Times Leader September 22, 2009 LCCC History Conference SUE GANNIS Times Leader Correspondent
NANTICOKE — The historical connection between health care — then and now — in the Wyoming Valley is set to be studied in depth at the 19th Annual History of Northeastern Pennsylvania Conference.
History of Health Care: Past, Present & Future, planned for Oct. 9 at Luzerne County Community College, will feature a panel of local physicians and educators discussing topics such as the origin of the current health care crisis, its impact particularly on our area and how changes in the system might affect the types or extent of care patients can expect.
Given the current Congressional debate revolving around health care legislation, organizer William Kashatus believes this conference is especially timely.
With health care in a crisis situation with the insurance industry and malpractice, this is one topic that people want, said Kashatus, assistant professor of history/social science at LCCC. Our goal is to educate the public on an issue that is of importance to them.
The free conference will begin at 9 a.m. with brief opening remarks by Kashatus and Anthony Brooks, director of the Luzerne County Historical Society.
At 11:00 there will be a Living History presentation & Film, dramatized by local historian Victoriana Lady Lisa Lewis. She will portray Esther Tinsley, who started the Nesbitt Hospital in Kingston and the Pittston Hospital and the School of Nursing in Pittston. She will then show the local documentary film Haven on the Hill about Esther Tinsley of Pittston Hospital, in which Ms. Lewis plays the leading role.
The keynote speaker in the morning session is the organizer’s father, Dr. William Kashatus. He is a retired oncologist from Geisinger Health System but also has experience in both the corporate and academic worlds.
My father will bring very interesting insights, Kashatus said.
The morning session will also include a discussion, Changing Landscape of Nursing, led by Dana Clark, LCCC Nursing Department chairperson.
The afternoon session begins at 1:30 p.m. The panel of experts discussing and debating the future of health care in Northeastern Pennsylvania includes Dr. Doris Bartuska, former dean/professor of Women’s Medical College; Dr. John F. McGeehan from Horizon Medical Group; and Dr. Robert Wright, the director of Scranton Temple Residency Program.
The main question-and-answer session for the public is in the afternoon.
This session will cut to the chase on the future of health care in Northeast PA, advises Kashatus. The panel is very well qualified to flush out the relevant questions about health care.
Victoriana Lady Lisa Lewis, local historian, portraying Nurse Esther Tinsley for Haven On The Hill DVD filming
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Ancestors Margaret & husband Anselm Bosch
THE TIMES LEADER-
February 16, 2009 Victorian Friendship Society recalls gentler time By Mary Therese Biebelmbiebel@timesleader.com Features Writer According to a family legend, Lisa Lewis said, one of her ancestors worked as a parlor maid for the wealthy Kirby family during the Civil War era. Her name was Margaret, and one day she was shaking a dust cloth out the window of her employer’s mansion in Wilkes-Barre.Lisa Lewis explains the meaning of Victorian Valentine’s Day cards at the Frederick Stegmaier Mansion Bed & Breakfast during a Victorian Valentine customs event organized by Lewis. Young Anselm Bosch, an immigrant from Baden, Germany, was walking down the street and noticed her. Something about her caught his fancy, Lewis said. He turned to his friend and said, There’s the girl I’m going to marry. Of course, there was none of this whistling or Hey, cutie the way you might hear today. In those days, he would have inquired of her. He would have asked about her and asked to be introduced. Lewis, a 44-year-old mother of four from West Pittston, relishes that story, not only because it tells how the grandparents of her great-grandfather got together, but because it reflects the decorum that guided polite society during her favorite historical time period — the Victorian era.Back then, you didn’t want to disgrace yourself or your family, Lewis said last week during a meeting of the Victorian Friendship Society of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Lewis founded the society to bring together other fans of what she calls a kinder, gentler time. Several of the two dozen guests who attended the recent gathering at the Frederick Stegmaier Mansion B&B in downtown Wilkes-Barre wore Victorian or Edwardian clothing, which added to the feeling that the clock had turned back several decades.One woman appeared to be dressed appropriately for first-class passage on The Titanic. You look like Lady Astor, Lewis told her admiringly. Another member from West Pittston looked as if she had stepped out of the sound set for Gone With the Wind in a plaid dress with a hoop skirt that she made herself. She said she plans to wear the dress – with a different top – during a Civil War Ball set for April 18 at The Century Club in Scranton. Lewis's husband, Bob, wore a vintage suit and Lewis herself, who discussed the fancy valentine greetings of the Victorian era during the meeting, wore a dark two-piece dress with a matching hat that had been a bridal ensemble from the late 19th century. Many brides didn’t wear white in those days. They wore their best dress, which they would have worn again and again, she explained. In other aspects of Victorian life, she said, men and women developed subtle methods of communication, such as a lady deliberately dropping a hanky to give a gentleman an excuse to approach her. Lewis gave her talk in the library of the Frederick Stegmaier Mansion, a room filled with such elaborate Victorian touches as a painting of The Birth of Venus on the transom above the door.The setting delighted her audience. As did the outfits.
Just look at this house. Number one is the decor, Carol Ashton of Wilkes-Barre said, explaining why she finds the Victorian era fascinating. Just look at the opulence (owner) Joe (Matteo) has restored to this B&B. Lewis said she’s been a fan of the late 19th and early 20th centuries since her girlhood, when she read such classics as Little Women and Anne of Green Gables. She enjoyed playing dress-up back then, and admits with a chuckle, I still do. The Victoriana Lady gives members of the Victorian Friendship Society monthly opportunities to admire Victorian clothes, decor and architecture.Upcoming Society events include an afternoon tea and tour of the Shearer Elegance Bed & Breakfast in Linfield on March 28, a tour of a tea room and antique shops in Gettysburg on April 25 and another visit to the Stegmaier Mansion on May 18. On June 6, they’ll attend a Victoria tea and fashion show at the Lands at Hillside Farms in Trucksville. It will be so nice to be outside and have a breath of spring, one member said, looking ahead to the June tea. For now, Lewis said, revisiting the Victorian era is a way to escape the craziness of the world. She is available to give talks about the Victorian era or stage a Victorian fashion show to any interested group.
If you woke up in the Swetland Homestead on Christmas morning long, long ago, you probably wouldn’t have dashed downstairs to open presents.
Mary Ruth and Aoife Burke string popped corn for a tree at the Swetland Homestead.
Ciaran Burke, 11, plays a fiddle as he portrays young Eleazer Swetland, a 19th-century resident of the Swetland Homestead.
It wasn’t a day off, said Mary Ruth Burke, acting executive director of the Luzerne County Historical Society. The homestead was a farm, and there were chores to do.
After those earlier residents of Wyoming Valley had pumped water and fed the animals, then they could think about celebrating – perhaps with candy-filled cornucopias and a feast of oyster stew, ham and turkey.
If you’d like to see how families of the past made merry, the Historical Society invites you to candelight tours of the Swetland Homestead in Wyoming on Thursday through Dec. 7
As you walk through the historic building, costumed re-enactors will offer a glimpse into the lives of real Swetland family members.
Representing 1797 – the earliest year portrayed — Hannah Tiffany Swetland can be found in the kitchen, reading her Bible.
By 1810, Hannah and Luke Swetland’s son Belding and daughter-in-law Sally were raising children at the homestead. In the re-enactment, the family decorates a small Christmas tree with such natural materials as nuts and popped corn, and 14-year-old Eleazer Swetland plays the fiddle while his mother teaches his sisters, 12-year-old Betsy and 5-year-old Almira, to dance the minuet.
By 1855, the family’s decorations and clothing had become more elaborate.
In keeping with Victorian style, Caroline Swetland Pettebone wears a fancy lace collar and cuffs on her dress, her husband, Payne, wears his best waistcoat, and the parlor boasts a larger Christmas tree, complete with a garden village beneath it.
Modern visitors won’t taste the turkey, ham, beets and salsify (another root vegetable) of past Christmas feasts at Swetland, but there will be some refreshments.
We’ll be serving hot spiced apple cider and baked goods, Burke said. It’s a Swetland tradition.
When: 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday and Dec. 5-6; 1 to 5 p.m. Dec. 6-7.
Admission: $5 general, $3 children.
More info: 823-6244
Katie Kearney portrays Hannah Swetland circa 1797.
10-year-old Roisin Burke portrays Kate Pettebone in 1855. In those days of unheated upstairs rooms, Kate would have worn a hat to bed.
THE TIMES TRIBUNE NEWS
Namedropper
Victorian Society rides train in style
Published: Sunday, August 31, 2008 8:37 AM EDT
— MEGAN REITER — TERRY BONIFANTI
Victorian Society rides train in style.
Northeast Pennsylvania’s Victorian Friendship Society gathered at Steamtown’s National Historic Site on Saturday to take a trip back in time.
Actually, it was a locomotive train ride to Moscow during Lackawanna Railfest, but the group, dressed in Victorian era costumes, helped transport other riders back more than a century.
Departing on the train dressed in authentic Victorian attire was society director Lisa Lewis, who is known as Victoriana Lady. They’ve very warm, Ms. Lewis said of the clothing, but I'm used to it.
The society knows how to accessorize, 19th century-style: One train seat held a parasol, fan and antique handbag as well.
Victoriana Lady Lisa director of Victorian Friendship Society of Pa On Steam Town Train
05/28/2007
Love of Victorian era turns into a vocation
BY ELIZABETH SKRAPITS STAFF WRITER
WILKES-BARRE — In the meticulously restored parlor of the Stegmaier mansion on South Franklin Street, Lisa Lewis looks like she stepped out of the society pages of a turn-of-the-century newspaper.
The 19th century, that is. Modeling Victorian Fashions
Her outfit, an authentic 1900 lingerie summer ensemble, is accented with period jewelry and a hat she trimmed herself. And the exquisite Victorian decor at the mansion is the perfect setting for it.
Lewis is a re-enactor and lecturer, specializing in the costumes and customs of the Victorian era, also known as the Gilded Age, and the Edwardian era — think 1912 and the Titanic. Her area of expertise is in the years 1870 to 1920.
I always wanted to have my own business. I was an art major by training; I love history; I wanted to be creative, Lewis said. It’s everything I love rolled into one. I’m very fortunate.
She has always been an avid reader, starting with classics like the 1908 bestseller Anne of Green Gables, as a child.
I have been fascinated with the Victorian era since I was in junior high school, the Pittston Area graduate said.
When she was in 10th grade, she went to her first estate sale with a friend’s mother, and got hooked. Today Lewis boasts an extensive collection of Victoriana, some bought, some donated. Many people have given her clothing from their great-grandmothers, knowing Lewis would appreciate it.
Some of the pieces are very unusual, like a nursing corset (They had corsets for everything, Lewis remarked) and a negligee from a bridal trousseau. Her collection of children’s clothing is a big hit at schools — when she did a presentation for her daughter’s kindergarten class at Wyoming Area recently, the kids didn’t want her to leave.
Lewis lives in West Pittston — In a Victorian home, of course, — with her four children.
The demands of motherhood mean it’s not always easy for Lewis to find time to pursue her passion, but immersing herself in the Victorian era is the way she relaxes.
I think the reason I’m so drawn to the era is our society is so fast-paced any more. Everything is so hurry-up and technical, and I just need to get away from that sometimes, she said. The Victorian era was an era of elegance and ambiance and manners. Of course there were problems, but it was a simpler time. It wasn’t hustle and bustle and deadlines. You could savor things — you can’t do that any more.
Lewis started as a Victorian re-enactor in 2003, when she and some other mothers of young children in West Pittston formed The Pleasure of Tea and Friendship Society. Each tea party had a different theme. At one of them, a friend asked Lewis to wear her Victorian costume because her 80-year-old mother and two great-aunts would love it.
It was about that time the demand for Lewis’ Victorian garb and expertise began to grow. She participated in a Wilkes-Barre trolley tour. People were asking her to host tea parties for their daughters, mothers, friends.
I started thinking, I’m onto something, Lewis said.
At first, in addition to wearing costumes, Lewis catered the tea parties. She stopped bringing food two years ago when new state regulations required her to install a commercial kitchen in her home.
A year ago Lewis was approached by John Dziak of the Greater Pittston Historical Society, where she has lectured, to play the role of young Esther Tinsley, administrator of Pittston Hospital in a documentary, Haven on the Hill. Tinsley, the first female hospital administrator in the country, arrived in the area in 1910 to work at Nesbitt Hospital in Kingston.
She read about the Stegmaier Mansion on South Franklin Street being renovated by owner Joe Matteo and asked him if he’d be interested. He said he had been looking for someone like her to give tours.
It was the beginning of a great working relationship. In fact, her latest project is a DVD presentation filmed there called Victorian Fashions at the Mansion.
Lewis does tours and events at The Lands at Hillside Farms, and in October she took part in a Victorian funeral at the Swetland Homestead. She’s working on an Ellis Island program, and gives a presentation on the subject to Clark Switzer’s eighth grade class at Wyoming Seminary.
Lewis is also starting a Pennsylvania Victorian society, and asks anyone who’s interested to contact her at Lisa@victorianalady.com
NEED A PUBLIC SPEAKER? Call Now For Available Dates & Programs
Contact Lisa Lewis at (570) 655-8392 P. O. Box 3278 West Pittston PA 18643 E-mail: Lisa @victorianalady.com
Victoriana Lady has been honored to receive donations from individuals who would like their loved ones antique garments preserved and their history shared. Any item, in any condition before 1930 will be cherished and given due acknowledgement in my traveling museum programs.
Please contact me if you are interested in being a part of history
Sincere thanks, Victoriana Lady Lisa E-mail: Lisa@Victorianalady.com
