New Museum

TREASURE FROM 1606 WRECK SOUGHT TO PAY OFF 1996 DEBT Honduras is looking for gold under the sea - silver, too - in order to pay off its debts. The government said yesterday that it was seeking international financing to help recover 20 Spanish galleons that went down in the Caribbean, carrying as much as $3 billion in gold and silver. It wants to use the money to reduce the country's $4.1 billion foreign debt. In 1993, the government determined that the galleon San Roque sank in 1606 in what are now Honduran waters.

Now that a stunning design has been unveiled for the Center for the American Revolution at Valley Forge National Historical Park, it is easier to believe that the museum will get built. At the design's debut on Tuesday, Gov. Rendell pledged $12 million in state economic-stimulus funds to the $100 million project. Joining the governor was Montgomery County Commissioners chair Jim Matthews, who added another $2.5 million. Both understand the wisdom of investing in the project as a potent regional tourism attraction.

Gail Ferretti, a local artist, had seen The Gross Clinic only in art books, newspapers and magazines. So she was excited as she stood in a line last night waiting to enter gallery 151 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. There, in its gold frame, hung the 19th-century painting by Thomas Eakins, which has become the cause of much angst and joy in Eakins' home city. "I have seen it in print, and the colors always look different," Ferretti said. "I want to see what the real colors look like.

The National Museum of American Jewish History, which yesterday announced a $25 million donation from Sidney Kimmel toward its $100 million rebuilding campaign, may receive $2 million from the state before Gov. Schweiker leaves office in January. "We're considering it right now," Schweiker's spokesman, Michael Lukens, said yesterday. "We expect to be acting fairly soon. . . . I can tell you that one thing we look for is a significant commitment at the local level, and [Kimmel's donation]

Tucked away on a tree-lined street in Center City Philadelphia is a museum that, since 1888, has been the repository of historical significance. The Civil War Library and Museum, located at 1805 Pine St., has accumulated over the years 3,000 artifacts, 7,000 photographs, a 13,000-volume library, and a trove of manuscripts, letters and documents. Our region came close to losing some of these treasured and historic items. Recently, an amicable settlement was reached following a lawsuit filed by the State Attorney Gen. Michael Fisher, State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo (D., Phila.

A colorful working carousel will jut from the facade of the Please Touch Museum's new home on Penn's Landing. New exhibits will relate to nearby real-life experiences, such as bridges on the north side, water on the east, roads and transportation on the south, and the urban landscape on the west. Children will be able to ride a reproduction of the monorail from the old John Wanamaker's toy department. And in the summer, 28,000 square feet of outdoor space will be programmed for outdoor activities, including water sports, weather experiments and climbing.

A modern-day Baron von Steuben may be needed to marshal disgruntled factions at Valley Forge. Neighbors, park rangers and interest groups are in an uproar over the latest proposal to build an American Revolution museum - this time on private land within the park's congressionally designated boundary. While all parties claim a common goal - improving visitors' experience by better telling the Revolution story - that shared value has been clouded in recent weeks by accusations and misinformation.

Ask most folks where Valley Forge is, and you'll get the local answer: "Down the street from the King of Prussia Mall. " Well, anyway, that's where Pennsylvania designated Valley Forge to be when it was declared a state park in 1893. Given all the unwarranted controversy over a proposed new museum at the location, it's important to remember that there doesn't seem to be any record or detailed map of all that the encampment involved. We know that Gen. George Washington kept lookouts on Rebel Hill, near Conshohocken, to watch for British soldiers coming from Philadelphia.

A proposed Revolutionary War museum in Valley Forge, long stalled by bureaucratic wrangling, moved closer to reality yesterday after a crucial endorsement by the U.S. secretary of the interior. Fresh support for the plan came, fittingly perhaps, on the day the nation celebrated the anniversary of its independence. Gov. Rendell and U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) appeared at a holiday parade in Glenside to announce that Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne had written to Congress on Monday urging the project's approval.

In colonial times, Burlington County excelled in a lot of endeavors, but the county was noted especially for its clocks. Ten of those clocks - made from the mid-18th to the mid-19th century, when the area boasted 18 clockmakers - are owned by the Burlington County Historical Society, which until now has not had the right place to display them. But even with the Oct. 15 opening of the society's new $500,000 museum, the clocks won't be on display. Visitors will have to wait until next October, when the county celebrates its 300th birthday, to see the clocks, along with quilts, samplers, photographs and other memorabilia that the society has been collecting since 1915, the year the group was founded.