Community Calendar

The Community Calendar

A central part of LancasterHistory’s mission is to support the needs and interests of history-oriented organizations in our region and to bring into greater focus the extraordinary opportunities for learners of all ages to experience America’s past in Lancaster County and the surrounding region. LancasterHistory is proud to provide this Community Calendar to highlight upcoming events of history-focused institutions and organizations. Looking for LancasterHistory’s main events calendar? View events calendar.

How To Submit An Event

If you are an authorized representative of a Lancaster County-based, history-focused institution or organization, please fill out our Community Calendar Submission form to submit your event for inclusion on this webpage. Before submitting, however, we highly recommend you review our Community Calendar Guidelines [PDF, 217kb]. A LancasterHistory staff member moderates this Community Calendar. Questions about this calendar can be directed to info@lancasterhistory.org. Submit Event to Community Calendar COMMUNITY CALENDAR GUIDELINES [PDF, 217KB]

Calendar Guidelines & Disclaimers

Each submission will be reviewed and must be in compliance with our Community Calendar Guidelines [PDF, 217kb]. LancasterHistory will do its best to make sure all information on this calendar is correct and up-to-date. Despite our efforts, some information may be incorrect or may have been submitted incorrectly to us. We apologize for any inconvenience. Listings below may contain URLs to other organizations’ or institutions’ websites or ticketing pages, or other third-party URLs. These URLs do not constitute official endorsement on behalf of LancasterHistory and are for informational purposes only. LancasterHistory is not responsible for those URLs, the content found on those webpages being linked to, or those website’s privacy policies and policies on collecting data.

“Expressions of Strength: A Celebration of Black Art and Identity” Opening Reception 

Who: Lancaster Art Vault
What: Exhibition 
When: Friday, January 30 | 6-8:30pm 
Where: Lancaster Art Vault, 100 North Queen Street, 1st Floor 
Cost: Free and open to the public. 
 
The Lancaster Art Vault proudly presents Expressions of Strength: A Celebration of Black Art and Identity. This dynamic exhibition honors the creativity, resilience, and powerful voices of Black artists through a multidisciplinary experience that brings visual art, poetry, and performance together under one roof. The exhibition features the work of 9 visual artists alongside the words of 13 poets, whose writing will be woven throughout the gallery, creating a rich dialogue between image and language.  The exhibition also includes works by notable artists Charles Bibbs, Ernie Barnes, and others from the private collection of renowned talk show host Beverly Smith, curated by her late brother, Lenwood Sloan.  

The exhibition runs January 30 through February 28, with a free opening reception on January 30 from 6-8:30PM featuring visual art, poetry, live performances, community and refreshments – We hope you will join us for an immersive celebration of artistic expression, culture, and identity.

Opening Reception – January 30th 6:00PM-8:30PM:

Celebrate the opening of this extraordinary exhibition with an evening of art, community, and live performances. The reception will feature a spoken word experience led by Sir Dominique Jordan and others, African Drumming performed by Gerri McCritty & the PAVAA Crew, a live fire painting by King Prolifik, and refreshments and celebration.   

Guests will enjoy: Light fare and a cash bar provided in partnership with Mark and Val Wines and Gourmet Market Lancaster. 

“Massacre of the Conestogas’ Updated”

Who: Millersville Area Historical Society 
What: Presentation 
When: Saturday, February 14 | 9-10:30am 
Where: Millersville Borough Administration & Police Building, 100 Municipal Drive
Cost: Free and open to the public. Registration is not required. 

The Millersville Area Historical Society will host a free presentation, titled ”Massacre of the Conestogas’ Updated,” when it meets at 9 a.m. Saturday, February 14, in the Millersville Borough Administration & Police Building, 100 Municipal Drive.

The speaker will be Jack Brubaker, author and retired journalist who, among other things, penned the popular Lancaster Newspapers’ Scribbler column for 46 years. Brubaker plans to examine material related to the Conestoga Massacre that came to light in his book, Massacre of the Conestogas, that was published in 2010. This includes new information that he discussed in the Scribbler column and elsewhere: the fact that the vigilantes from Paxton, generally known as the Paxton Boys, met with Lancaster’s chief magistrate Edward Shippen on the night before the massacre at Indian Town in Manor Township; and an adjusted idea of where the Conestogas killed at the Lancaster Workhouse were buried. A Q & A session will close the presentation.

Brubaker, who continues his work as a free-lance writer and lecturer, has talked about his books and subjects to more than 200 groups in central PA and elsewhere. All told, he is the author of seven books, including Down the Susquehanna to the Chesapeake (2002), which The Washington Post named one of the best books of 2002.

Although admission is free, donations are appreciated. For more details, contact Phil Gerber at 717.872.8837 before noon or at pge8507@aol.com.

 “Peggy Turner’s Legacy: African American Reformed Mennonites”

Who: Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies
What: Presentation 
When: Tuesday, February 17 | 7-8pm
Where: Elizabethtown College, 450 Campus Road 
Cost: Free and open to the public. Registration is not required. 
 
In conjunction with Black History Month, the Young Center will host a lecture on the earliest known African-American Mennonites, a story that goes back to the 1840s here in Lancaster County. Starting with Peggy Turner’s conversion in the 1840s, the Reformed Mennonites were the first American Mennonite group to have African American members. They continue to have Black members up to the present. What is there about Reformed Mennonites that enabled them to incorporate African Americans into their community decades before any other Mennonite group? How did African American members’ stories of conversion and incorporation counter the prevailing racism that they faced in other spheres of life? Did that same racism impact their place within the Reformed Mennonite Church?

Presenter: Edsel Burdge Jr. is the research associate at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College. He is the editor of volume 3 of Documents of Brotherly Love: Dutch Mennonite Aid to Swiss Anabaptists, 1712-1784 (2023) and coauthor with Samuel L. Horst of Building on the Gospel Foundation: The Mennonites of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and Washington County, Maryland, 1730–1970 (2004). He holds an MA in history from Villanova University.