York History At Home

While we have limited our operations to do our part to reduce the spread of COVID-19, we are still here for you, to enrich your life through the saving and sharing of York history.

We are pleased to bring you a selection of digital resources, which we will continue to expand and update so long as we are able.

Educators, Parents and Kids: Check out our expanded York History at Home for Kids page!

About African American History Month

NPS: About Dr. Carter Woodson

Upcoming Event! Sponsored by the York College Cultural Series, the Center for Community Engagement, and the Department of History and Political Science:

Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped Into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey Home
Dr. Richard Bell

Wednesday, February 24, 7 – 8:30pm

Register in advance for this webinar:

https://ycp.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_30mgoQ1sR22Ew5EH_ADzlQ

More Details Here

CHALLENGING MOMENTS THAT TEACH AND INSPIRE IN YORK COUNTY, PA

Faith Presbyterian Church: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. urged merger

Virtual Tours & Videos

You can still spend the day at the museum with our virtual museum tours and story maps! Virtually walk through our exhibitions to learn more about York History stories by visiting our YouTube Channel

Take a tour of the Agricultural & Industrial Museum

In Plain Sight: York’s Hidden LGBT History

Following Freedom: The Underground Railroad in York Co.

Webinar Recordings

Miss one of the York County History Center’s webinars or programs? Visit our YouTube page for all of the video presentations

Download our Zoom Backgrounds

Share Your History

These are extraordinary times! We are now witnessing a unique historical moment as we respond as a state, nation, and world to a pandemic. The York County History Center wants to add your story of how you and your family are understanding and experiencing the current “new normal.” Take a moment to tell us YOUR story!

Share Your COVID-19 Story Here

Build Your Own Family Tree

Want to get started with your own genealogy? These guides will help you collect your family history!

Pedigre e chart

Relationsh ip chart

Resources from Smithsonian: Folklife and Oral History Interviewing Guide

Family Search Website with Free Resources and Activities

Internet Archive: Digital Library This site includes links to the History of York County by Gibson (1886) and by Prowell (1907), York County and the World War (1920), an autobiography by Yorker Amanda Berry Smith, plus many other early publications and audio and video links:

Prowell: History of York County Pennsylvania Vol. 1 (1907)
Prowell: History of York County Pennsylvania Vol. 2 (1907)

Gibson: History of York County Pennsylvania (1886)

York County and the World War (1920)

Mrs. Amanda Smith, The Colored Evangelist (1921)

Charrette at York, PA Part 1

Charrette at York, PA Part 2

The Story of Civil Rights in York, PA Part 1

The Story of Civil Rights in York, PA Part 2

Guide to Special Collections: African American Collections, Almanacs and more

Guide to Military Collections Revolutionary War through World War II, including Civil War veterans research databases

Even though you are unable to visit right now, you can still access photographs, databases and finding aids to our Library & Archives collections. Thanks to the work of Ophelia Chambliss and others, we now have a guide to our current African American collections in the Library & Archives. We will continue to add collections and finding aids from the Library & Archives as we are able to and as new items are donated.

Check Out Our Collections Online

Please enjoy a look back in time with photos from the York County History Center collection. This is just a sampling over the over 100,000 photographs currently housed in our Library and Archives including York Streets and Alleys, one-room-schools, the Grant Voaden Mills collection, the Ness gas stations collection, Dempwolf architectural drawings, bible collection images, and York County postcards.

Read Past Journals of York County Heritage by accessing our online bookshelf here

The History Center is now offering free digital access to all published Journals of York County Heritage. Originally created in 2010 to celebrate York County history, material culture, cultural heritage, and people, the Journal is published annually as a benefit of membership and packed with scholarly articles on local history topics.

Want to know more about how to properly handle and store your family treasures? Click on this handy guide!

2021- Breaking Barriers

For 2021’s theme, we’ll be looking at both the people that broke barriers – whether they be racial, socioeconomic, societal, or technological – and the resulting physical manifestations of the problems they solved or the progress that was made. Our latest Centerpiece newsletter, due out in February will start to highlight barrier breakers in York’s history. Stay tuned!

2020- The Year of the Woman

Women’s History of York- A Gold Award Project by Anna Lumsargis.

Where Women Made History: Trailblazing Black Women from across the country

American Revolution put pressure on York County women

Remembering Jeanette Zinn, the only York woman to die in Word War I

How Suffragists Used Cookbooks as a Recipe for Subversion

Perspectives in History

During times like these, we tend to reflect on lessons learned from our past. Follow our local historians and others as they remind us how those who came before us persevered during challenging times.

Jim McClure: York County has seen it all before: war, disasters, epidemics