There is currently an interesting mini-exhibit in the entrance hall of the York County History Center museum at 250 East Market Street. Even though I sometimes mentally live in the 19th century, an exhibit like this reminds me to be thankful that I physically live in the 21st century. The
(Illustrations from A Treatise on the Mulberry Tree and Silkworm and on the Manufacture and Production of Silk, 1839. Courtesy of York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives) Silk has been prized for as long as 5,000 years, since the fibers spun by silkworms were discovered in China and spun into luxurious
A small article in the March 20, 1948 Gazette and Daily reported that “Printing Industry Editor at the Gazette and Daily for Unique Method Story.” Dr. Russel R. Voorhees, described as a field editor and commercial writer, was in York gathering “material for a picture series and story on a
We probably have all known local people who bravely served in the military during World War II. During that time the home front was also very busy. I have written columns and blog posts about the York Plan, the system of cooperatively switching our factories from peacetime to wartime production
I went to Lancaster County this week to see some York County items on exhibit. Jennifer Hall Royer, former Director of Exhibits and Collections at York County Heritage Trust is now Museum Curator at Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum. She has included three York County wedding dresses and a
In my York Sunday News column few months ago I wrote about the wealth of local history you can find in City Directory Collection at York County Heritage Trust. The advertisements alone paint a picture of how our families lived and how they spent their hard-earned wages. The directory references
The Bon-Ton, Market & Beaver, York, c. 1945 The first priority during World War II was supplying the armed forces.. Silk, and then the fairly new fiber, nylon, were needed for parachutes and other uses. That made women’s stocking hard to get. Some women used leg makeup to get that
We know York County had a lot of different mills. Click here to read about the many mills of York County. Sawmills sawed trees into boards, and grist mills ground grain. What purpose did a fulling mill serve? In a recent post about York County runaways in the 18th century,
We tend to think of our ancestors and their contemporaries as very strait-laced. Sometimes nothing can be farther from the truth. That’s what is so fascinating about using original documents as historical sources. Those letters, diaries, and newspapers they left behind sometime fairly sizzle with crime, intrigue, and scandal. For
It was April 1777. The Revolutionary War was not going well. Desertion was rampant. General Washington had said as much in a letter he wrote to his brother John on February 24. Click here to read that letter at the Library of Congress web site. Deserters were described in detail