CLOSED ON JULY 4th | All operations of LancasterHistory, including President James Buchanan’s Wheatland, will be closed on Friday, July 4 for Independence Day. We will reopen for normal business hours on Saturday, July 5. Thank you!
Open Mon – Sat, 9:30am – 5pm | Wheatland Tours 10am – 3pm
This entry is a part of a series celebrating of September’s Save Your Photos Month. Stay tuned for more! Perhaps the most delicate and difficult to care for among historic photographic images are what are often referred to as “cased images” – Daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes. They’re also some of the oldest types of photographic […]
Read MoreHave you inherited a box of family photographs? Have you cleaned out a closet or your attic and found a few photo albums? Are you the family archivist? If so, September is the month you’ve been waiting for. It’s Save Your Photos Month, a whole month dedicated to the care and preservation of your family […]
Read MoreOf the many doors at Wheatland, the doors to the icehouse and smokehouse catch the eye the most. One door “floats” on the second floor with no visible stairs to access it. The other seems normal enough, but holds a surprise upon opening. These doors typically remained closed, but in today’s blog post, we’re going […]
Read MoreThanks to Louis Daguerre and George Eastman How many of you realize that August 19 is World Photography Day? The day was first observed on August 19, 2010 to commemorate the day in 1839 that the French government recognized Louis Daguerre’s patent for the daguerreotype photographic process. Although not the first individual to capture an […]
Read MoreWhen it comes to the outbuildings at Wheatland, many are familiar with the privy and the icehouse/smokehouse. These original 1828 outbuildings flank both ends of the Wheatland mansion from the back. But a few more outbuildings stood on the grounds at Wheatland. Though they no longer remain on the property, illustrations, photographs, and descriptions clue […]
Read MoreIntroducing Quaker-Felt Rugs and Floor Coverings Armstrong Cork Company began to produce linoleum flooring in Lancaster in 1908 as a way to use excess cork produced by cutting round corks from rectangular slabs of corkwood. The ingredients of linoleum—oxidized linseed oil, cork dust, and organic resins—were combined to form a uniform layer attached to a […]
Read MoreThe 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition & 1929 Ibero-American Exposition My name is James McMahon and I am a project archivist for LancasterHistory. My responsibilities include cataloguing and digitizing a vast collection of archival materials that document the significant role of the cork industry in the local economy. Recently, I wrote two blogs documenting Armstrong’s participation […]
Read MoreThe LeFevre Bible is one of the most requested items from our collections. The Bible belonged to the French Huguenot family of Isaac LeFevre. These images show the genealogy of Isaac LeFevre, the person to bring this Bible from France to present-day Lancaster County. He survived the massacre of his family and townspeople after the […]
Read MoreLancasterHistory is thrilled to welcome this year’s Class of 2021 LancasterHistory NEH Summer Interns. Since starting on June 8, this class of intrepid interns have been working on individual projects as well as travelling to other museums and historic sites in our area to learn more about the fields of museum studies and public history. […]
Read MoreWhen discussing women’s clothing and Victorian hygiene, one question comes up in the minds of many. How did Victorian women use the restroom with multiple layers of clothing? To the modern person, the idea seems impossible, but it was not nearly as complex as it may seem. In fact, the construction of clothing, particularly the […]
Read MoreJohn Philip Sousa and his band performed at Conestoga Park on June 30, 1893.