Lancaster Gunsmiths of the Early Republic

Posted by on Apr 17, 2026 in | Comments Off on Lancaster Gunsmiths of the Early Republic In August 2026, as the nation marks the 250th anniversary of American independence, Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum will open Lancaster Gunsmiths of the Early Republic, a major exhibition exploring the artistry, innovation and historical significance of Lancaster County firearms during the Revolutionary era and the early years of the United States. Presented as part of the national...
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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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Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania 50

Posted by on Jun 11, 2025 in | Comments Off on Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania 50 Rising from the rolling hills and lush farmlands of Lancaster County is a sprawling complex of exhibit buildings, train tracks, and historic railroad equipment. Together, they tell the story of how railroads changed the lives of people for more than two centuries. For 50 years now, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania has preserved and interpreted the commonwealth’s rich railroad history. It has...
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Historic County Prisons in Pennsylvania

Posted by on Oct 21, 2024 in | Comments Off on Historic County Prisons in Pennsylvania This 1906 postcard shows the castle-like Montgomery County Prison in Norristown. It has stood guard over the city since it was first built on Airy Street in 1851. The building was designed by notable Philadelphia architect Napoleon LeBrun (1821–1901), who was also responsible for the 1852 Schuylkill County Prison and numerous churches, courthouses and other important public buildings. LeBrun was...
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Carved in Stone, Revealed in New Light: Early Gravestone Carvers and Funerary Folk Culture of the Pennsylvania Dutch

Posted by on Aug 9, 2024 in | Comments Off on Carved in Stone, Revealed in New Light: Early Gravestone Carvers and Funerary Folk Culture of the Pennsylvania Dutch In the winter of 1747, tragedy struck in the Tulpehocken Valley. Leonard Rieth (1691–1747) — among the first German-speaking settlers to journey into the valley from Schoharie, New York, in 1723 — was crushed by two cogs in his gristmill along the Mill Creek. Rieth’s untimely death also coincided with a schism that divided the Lutheran congregation that bore his family name: Rieth’s (later...
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Clocks of the Cloister

Posted by on Mar 29, 2024 in | Comments Off on Clocks of the Cloister In 1732 German mystic Conrad Beissel (1691–1768) came to the region known as the Cocalico. This was an undeveloped wilderness where he hoped to find solitude with God. Soon, fellow seekers of God came to be with him. Together, they created the Camp of the Solitudes, which quickly took the biblical name “Ephrata.” Those on the outside called it the Ephrata Cloister. This community grew rapidly...
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Songs of the Saron: Ephrata Cloister’s Women Composers

Posted by on May 13, 2022 in | Comments Off on Songs of the Saron: Ephrata Cloister’s Women Composers   In the mid-18th century, a small religious community thrived at what is known today as Ephrata Cloister on the banks of the Cocalico Creek in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County. Founded in 1732 by German immigrant Conrad Beissel (1691–1768), the group was composed of celibate Brothers and Sisters who lived lives of religious devotion and self-denial, supported in part by the married members...
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Downtown Lancaster

Posted by on Mar 17, 2022 in | Comments Off on Downtown Lancaster As this circa 1922 postcard of North Queen Street suggests, by the turn of the 20th century, downtown Lancaster had become a busy commercial hub and mecca for shoppers. While Penn Square at the intersection of King and Queen streets marks the historic heart of the city, North Queen Street was lined with amenities for shoppers and visitors alike. Hotels, theaters, department stores, banks,...
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“From My Own Observation and Familiar Acquaintance”: Phebe Earle Gibbons Introduces the Pennsylvania Dutch to the World

Posted by on Jun 4, 2021 in | Comments Off on “From My Own Observation and Familiar Acquaintance”: Phebe Earle Gibbons Introduces the Pennsylvania Dutch to the World   “It was on a Sunday morning in March, when the air was bleak and the roads were execrable, that I obtained a driver to escort me to the farm-house where an Amish meeting was to be held,” wrote Phebe Earle Gibbons (1821–93), describing a Lancaster County Amish religious gathering in the late 1860s. “The floors were bare, but on one of the open doors hung a long white towel,...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Jun 3, 2021 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter Twenty years ago, Pennsylvania became the setting for one of the most tragic but heroic episodes in recent U.S. history, when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a meadow in Somerset County after passengers fought back at al-Qaeda hijackers who had planned to use the aircraft for an attack on an unknown target in Washington, D.C. In this issue we mark the somber anniversary of 9/11 with the...
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