The york county history center inspires the exploration of the history, people and culture of our country, state and nation. As a non-profit organization it utilizes collections, historic sites and museums to help tell the american story.

Arts & Culture , History Museums

A major aspect of all of the history center's program-related activities are the organization's 140,000 total square feet of museum galleries, historic sites, and collections storage. With only a facilities staff of two, the history center maintains the internal and external spaces of the historical society museum and library & archives; the bonham house; the colonial complex (which is comprised of the general gates house and golden plough tavern, the barnett bobb log house; and the reconstructed colonial court house); fire museum, agricultural & industrial museum and over 30 york murals. In addition, this same staff assists in the construction and installation of displays/equipment of new exhibits. the history center's library & archives houses an extensive and varied collection covering a wide range of topics including genealogy and family history, local history, the decorative arts and military history with the emphasis of york county history. Over 1,900 patrons visited the history center's library & archives during this past fiscal year. The library staff fielded an additional 2,325 emails and phone calls and processed over 80 research requests. It also co-hosts three monthly meetings/programs: allvets oral history program, the south central pennsylvania genealogical society and the york civil war round table. Over 150 donations to the library & archives were received. the york county history center's exhibits & collections department is responsible for the preservation and interpretation of about 90,000 artifacts related to the history of york county, pennsylvania. These collections are used in a variety of museum exhibits and displays throughout the year to provide educational experiences to the york county community. during the past fiscal year (july 2016 - june 2017) the history center welcomed more than 27,500 total visitors, included in that number are over 4,100 students that we serve through various interpretative sites and specific thematic tours at the history center's five museums. School age programming includes thematic tours focusing on york county's colonial and revolutionary era history, the civil war period, industrial and manufacturing heritage and more. These programs provide an overview of state and local history and align with the pennsylvania board of education academic standards. During the year, the history center offered nearly 85 public educational program for more than 3,750 visitors. Our programming reached a diverse audience base through demonstrations, a monthly lecture series, workshops, and interactive experiences at both separate programs and special events. In addition, the history center hosts a number of community organizations' monthly meetings and programs often open to the public free of charge. Traditional partnerships continued, such as, with the york county department of parks and recreation to provide one week of archaeology camp for students, ages (10-13), local re-enactor groups for living history events, and the york county convention and visitors bureau for promotion and coordination of county wide heritage tourism. The history center has also provided numerous community educational programs for continuing adult education courses, talks for various community organizations, public walking tours, and monthly library and archives seminars offering insights into various research and genealogical techniques.