Talk:Joseph Priestley House

message: On 4 March 2009, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) released a study of its 22 museums and historic sites, here: "Planning Our Future: Sustainability Committee Final Report". It recommended discontinuing operations at six of its sites, four of which are National Historic Landmarks. Proposed cuts to the PHMC budget mean these sites could close as early as July 1, 2009:
*Brandywine Battlefield (NHL)
*Bushy Run Battlefield (NHL)
*Conrad Weiser House (NHL)
*Fort Pitt Museum 
*Joseph Priestley House (NHL)
*US Brig Niagara (museum ship)
Contact information for the Governor and Director of the PHMC are here for anyone interested in commenting on the proposal. Ruhrfisch  ><>°° 04:00, 12 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Details on proposed closure

message: It seems that the usage of the words "emigrate" and "immigrate" used in the article is not consistent with their definitions. See this description from Washington State University. For example, "emigrate from England" and "immigrate to the United States" would be correct usage, not "emigrated to the United States" as found in the article's introduction. I would like to change the article so that these terms are correctly used. Before doing that, though, I would like to get consensus from Wikipedians that this change should be made. Thanks. Truthanado (talk) 14:03, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: It's my understanding that the spelling depends on where the speaker is. If you are in the U.S., someone immigrates to the U.S. (coming to where the speaker is). If you are in England, moving to the U.S., it's emigrates to the U.S. (leaving the place the speaker is). But, feel free to correct me because I heartily enjoy realizing something I understood for many years is just wrong. --Moni3 (talk) 15:51, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: "Emigrated to the United States" is fine, provided it's transitioning from discussion of his time in England. By your logic, how would you fill in "_______ from England to the U.S."?  Shoemaker's Holiday (talk) 16:24, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: "Emigrate from England to the U.S.". The rule is "emigrate from" and "immigrate to". Now, if the locations were turned around, it would be "Immigrate to the U.S. from England". Truthanado (talk) 17:35, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: In my opinion, it is all about context rather than prepositions. Look at the sentence: "Fleeing religious persecution and political turmoil in Britain, the Priestleys emigrated to the United States in 1794 seeking a peaceful life." - This sentence clearly indicates that the Priestleys moved from England to the US, which means that "emigrated" is the correct word. More importantly, they fled, so I think it is important to retain the idea of emigration over immigration. Awadewit (talk) 18:12, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree with Awadewit. A mob burnt their house in Birmingham and the Priestleys fled to the US after a few unhappy years in London - to my thinking emigrate has more of this sense of being driven out. Ruhrfisch  ><>°° 21:16, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Good discussion. Looks like the article should stay as-is. Thanks for everyone's comments. Truthanado (talk) 21:28, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Emigrate vs immigrate

message: I enjoyed this article. Amandajm (talk) 01:02, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks! Awadewit (talk) 23:50, 21 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: A good read

message: See this Raul654 (talk) 05:37, 24 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: News

message: With the new requirement for alt text in FAs, I have added alt text to each of the images here. Please adjust as necessary. The only image I could not add any to was the panorama. I did not see a field in the template documentation. Is there a way to add such a field to the template? Awadewit (talk) 21:05, 8 July 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks, I asked that the alt text parameter be added on both the Template talk:Panorama simple and Template talk:Wide image talk pages. Ruhrfisch  ><>°° 10:48, 11 July 2009 (UTC)
replies: text:  The parameter has finally been added, so I added alt text. It is my first attempt at such, so I was probably too prolix. Ruhrfisch  ><>°° 19:09, 22 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Alt text 

message: During a recent visit I noticed two things that were on the tour but not mentioned in this article. There is a well in the summer kitchen, about 40 feet deep IIRC. According to the tour guide this was unusual for the time. The tour guide also said that the excavations in the lab had turned up artifacts from Native Americans. I do not have reliable sources for either, but could look for them if these seemed like they should be added here. Ruhrfisch  ><>°° 10:54, 11 July 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: If you feel the need. :) Interestingly, our guide did not mention those facts. Awadewit (talk) 01:47, 24 July 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I will double check the sources I have to see if they mention the well. I have a (bad) photo of it. Ruhrfisch  ><>°° 03:52, 17 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Additions? 

message: The state legislature and governor cannot come up with a budget so the PHMC closed the Priestley House on August 14 indefintely along with three other PHMC museums. The employees were all furloughed. I added the closure to the article - hopefully when the budget is resolved something better will happen. Sigh. Ruhrfisch  ><>°° 03:52, 17 August 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: *sigh* Awadewit (talk) 04:07, 17 August 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: The Daily Item has a better story on it here - once the budget is resolved the Friends have a plan to operate it on weekends (better than nothing). I will reread that article and add details tomorrow. Sigh indeed. Ruhrfisch  ><>°° 04:09, 17 August 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: OK, I added the Nobel Prize and Preistley Medal letter and the Friends plan to the article. I left the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ref in because the Daily Item story mistakenly says the Conrad Weiser House is the fourth to be closed (the [Reading newspaper http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=150986] says it closed ealrier in August). Feel free to tweak, but my guess is this will change soon (please let the state legislature agree on a budget soon). Ruhrfisch  ><>°° 03:12, 18 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Closed

message: This house in Strasburg, 150px was "reportedIy" where JP lived before going to Northumberland. I included the basic information on this at the commons page.
The uneven roof line shows the age of the building - and I suspect there is something behind the "reportedly" but wouldn't want to mar a Featured article with unverified info.  Smallbones (talk) 21:23, 11 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't know - it doesn't look old enough (Priestley was there in the 18th century). Could we get a more exact source for the info? Awadewit (talk) 21:49, 11 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: The chimney looks old - if it is really old enough, it has had new siding, new windows, and I suspect the garage is a much more recent addition. Agree it needs a reliable source, thanks, Ruhrfisch  ><>°° 21:58, 11 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: No cars in the 1790s, eh? Awadewit (talk) 22:01, 11 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Just car-riages ;-) The other possibility I thought of was that the garage could be a conversion (take part of a house and make it into a garage), but that seems pretty unlikely. Ruhrfisch  ><>°° 22:07, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

text: I believed you all along and apologize for any impression I may have given that I did not. Thanks for the ref - good find! I had also tried to Google this and ran into the same problems you mentioned. There are two issues here - the first is that even the ref you gave (which I see as a reliable source) just says he "reportedly" lived here, so it would be nice to have a more detailed account - when, how long, says who? The second is how to include this in this article - at present the most I could see would be a mention of his living briefly in Strasburg on the way to Northumberland even with a more detailed source. If the "Priestley in America" article ever gets developed I can see this being mentioned there too. Ruhrfisch  ><>°° 04:04, 12 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Strasburg, Pennsylvania]] House 

message: I added two new bits to the article. One is a bit more on why Pond wanted to move the house to State College, referenced to a 1927 article in the Journal of Chemical Education (2 sentences, also split the paragraph after adding these). The second is on the renovation of the Pond building and its rededication recently. I added three sentences and reconfigured the last pargraph. There was room now, so I added a photo of the lab.
I made a visit recently and got some more photos, which I will upload soon. I have three things I do not have references for, but wanted to mention here: 
# The Pond Museum was fireproof, but not well ventilated, so it was very prone to mold before the renovation. That is why none of his papers were stored there long term, and they had to tear out the interior to the brick walls for the renovation.
# Several of the Priestley artifacts are no longer in the house as the PHMC has taken them back to Harrisburg. The chess pieces were gone (though not the board). Some of the scientific equipment in the lab seemed to be gone, and most of the items that were in the display cases in the parlor were gone. Apparently when the PHMC staff left, the PHMC took their toys and went home. Sigh.
# I have now heard two different stories from different guides as to why the kitchen looks different compared to the rest of the house. The one story is that it was the first room restored and they mistakenly did it in Colonial style instead of Federal style. The second is that around 1927 a locomotive's boiler exploded outside the house (there used to be train tracks on Priestley Ave), and destroyed or damaged much of the kitchen, so it had to be rebuilt/restored. I know there used to be tracks there, and note that the two stories are not mutually exclusive (the second could have led to the first). I do think it odd that none of the sources I have seen mention an exploding steam engine, which is a pretty good story. 
Anyway, I thought I would mention these here, and will keep an eye out for reliable sources / verification for these. Ruhrfisch  ><>°° 16:55, 23 November 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Professor Pond and Pond building renovations 

message: I have updated the external link to the American Chemical Society National Historic Chemical Landmarks (NHCL) resource about this topic and updated the citation. The earlier citation, which lists Suplee as author, is not supported by the prior or the updated link, so I have removed that name as author and replaced with the program name. I am the program coordinator of the ACS-NHCL program, and the page that was referenced has been replaced with http://portal.acs.org/portal/PublicWebSite/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/josephpriestleyoxygen/index.htm. KLindblom (talk) 15:50, 15 March 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for the updated link - I have restored Curtis Suplee as the author as the new link used lists him as such "Acknowledgments: Produced by the American Chemical Society in 2004. Written by Curtis Suplee." Ruhrfisch  ><>°° 18:45, 15 March 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Update Link

message: Katbun (talk) 20:00, 3 August 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: Arbitrary section break

message: I have removed the comment "Please discuss adding a regular infobox to this page before doing so; we have tried it before but haven't found a good way yet - Thanks!" and added a "regular" infobox, which I have found a good way for. Apparently, all the parameters are there, plus the article now has new hidden categories that categorize this as a NRHP Landmark. Whoever wrote this comment, you're welcome. epic genius (talk) 02:34, 6 November 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Infobox's hidden comment 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 13 external links on Joseph Priestley House. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080725182416/http://www.priestleychapel.org/beginning.htm to http://www.priestleychapel.org/beginning.htm
*Added archive https://archive.is/20120713190748/http://portal.acs.org/portal/PublicWebSite/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/josephpriestleyoxygen/index.htm to http://portal.acs.org/portal/PublicWebSite/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/josephpriestleyoxygen/index.htm
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20071123075300/http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/ppet/priestley/page1.asp?secid=31 to http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/ppet/priestley/page1.asp?secid=31
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20071101074841/http://www.dickinson.edu/news/priestley/index.html to http://www.dickinson.edu/news/priestley/index.html
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090425000705/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=500&ResourceType=Building to http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=500&ResourceType=Building
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20071101074841/http://www.dickinson.edu/news/priestley/index.html to http://www.dickinson.edu/news/priestley/index.html
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090425000705/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=500&ResourceType=Building to http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=500&ResourceType=Building
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080725182416/http://www.priestleychapel.org/beginning.htm to http://www.priestleychapel.org/beginning.htm
*Added archive https://archive.is/20130121215938/http://www.dailyitem.com/0100_news/local_story_077161557.html to http://www.dailyitem.com/0100_news/local_story_077161557.html
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*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20071123075300/http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/ppet/priestley/page1.asp?secid=31 to http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/ppet/priestley/page1.asp?secid=31
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 04:09, 30 September 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified