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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Back to the Cloister Fund

Posted by on Jan 14, 2026 in | Comments Off on Back to the Cloister Fund In 1925, Rev. Samuel Zerfass faced a quandary. He needed a new suit, but he lacked the funds for such a substantial purchase. Zerfass was a minister with the Society of German Seventh Day Baptists, a last vestige of the Ephrata Cloister religious community. With a dwindling membership and an entire campus of historic structures in disrepair, financial resources were limited. Undaunted, Zerfass...
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Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum 50

Posted by on Dec 1, 2025 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum 50   Anthracite, the highest rank of coal, is almost pure carbon. It has few impurities and burns hot with little smoke. In the 19th century, anthracite, also known as hard coal, powered America’s industrial revolution in ironmaking, manufacturing and steam production and created the need for its transportation to market by canals and gravity and steam railroads. Anthracite was welcomed by...
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Bark Peelers’ Festival 50

Posted by on Sep 8, 2025 in | Comments Off on Bark Peelers’ Festival 50 The Pennsylvania Lumber Museum’s Bark Peelers’ Festival event celebrates its 50th occurrence in July 2025. Referred to as the “Bark Peelers’ Convention” from its inception in 1974 through the 2014 iteration, the festival is the museum’s largest and most well-known yearly special event. Attendance has fluctuated over the years, from a high of approximately 4,000 to 5,000 people during the 1980s...
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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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Preserving Washington’s Headquarters

Posted by on Nov 18, 2024 in | Comments Off on Preserving Washington’s Headquarters On the morning of September 9, 1777, Gen. George Washington and units of his Continental Army arrived in the village of Chads (later Chadds) Ford. Its strategic location on the Great Nottingham Road (today U.S. Route 1) and along the banks of the Brandywine Creek made it a likely place for an attack as the British army crept closer to the rebel capital of Philadelphia. As his anxious troops took...
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Founding Economy

Posted by on Aug 9, 2024 in | Comments Off on Founding Economy “It will be but two years since the forest was first felled upon which Economy is built; the roots still remaining in the streets are evidences of the short time that has elapsed. It is astonishing what united and regulated human effort has accomplished in so short a time!” – Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar Eisenach, 1826   Two hundred years ago, on June 6, 1824, the Harmony Society landed at...
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Commemorating Joseph Priestley’s Discovery of Oxygen

Posted by on Mar 29, 2024 in | Comments Off on Commemorating Joseph Priestley’s Discovery of Oxygen A theologian, educator, political theorist and scientist, Dr. Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) was a man of the Enlightenment. “By the age of 61,” Steven Johnson wrote in The Invention of Air, “Priestley had won the Copley Medal (the Nobel Prize of its day) for his experiments on various gases in his late thirties . . . published close to 500 books and pamphlets on science,...
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Looking Back at 2023

Posted by on Dec 1, 2023 in | Comments Off on Looking Back at 2023 As we do every year in these pages (for the last dozen years or so, anyway), it’s time to take a look at highlights of the year that was.   Art of the State 2023 The State Museum of Pennsylvania’s annual juried art exhibition, Art of the State, opened on September 10. This year 559 artists submitted 1,915 entries. Selection jurors Deborah Pinter (Cleveland Institute of Art), Kyle Hackett...
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We Are Anthracite and Other Industrial Heritage Trail Highlights

Posted by on Sep 20, 2023 in | Comments Off on We Are Anthracite and Other Industrial Heritage Trail Highlights Trails of History sites will be hosting harvest and Halloween-themed events this fall, with holiday programming to follow. Many visitors make these events part of their own seasonal traditions. Do you have a favorite event? For details on all sorts of activities on the Trails of History, be sure to check PHMC’s Events Calendar online at phmc.pa.gov. Of course, events and programs aren’t the only...
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