Landis Valley Museum

Located at a former crossroads in Manheim Township, Lancaster County, the Landis Valley Museum grew from a farmstead owned by brothers Henry Kinzer Landis and George Diller Landis. Both were engineers who retired in 1924 and began concentrating on collecting, focusing on Pennsylvania German material culture. In 1925 they opened their farm buildings to the public as a barn museum, hanging objects on exterior walls and filling the house, stable and sheds. By 1939 Henry estimated their holdings at more than 150,000 items and 20,000 books. In 1940 they incorporated the museum with the Oberlaender Trust. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania acquired it in 1953. Henry arranged objects by type rather than in recreated settings, and he wrote columns in Pennsylvania German dialect. The museum is regarded as an early example of a folk-life museum in the region, preserving tools and everyday objects of the preindustrial past.