Collections
Oral Histories

As part of its vision, the Lancaster County Historical Society has placed the collection of 20th-century history as one of its top priorities for the years to come.  One of the principal ingredients in this capture of recent history will be the collection of oral histories.  Often overlooked, oral histories have provided many historians with a unique set of primary resources not found in printed or manuscript material.

Oral History is a method of gathering and recording details of the recent past through interviews with participants of history. In many ways, the scope of oral history is limitless.  Oral History can record both extraordinary events and everyday life.  It can provide intimate details of one particular individual or the memories and emotions of a nation.  Yet, in one important way it is very limited.  Oral history only focuses on the time frame and first-hand experiences of the life of the interviewee.  As a result, Oral History is one of the most fragile of all artifacts and requires constant preservation and collection efforts. 

The Lancaster County Historical Society's focus on Oral History is to advance its endeavors at collecting, preserving, and increasing the accessibility of the historical society's oral history collections, to assist other groups with the preservation and accessibility of their collections, and to promote the collection of oral histories throughout Lancaster County.
 

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Our Volunteers & Interns

Building a Tour

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Faith McCarrick is a senior history major at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This semester she has been interning in both the archives and education departments at LancasterHistory.Org. In the archives department, she found herself creating box lists of manuscript groups that covered the history of the United Steel Workers Union in Lancaster and the writings of Jewish World War II veteran and journalist, Charles H. Kessler.  Read more...

That girl has Moxie!

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My name is Julianne Petrillo.  I am a freshman at Lancaster Catholic High School.  I enjoy learning about history, so I am volunteering this summer at LancasterHistory.org, Lancaster County’s Historical Society and President James Buchanan’s Wheatland.  At the Historical Society I volunteer in the archives department.  I studied receipts from a store in Lancaster during the 1920s.  I learned so much about items being sold back then and was amazed at how old some of my favorite snacks were such as Life Savers, Oreos, taffy, saltines, and Moxie.  At Wheatland I volunteer for special events giving tours as well as helping dust the antique furniture.  I enjoy working at the Historical Society and Wheatland very much and hope to be back next summer!

Diplomacy

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Alex Trimble is a senior at Elizabethtown Area High School. His primary focus of study has been in history and social sciences. During his internship at the James Buchanan Wheatland mansion he will be conducting research on James Buchanan's diplomatic mission to Russia.

Parks and Recreation

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Amy Noll is a New Hampshire native who graduated with her B.A. in History and Management from Gettysburg College in 2007.  She received her M.L.S. with a specialization in Archives, Records, and Information Management from the University of Maryland in 2009, and recently moved into the Lancaster area.  She has past experience working at the National Archives and is also a Civil War Reenactor.  In the Archives, Amy is working on the Lancaster Recreation Commission Records manuscript group.  She has found many interesting records about past recreational programming for senior citizens as well as records detailing the creation and acquisition of some of Lancaster’s most well known public parks.

Living History

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At the time of her internship Katelynn Stauffer will be a rising sophomore at Gettysburg College, where she will be majoring in History and Political Science with minors in Education and Civil War Era Studies. While interning at Wheatland she will be working on the creation of a new living history tour that will examine the war years at Wheatland.  She will be organizing volunteers and setting up a test run of the program for the public.

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