The Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum is a 100-acre living history museum located on the site of a former rural crossroads village in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Founded by brothers Henry K. Landis and George Landis in 1925 and incorporated in 1941, it is now operated by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Its staff and volunteers collect, conserve, exhibit, and interpret Pennsylvania German material, culture, history and heritage from 1740 through 1940.
Planning for the Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum was undertaken during the early 1920s by brothers Henry K. Landis and George Landis, who had grown up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania during the 1870s and 1880s. With a shared interest in Pennsylvania history, and more specifically in Pennsylvania German history, they became active collectors of a range of historic artifacts, including antique furniture, arrowheads and other Native American relics, bullets, buttons, coins, Conestoga Wagons, dishes and glassware, farm equipment and tools, fossils, Fraktur, guns, pottery, and quilts. Following their retirement in 1924 from their respective careers as a mining and construction/sanitary engineer, the Landis brothers combined their respective collections at the Landis family's farm in Lancaster and, in 1925, officially opened many of their collected items to public viewing. As their holdings continued to grow and their educational attraction increased in popularity, they sought funding from the Carl Shurz Foundation to turn their buildings and collections into an official museum. The cultural attraction was then formally incorporated as the Landis Valley Museum in 1941, and a professional curator was hired to catalogue and display the brothers' collection. The foundation also facilitated the construction of a farm implement barn, gunsmith's shop, tavern, and wagon shed.
In 1953, the aging Landis brothers deeded the museum and property to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which transformed the operation into a living history museum by reconstructing historic structures on adjacent properties purchased by the state in order to develop educational programs that would show groups of teachers and school children, families, tour groups, and other visitors, firsthand, how Pennsylvania Germans lived, farmed and operated their manufacturing businesses during the 18th century. Guides who were specially trained in the performance of period tasks and making of period crafts, and then dressed in period costumes, were also then added as curators and staff continued to refine the museum's educational offerings.
During the mid-1980s, museum staff launched an initiative to preserve the purity of heirloom seeds, which were grown and harvested on Pennsylvania German homesteads and small farms prior to 1940. As of 2019, three production plots, six display gardens, and two hoop houses are being used to save and replant select seeds from year to year, ensuring that these strains of vegetables and other plants remain free from the impacts of modern hybridization. The museum also maintains records which document where each seed originated, and makes select varieties of seed available for sale each year to the general public at the museum's Herb and Garden Faire.
This living history museum, which is part of the Pennsylvania State Museum system, celebrates the many inventions developed in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County region, birthplace of the Conestoga wagon and the Pennsylvania longrifle (also known as the Kentucky longrifle). Visitors are able to learn how Conestoga Wagons were made, including the critical process of making spoked wheels, and how 18th-century gunsmiths manufactured rifle barrels. In addition, guides dressed in period cosutmes explain the traditions and folkolore of Pennsylvania Germans who resided in the area between 1740 and 1940 while specially trained artisans demonstrate the procedures for craftmaking and open-hearth cooking.
The features of the museum include:
The museum also hosts a free annual bonfire with holiday caroling, as well as other special events throughout the year.
The Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum receives significant financial and volunteer assistance from the Landis Valley Associates, a 3,000-member non-profit community support organization. Members of the LVA receive complimentary museum admission and discounted admission to various special events, as well as discounts at the museum's store.
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