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On February 8, LancasterHistory hosted the inaugural wreath-laying for Lydia Hamilton Smith at St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery. Following our long tradition of participating in such ceremonies for President James Buchanan and Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, this year, we initiated the same honors for Mrs. Smith. Remarks by LancasterHistory President & CEO Robin Sarratt were followed by […]
Read MoreWritten By Nick Siegert, Group Tour Coordinator Posted by Shianne Hargrove The most recent installation of the “Thieves & Vagabonds” exhibition swooped in late last year, joining the series of “case studies” that make up the interior, curved walls of the exhibit. The Buzzard Gang, 1867-1948, tells the story of a famous (and infamous) family […]
Read MoreThis entry is the last part of a series celebrating of September’s Save Your Photos Month. We hope you enjoyed this series! While organizing family photographs, it’s totally par for the course to find undated, unidentified, or just plain unknown images. Don’t worry. There are various ways of giving these pictures a time frame that […]
Read MoreThis entry is a part of a series celebrating of September’s Save Your Photos Month. Stay tuned for more! As photography began to take off as an industry in the 1860s, people began to accumulate collections of images of families and friends. The photograph album was introduced as a way to store and present them. […]
Read MoreThis entry is a part of a series celebrating of September’s Save Your Photos Month. Stay tuned for more! Images produced on metal and glass, though revolutionary, were also often costly and difficult to produce. They were direct positive images that required no negative, but they were fragile and needed to be cased. In 1855, […]
Read MoreThis 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 MoreWhen gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill just west of Sacramento in 1848, thousands of people flocked to California to get in on the action. The following is a selection of brave, adventurous (and maybe a bit foolhardy) men from Lancaster County who ventured west in search of gold, silver and whatever riches they could […]
Read MoreOn May 4, 1852, the Lancaster Intelligencer announced… “Messrs. Hager and Eberman, the purchasers of the Old Prison Property, at the corner of West King and Prince Streets, it is said, intend to erect a large and commodious hall on that site during the present building season, a portion of which is to be used […]
Read MoreWritten by Marianne Heckles, Archives Assistant Long before the Birdman of Alcatraz there was the Buzzard Gang. Notorious in the Welsh Mountains and throughout Lancaster County for their extensive crime sprees, the gang – comprised of the six Buzzard brothers – spent an inordinate amount of time in jail. On October 10, 1883, three of […]
Read MoreThe nickname for the long cigars, “stogies,” came from the Conestoga Wagons which originated in Lancaster County.