artisans and cultures over the past 300 years.

    Some of chairs on display include:

    • The Treaty Elm Chair (circa 1815) fabricated from wood collected from the great elm under which William Penn signed his treaty with the Native Americans;
    • An oak, leather, brass and cast iron desk chair (circa 1904) designed for use in Pennsylvania’s governor’s office at the beginning of the 20th century;
    • A chair from Loew’s Regent Theater, which opened in Harrisburg in 1920 and was razed in 1961;
    • A block of four stadium seats from Philadelphia’s Shibe Park (later renamed Connie Mack Stadium);
    • A specially designed “chair” that traveled into space in 1959 carrying a rhesus monkey named Miss Sam as part of an early NASA mission.

    The Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation, the nonprofit partner of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), will host a reception from 2 to 4 p.m. on the exhibition’s opening day. The exhibit will continue through Sunday, April 27, 2014.

    Pennsylvania Heritage works with the PHMC on a variety of projects to preserve and interpret Pennsylvania’s history, art and culture.

    The State Museum of Pennsylvania, adjacent to the State Capitol in Harrisburg, is one of 25 historic sites and museums administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission as part of the Pennsylvania Trails of History®. The State Museum offers expansive collections interpreting Pennsylvania’s fascinating heritage. With exhibits examining the dawn of geologic time, the Native American experience, the colonial and revolutionary era, a pivotal Civil War battleground, and the Commonwealth's vast industrial age, The State Museum demonstrates that Pennsylvania's story is America’s story.

    Museum hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for children and senior citizens.

    For more information about the museum, visit www.statemuseumpa.org.

    Media contact: Howard Pollman, 717-705-8639

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