From the Executive Director

Posted by on Apr 17, 2026 in | Comments Off on From the Executive Director Over the past 40 years, technology has transformed how people connect — with one another and with information. At the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission (PHMC), we’ve seen remarkable progress in using digital tools to enhance engagement with the history we steward: the documents, maps and photographs preserved in the Pennsylvania State Archives; information about historical...
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The Hobby That Became a Museum: Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum, 1925–2025

Posted by on Aug 29, 2025 in | Comments Off on The Hobby That Became a Museum: Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum, 1925–2025 Brothers Henry Landis (1865–1955) and George Landis (1867–1954), the founders of Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum, were descendants of Germanic Mennonite families who moved to the area that would become Lancaster County in 1717. As young boys, Henry and George were encouraged by their forward-thinking parents and several teachers to pursue their personal interests and begin collecting....
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Two Hundred Years: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, edited by David R. Brigham

Posted by on Oct 21, 2024 in | Comments Off on Two Hundred Years: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, edited by David R. Brigham Two Hundred Years The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1824–2024 edited by David R. Brigham Historical Society of Pennsylvania, distributed by the University of Pennsylvania Press, 256 pp., hardcover $39.95 In 1824 the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) was founded “to collect and preserve the evidences of Pennsylvania’s own history from the earliest date.” Since then HSP has amassed a...
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From the Executive Director

Posted by on Jun 3, 2021 in | Comments Off on From the Executive Director For a long time, the Smithsonian Institution has called itself “The Nation’s Attic.” The name conjures up its role as America’s memory. Storerooms hold bits and pieces of the lives of Americans, famous and less celebrated. That metaphor also works for us here at PHMC. We consider ourselves to be like a Pennsylvania version of the Smithsonian museums, capturing the broad history of the...
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From the Executive Director

Posted by on Apr 15, 2020 in | Comments Off on From the Executive Director People often think of history as events in the distant past, so it’s perhaps natural that visitors to our PHMC sites look for objects from Pennsylvania’s earliest historic periods. Our collections do not disappoint. If you wander through The State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg, you’ll find fluted projectile points from the Shoop archaeological site in Dauphin County that date to the last...
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Mystery of the Monongahela Culture: Archaeology at Foley Farm

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Mystery of the Monongahela Culture: Archaeology at Foley Farm In 1939, anthropologist Mary Butler identified and formally named the Monongahela Woodland Culture, a prehistoric Indian way of life centered in the Monongahela Valley of south­western Pennsylvania, west­ern Maryland and parts of northern West Virginia. Dr. Butler’s reasons for naming this prehistoric Indian culture were, in part, based on ar­chaeological investigations sponsored by the...
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1928 Pennant at Conrad Weiser Homestead

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on 1928 Pennant at Conrad Weiser Homestead During an age of uncertainty, marked by tenuous alliances and shifting allegiances, Conrad Weiser (1696-1760) emerged to become many things to many people: frontiersman, interpreter, treaty-maker, negotiator, Indian agent, and justice. During the French and Indian War, he played a pivotal role as a provincial officer and diplomat. Nearly two hundred years after his death, the Conrad Weiser...
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2010 PHMC Photography Contest

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on 2010 PHMC Photography Contest The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is hosting a great way to showcase your photography of historic sites along the Trails of History. Contest Rules: The contest runs from July 1, 2010, through January 1, 2011. Photographs must have been taken by the person entering the contest within the last three years (since June 30, 2007) at any PHMC Trails of History historic site....
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