The life of Jacob Fought, Carlisle tavern keeper and blacksmith, during the five years following the end of the War of 1812, serves as a microcosm of that period. It was a time of economic expansion followed by depression, of rising then plummeting cotton prices, and of a land boom that accompanied American westward migration followed by rapidly dropping real estate values.
When the Cumberland County Historical Society purchased a painting and an oil sketch by Holmead Phillips in September 2003, the society became the first area organization to invest in an artist's work that will eventually be recognized as important both here and in the larger world of art.
Philip Earenfight, ed., Visualizing a Mission: Artifacts and Imagery of the Carlisle Indian School 1879-1918. Carlisle PA: The Trout Gallery, Dickinson College, 2004.
For twenty years, from 1890 to 1910, Father Henry Ganss served as pastor of Saint Patrick's Catholic Church in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. During that time he produced historical and musical works achieving international appreciation. He has merited entries in two prominent works of reference-The Dictionary of American Biography and The New Catholic Encyclopedia-rare for one whose activities one would assume deserved only parochial notice.