Civil War re-enactors from across the region will set up camp, relive, and remember the Burning of the Wrightsville Bridge and the ensuing Battle of Gettysburg. More than a dozen military and civilian tents will dot the landscape as soldiers and civilians display the equipment and accoutrements of a Federal Union Camp. There will be music, food, and plenty of educational displays.

On Saturday evening at 6:30pm, visitors can experience the camps at dusk as you wind through the grounds lit by luminaries and listen to the voices from the past capture life in the camps through story and song. Good walking shoes recommended.

Living History Encampment Hours:

• September 24, 2016 from 10am-8pm  |  Torchlight Tours begin at 6:30pm
• September 25, 2016 from 10am-4pm

This is a free event and open to the public.

Paul Finkelman, Ph.D. will return to LancasterHistory.org to discuss his research on The Pennsylvania Connection: Black Freedom, Reconstruction, & Keystone State Leadership. This year we celebrate the sesquicentennial of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the passage by Congress of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which revolutionized citizenship in America, put the final nail in the coffin of American slavery, and set the stage (ultimately) for the Civil Rights Revolution of the 1960s. With the second largest delegation in the House of Representatives, Pennsylvanians played a major role in Congress during the 1860s. The key player in the struggle to create meaningful civil rights in America was Thaddeus Stevens, who represented Lancaster County in the House of Representatives. Few members of the House are more important in our history—and more controversial—than Stevens.

Learn more about Stevens and why he helped to strengthen America by implementing Lincoln’s call for “A New Birth of Freedom.” Hated by former slave owners, adored by advocates of freedom, and feared by even his colleagues, this lecture argues that he was Lancaster’s greatest contribution to American history.

The Presidential Lecture The Pennsylvania Connection will take place on Thursday, September 8 in Ryder Hall at LancasterHistory.org, 230 N President Avenue. A social gathering with refreshments will begin at 4pm, followed by the lecture at 4:30pm. This event is free and open to the public.

Lancastrians loved William F. Cody, famously known as “Buffalo Bill Cody.” They flocked to outdoor arenas when his “Wild West Shows” came to town, and packed the Fulton Opera House for his premiere in 1873. But when Cody took the Fulton stage in a show about killing Indians on the western frontier, he was standing in the same spot where the Paxton gang murdered the last of the Conestoga Indians 110 years ago. Leslie Stainton, author of Staging Ground, and Jack Brubaker, LNP’s The Scribbler, explore this uncanny connection in this colloquium. Buffalo Bill Cody’s popularity in Lancaster and across the United States said much about the way Americans grappled with the turbulent history of native and non-native American relations in the 19th century.

Leslie Stainton is the author of Staging Ground: An American Theater and Its Ghosts (Penn State Press, 2014) and Lorca: A Dream of Life (Bloomsbury, 1998; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999). A two-time Fulbright award recipient, Stainton holds a B.A. in drama from Franklin & Marshall College and an MFA in dramaturgy from the University of Massachusetts. Jack Brubaker has written The Scribbler, a LNP column exploring the history, culture and humor of Lancaster County, for more than three decades. He has also authored a dozen historical books and magazine articles including Massacre of the Conestogas and Remembering Lancaster County (History Press, 2010).

The colloquium Buffalo Bill in Lancaster will take place on Thursday, May 12, 2016 in Ryder Hall at LancasterHistory.org, 230 N President Avenue, Lancaster. A social gathering will begin at 4pm, followed by the lecture from 4:30-5:30pm. Stainton and Brubaker will be available to sign copies of their various books at 4pm during the social. This event is free and open to the public.

The 225th anniversary of President James Buchanan’s birth will be commemorated on April 23, 2016 and will feature the annual presentation of the White House wreath for the President’s grave site at Woodward Hill Cemetery starting at 10 a.m. followed by a Birthday Celebration at Wheatland starting at noon and lasting till 2 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.

The day’s events begin at 10 a.m. at Woodward Hill Cemetery for the Presidential Wreath-Laying Ceremony. The Ceremony includes a historical view about James Buchanan by Brigadier General Timothy J. Hilty. Another special guest is the 15th President’s historic guards, the Lancaster Fencibles; they will present a black powder-gun salute at the Cemetery. The Ceremony concludes with the Presidential Wreath being placed at James Buchanan’s tomb by Brigadier General Timothy J. Hilty with assistance from two Buchanan Elementary School students.

Following the Ceremony the public is invited by the students and PTO of James Buchanan Elementary School to President James Buchanan’s Wheatland for a 225th Birthday Celebration. Free tours of the President’s beloved home, Wheatland, are available from noon until 2 p.m. with a tour beginning every 15 minutes and the last free tour beginning at 1:45. These tours will be led by the Buchanan Elementary School students as they interpret the history of Wheatland, James Buchanan, his family and his life. Enjoy a slice of James Buchanan’s birthday cake with some punch provided through the generosity of the James Buchanan Elementary Parent Teacher Organization (PTO.)

Gear up for fun as you power up a robot of your very own.

Adults and children participate and learn together. Pop-in any time between 11:00am – 2:00pm on the scheduled days.

Cost: FREE with regular admission to Hands-on House

Boehm’s Chapel 30th annual Apple Festival will be held, October 10, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., rain or shine, on the campus of Boehm’s United Methodist Church, 13 West Boehms Road, Willow Street

Tents offering homemade apple butter, apple dumplings, baked goods,  kids’ games including the ever popular ‘apple sling-shot’ and luncheon fare will be scattered throughout the campus. Vendors displaying homemade crafts will line the walkway to the old chapel and will also be found inside the fellowship hall of the church.

The presentation of the DVD, “More than Just a Chapel on a Hill”, highlighting the history of the chapel and Boehm family will be shown in the historic 1791 chapel.

Admission and Parking are free. For additional information please Email

boehmschapel@gmail.com, or phone 717-872-4133.