PNB Blog
American Stories: Anne A. Lawrence, An Improbable Trans Ballerina
America's founders declared the pursuit of happiness to be an unalienable human right, on a par with the right to life itself. Despite an underlying [...]
American Stories: Joyce Ramée, PNB Orchestra
My family was a hodgepodge of national backgrounds, but my generation (late baby boomer) and our previous two generations were all American-born. My parents grew [...]
American Stories: Marsha Bennion, Publications Manager
My great-grandmother, Amelia, was born in 1854 and emigrated from Crewkerne, England, a grimy factory town. It took Amelia’s father three years to earn passage [...]
American Stories: Josh TerAvest, Associate Director of Marketing
My mother grew up on a dairy farm in central California as part of a very close knit Dutch community. My mom’s side of the [...]
American Stories: Karen Portzer, PNB Accounting Analyst
My American Story begins with Swiss emigrants in the mid-1700’s who left their homeland to settle in the fertile farmlands of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. When I [...]
American Stories: Rosselle Pekelis, Former Washington Supreme Court Judge
A few days after my birth in Florence, Italy, in 1938, my mother read the headline in the Italian newspaper: “The Jews are not of [...]
American Stories: Tad Margelli, PNB Orchestra
My mother and father (both Northwestern University graduates) taught vocal music for many years in the Tacoma School District. My mother’s father was an Army [...]
American Stories: Michael Jinsoo Lim, Concertmaster
For my parents, America meant opportunity. Individually, they came to the US from Korea in the 1950’s, meeting for the first time in Chicago, and [...]
American Stories: Kristen Ramer Liang, Engagement Manager/Executive Assistant
Built in 1902 by my great-grandfather, painted white to keep cool in scorching North Dakota summers, the simple, sturdy farmhouse in this photo has witnessed [...]