Handwritten letter from 1824

Reynolds Family Papers Collection

The Reynolds Family Papers digital collection features the correspondence of brothers William and John Fulton Reynolds of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 

The digital collection includes letters from William Reynolds to sister Lydia Moore Reynolds dated 1834 to 1838, prior to his departure with the U.S. Exploring Expedition. It also includes letters between William Reynolds and father John Reynolds dating 1824-1845 and between William Reynolds and sisters Harriot, Eleanor and brother James, 1853-1877. Further letters by William Reynolds from the 1838-1842 U.S. Exploring Expedition letters are available transcribed in print in Voyage to the Southern Ocean by Anne Hoffman Cleaver and E. Jeffrey Stann.

Handwritten page from George McIlvain 1835 Diary

George McIlvain Diary, 1835

George McIlvain’s personal diary of the trip, accompanied by his mother Mary Porter McIlvain, along Pennsylvania Canal (and other waterways) from Williamstown, Lancaster County, PA to Paoli Indiana, April 8 to May 30, 1835. Diary contains itinerary, expenses, and observations. Diary is part of larger Muench Family papers collection. George Duffield McIlvain was born on February 22, 1811, in Lancaster County, PA the son of Robert McIlvain and Mary Porter (b. 1765?). He married Caroline Margaret Slaymaker on November 21, 1837. Their son Robert Porter McIlvaine was born January 12, 1839, died 1918. George ran a limestone quarry and lime kiln in Paradise Township, Lancaster County from about 1832 until he died on February 24, 1857.

Title Page of Lancaster Farming, Volume 1

Lancaster Farming

The Lancaster Farmer began publication as a monthly journal in 1869 under the auspices of the Lancaster County Agricultural and Horticultural Society. Volumes 1-16 were digitized and published on the Internet Archive by Lancaster History, in partnership with Lyrasis and the Sloan Foundation.

Front page of the Lancaster Daily Intelligencer, January 1, 1880

Lancaster Daily Intelligencer (1880-1890)

Founded in 1864, the Lancaster Daily Intelligencer had become by the 1880s the leading daily in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and a crusading opposition publication in a city beset with growing pains. It was already one of the oldest continuous newspapers in the state and nation, and by this time it had transformed itself from primarily a political organ into a conduit for local information and an advocate for clean politics and civic reform.