Lewis Miller’s ‘People’ and the York Daily Record’s ‘Faces’ meet up
These examples of ‘Lewis Miller’s People’ are exhibited at the York County Heritage Trust and appear in a forthcoming book by that name. By coincidence, the York Daily Record’s introduction of the ‘Faces of York County’ website was launched at about the same time as news of the book came out. That prompted the YDR’s Chris Dunn to title a short story on the coincidence: The original ‘Faces of York County.’ Also of interest: William Wagner, Lewis Miller made York, Pa. ‘one of the most highly depicted communities in the early nineteenth century United States.’
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Journalists around the newsroom at the York Daily Record/Sunday News are excited about the Faces of York County website that just went live.
It’s a project to allow readers to “meet the people who live, work and play around York, PA.”
Yes, it’s modeled after the vastly popular website Humans of New York – a project also known because it resulted in the best-selling book by that name.
The Faces of York County website went up last week.
This week, one of those YDR journalists, photographer Chris Dunn, was working with reporter Teresa Boeckel on a story about the soon-to-be-released York County Heritage Trust book – ‘Lewis Miller’s People.’
Miller was a 19th-century carpenter/artist who so effectively and colorfully documented York County. His work is referenced internationally for its accurate depiction of events and people around the county in the first 75 years of that century.
She made the link between ‘Lewis Miller’s People’ and the ‘Faces of York County.’ She told about the discovery in an email after meeting with book editors June Lloyd and Lila Fourhman-Shaull:
“He depicted everyday life and ordinary people in York in the early 19th century, so he basically beat us to “Faces of York County” by about 200 years.”
She then meshed Millers People and the YDR’s Faces, uploading the photo above onto the Faces of York County website.
So there it is, 19th-century people appearing with those living in the 21st.
Chris Dunn and her fellow YDR journos recognize – and applaud – that Lewis Miller scooped us on this story, a rare gesture.
“Next time we promote the ‘Faces’ project,” she wrote in the email, “can we point out that a carpenter/artist jumped the gun on us in the early 1800s?”
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One of the people in ‘Lewis Miller’s People’ is Lewis Miller, seen on the book’s cover. More: New book portrays 700+ York countians in the 20th century.
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Also of interest:
– Ordering information: ‘Lewis Miller’s People’.
– Here’s a list of names of those shown in the book: YorkHeritage.org.
– Check out these YorkTownSquare.com stories that cover Lewis Miller in full or in part.
– Chris Dunn’s Tweet after seeing the Miller project:
.@ydrcom photogs, reporters are doing a HONY-like “Faces of York County” blog, but one guy beat us to it by 200+ yrs: http://t.co/TqNcwwzrKT
— Chris Dunn (@christhedunn) October 16, 2014
*I chair the YCHT Publications Committee that produced this book.
