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May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The month celebrates and recognizes the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community and the rich history of AAPI individuals in the United States. In 2021, Lancaster County officially recognized May as Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage month through a county proclamation. This was the first time […]
Read MoreTen year old Charles Jacob Swarr had quite the vivid imagination. Or so it would seem from his colorful and creative self-published picture book. It’s truly – and literally – one of a kind. The book was hand drawn and has stitched binding, though it’s no bigger than a matchbook. Created by Swarr in […]
Read MoreHow Industry Operates In 1950 Armstrong Cork Company produced a booklet titled “How Industry Operates” to demonstrate how insulating products produced by Armstrong could play an important part in making new products and improving older ones. Rather than produce a technical pamphlet filled with black and white illustrations and complex formulas, Armstrong wanted to produce […]
Read MoreThe Threat of Nuclear War During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the threat of nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States was a very real concern. The wartime alliance between the two countries that had helped to bring down Nazi Germany in 1945 quickly unraveled as the Soviet Union sought to […]
Read MoreOn September 11, 1851, a deputy U.S. marshal led a raid in Christiana, Lancaster County to recover four enslaved persons of Edward Gorsuch of Maryland in accordance with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Free Blacks and freedom seekers in the surrounding area met this raid with a successful, but deadly, armed resistance. The Fugitive […]
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 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 MoreWhat is Art? Art allows us to express our creativity and nurtures imagination. Through painting, sculpture, photography or another medium, artistic works allow individuals to express feelings, thoughts and observations while allowing us to appreciate what is around us or to see the world around us in different ways. Art is beauty, but beauty, as […]
Read MoreRoom, board, and tuition cost $34 for a three month term at Lancaster County Normal School in 1855.