This month, in recognition of Black History Month, “History Matters” examines the life and legacy of Wilmington baseball great Judy Johnson, who died in 1989.

Johnson—a long time Wilmington resident—was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1975 – the first Delawarean to earn a place in Cooperstown.
Johnson was elected to the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame in its inaugural 1976 class.
Still, Johnson’s feats on the diamond and later work as a coach and scout for the Philadelphia Athletics and Phillies remain largely unknown to most Delawareans.

Delaware has long treasured the artwork of Howard Pyle, including the Wilmington native’s iconic paintings of pirates that continue to influence pop culture today. Currently, as part of its centennial celebration, the Delaware Art Museum is featuring Pyle’s work in an exhibition called “Howard Pyle: American Master Rediscovered”

In conjunction with the Pyle exhibition, the Delaware Art Museum is also focusing on the work of one of Pyle’s distant descendants – who has found a new way to honor his famous relative’s larger than life works by making them a whole lot smaller.

DFM News’ Patrick Mairs visited the Delaware Art Museum to take a look at Dana Pyle’s Howard Pyle miniatures.

For the past five years, Mary Alice Panarello of Wilmington has booked six weeks at the beach spanning the month of August, a premium period. The first three years were spent in a single-family cottage near the Rehoboth Avenue circle. But last year, she learned that the agency had booked the property to someone else for the entire summer. Left scrambling, she finally found a condo in a multi-unit building.

For the coming season, she took no chances. She booked in December 2011. And Panarello isn’t the only one getting a jump on a beach house.

For years, Carol Raymond crafted sun catchers, small panels, and jewelry from stained glass, earning pin money at craft fairs. Now her colorful creations catch the eye of potential customers walking the streets of New Castle’s historic district, thanks to the display space she has in an artists’ co-op called A Menagerie of Artisans at Penn’s Place.
Throughout the state, commercial and creative collaborations among artists through co-ops and other ventures are burgeoning. At Bellefonte Arts, more than 50 artists showcase hand-crafted works, ranging from fabric bowls to raku pottery. At Angelucci Studios & Artists Galleries in Milford, more than 30 artists immerse themselves in woodworking, stained glass, painting and other pursuits.

There’s been a flurry of good news lately for Delawareans who like to enjoy alcoholic beverages.

Earlier this month, town leaders in Milton gave the go ahead to an expansion of the Dogfish Head Brewery. On January 5, a bill was introduced to create a special type of liquor license for the Queen Theater in downtown Wilmington, much like the special licenses created by the General Assembly for Dover International Speedway and Frawley Stadium. And the state laws governing beer tasting have become more liberal in recent years.

While things are getting a bit more permissive, the First State is still behind the times when it comes to opening up the booze floodgates.

As America commemorates the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, we look at the Delaware Historical Society’s collection of wartime envelopes and stationery. Long before soldiers could text and phone their families back home, boys in blue and gray put their thoughts and feelings into letters, some decorated with elaborate and, at times, politically incendiary artwork and cartoons. The now-valuable collection of some 250 artifacts provides a unique perspective on the war and on political communication then and now.

Fictional Scotland Yard detective Ian Rutledge tackles murder cases throughout Britain, from London to Cornwall to Dorset to Durham, giving readers both a delicious mystery and a post World War I travelogue.

His creators, however, have a Delaware background. Caroline Todd lives in Delaware while co-author Charles Todd, her son, grew up here. (He now lives in North Carolina.) Together, as Charles Todd, they pen the Ian Rutledge novels.

The 15th book in the Rutledge series, “The Confession,” is scheduled for release on Jan. 3, and in honor of the event, the Todds will appear at the Newark Free Library at 7 p.m.

New Years Eve is one of those holidays that can be tough for families to celebrate because it’s a late night event often geared towards reveling adults, and not young children.

That’s why in the past thousands of families flocked to First Night celebrations in Dover and Wilmington offering kid-centric activities and a safe night out on the town for children and their parents. Alas, Wilmington canceled its First Night event last year, and this year Dover followed suit.

Now there’s a New Years vacuum when it comes to family-friendly events throughout the state; and the few options that do exist are filling up fast, or are outside of the state.

It is five minutes before 10 a.m., and a small group had gathered outside the doors of the Brandywine Hundred Library, waiting for it to open. Once inside, many headed up the stairs to the second level, where the computers sat waiting. By 10:45 a.m., all the computers were in use. A man with a wide-brimmed hat surfed the Web for jobs, while two missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints emailed family and friends.

The three patrons demonstrate how library use has changed with technology. It also demonstrates how Delaware libraries are adapting to the demand.

DFM News is proud to debut a new monthly feature, “History Matters,” produced in partnership with the Delaware Historical Society. This month in our first edition of “History Matters” we focus on a long-standing Christmas tradition: Christmas Seals. The origin of Christmas Seals in the United States traces back to the First State in 1907. That year, Wilmington native Emily Bissell took an idea that had found success in Denmark and brought it to America where it still raising money for the American Lung Association today.