One night in late 1996, after learning he would be hired as executive director of what was then called the Lancaster County Historical Society, then-graduate student Thomas R. Ryan went to a lively gathering in downtown Lancaster.
It was a holiday party in the Lancaster Preservation Trust’s headquarters on North Prince Street.
“It was like walking into ‘A Christmas Carol’ or into a scene from ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ ” Ryan recalls. “[The Trust’s then-president] John Jarvis was there carving some big leg of lamb, or ham, or something. All of the folks who had done a lot to preserve Lancaster’s architecture were gathered around.
“I left that party … and I drove past the historical society,” recalls Ryan, who retired Dec. 31 — his 70th birthday — as president and CEO of what is now LancasterHistory. “The lights were out, the snow had covered the ground. … There was something about the contrast between the liveliness and the warmth of the gathering at the Trust and the cold, snow-covered lawn in front of the historical society that set up this stark contrast for me.
“I thought, ‘I look forward to the day where life at the historical society is as lively as the room I just left,’ ” Ryan says. “I would say that, over the years, it’s gotten warmer here, and warmer. We’ve embraced the community and I think we’ve been embraced by the community.”
Ryan has also overseen significant growth in the organization — an expanded campus; a merger with Wheatland, James Buchanan’s historic home; the acquisition of Amish quilts and other collections; and the ongoing development of a history center in the former homes and office of Thaddeus Stevens, Lancaster’s 19th-century abolitionist congressman, and his housekeeper, businesswoman Lydia Hamilton Smith.
In the very LancasterHistory conference room where Ryan interviewed for the director’s job, he recently talked about the nonprofit he has helmed for 28 years. It’s also the same room in which Ryan made sure there was a lively holiday party during his first year on the job.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
In January 1997, just after being named executive director of what was then the Lancaster County Historical Society, Thomas Ryan told a newspaper reporter he wanted to increase membership, scholarship on minority groups and partnerships with other community groups.
What will be your new title and responsibility as you retire as president and CEO of LancasterHistory?
Probably director emeritus, but with a focus exclusively on finishing the Thaddeus Stevens & Lydia Hamilton Smith Center for History and Democracy project. When we cut the ribbon for the Stevens and Smith Center, my retirement will be fulfilled. I’ll probably be working on a diminished scale, maybe three days a week, to get that place open.
Do you have a target date of when the center will open? Is it still late 2025?
I think that’s still pretty close. Maybe it’ll be a soft opening then, and then a grand opening in early 2026. Construction of the buildings is about to be finished, but we have all the exhibition fabrication that has just been bid out now and that’ll be installed once we get further into 2025.
In a newspaper interview in January 1997, you said the historical society had 1,400 members, an annual budget of $250,000 and eight employees. What are the numbers now?
We’re up somewhere over 2,400 members. And, at last count, I think we have members from every state in the country, and several foreign countries — mostly expatriates. We have an annual budget of slightly over $2 million and we have 25 employees, but we’ll do more hiring in 2025 for the Stevens and Smith site.
In that same article, you said what you wanted to accomplish as director. First, you wanted to double the membership.
We’re pretty close. Once we launch a major membership drive with the Stevens and Smith center, I think those numbers are going to increase, I hope substantially. Because this center has a pull that goes far beyond Lancaster County. These are really a set of national stories, mostly related to the quest for freedom and Underground Railroad activity. And then you look at Stevens’ role in advancing the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, as well — freedom for enslaved people, equal protection under the law, universal voting rights. What I hear from folks far and wide, I think this will probably result in a significant increase in membership.
LancasterHistory is developing the Thaddeus Stevens & Lydia Hamilton Smith Center for History & Democracy at the former home of Stevens and Smith, along with Stevens’ law office and the Kleiss Tavern he owned. The future historic site is at Queen and Vine streets in Lancaster.
In 1997, you also said you wanted to improve efforts to study the history of minorities in Lancaster County and develop partnerships with other historical agencies.
So, in some ways, this capstone project of the Stevens and Smith center brings that into full focus. I think it was in my second year here, that we partnered with Bethel AME Church and Millersville University to sponsor a statewide Black history conference. That was a beginning for us in terms of reaching more deeply into this community. But there have been a lot of other efforts along the way. We did a major exhibition on communities of faith. We did a major collaborative exhibit on Lancaster Central Market. We did an exhibition that was really a deep look at Black life in Lancaster over the course of 300 years — everywhere from the Colonial period right on up through the Civil Rights Movement here.
So, I think that some of both the collaborative work but also the exhibition work we’ve done here and the lectures we’ve held over the years, have helped round out a better appreciation for minority history, for Black history, for Latino history in the community.
I would like to think going outside our four walls and seeking partners to kind of expand the appreciation of history in the community has been one of the hallmarks of our service and my time here at the organization.
LancasterHistory merged with Wheatland, President James Buchanan’s home, in 2009.
What are other things you’re most proud of that happened during your tenure?
Engaging the community in their own history. I would cite the regional history colloquium. This is an effort that started in April of 1997. We’re in our 28th year of the colloquium and we’ve had remarkable speakers over the course of that time. I think of Ilyon Woo, who spoke here in April 2024 at the Ware Center and within a week she received the Pulitzer Prize for biography, for “Master Slave Husband Wife,” about a couple who escaped slavery in disguise.
I’m proud of the fact that the lectures consistently drew anywhere from 50 people to 200 people. That helps bridge the gap between the scholars on the one hand and ordinary Americans on the other hand who have a hunger for knowledge and history.
I think our Journal of Lancaster County’s Historical Society is another point of pride. Unlike a lot of local historical organizations, our journal did not become a genealogical tool. They were really all stories about local history.
I am also proud of the fact that we’ve created a culture in the workplace here of people who enjoy coming to work and love the work they do. We really have a group of people who enjoy working with each other toward the common purpose of sharing the history with the community.
The campus of LancasterHistory was expanded during Thomas R. Ryan’s tenure as president and CEO.
Since you became the head of the organization, it has also grown in terms of properties and collections.
The consolidation we’ve done of some of the historical resources of the community is something I’m proud of. We were a small organization and we not only grew, but we consolidated a variety of formerly independent history entities.
Wheatland was at risk. Their fortunes had receded, for various reasons. It really wasn’t a conversation about a merger at the time. But where it led was the creation of a joint development board. What came out of that was a merger and a rebranding as LancasterHistory in May 2009.
We had no sooner let the ink dry on that new mission statement when we were approached by the Historic Preservation Trust, who had done this great job of restoring these buildings Stevens’ law office, his and Smith’s homes and the Kleiss tavern. They realized they were getting involved in a museum, something that was outside their mission. So we decided to take on that project.
Then we got a call from the Heritage Center, and they were in trouble; they asked us would we take over their operation and the Lancaster Quilt and Textile museum. We said we would be happy to take the collections. We were expanding out here anyway. And that’s exactly what came to pass. So another thing I’m really proud of is we were able to respond to the needs within the community about the preservation of historical resources. We were able to make sure that all those Amish quilts that the community got behind to bring back to Lancaster — they’re still in Lancaster.
My hope is that the Stevens and Smith center will be the last piece that we add to this puzzle.
The new president and CEO of LancasterHistory is the organization’s vice president — and your wife — Robin Sarratt.
I hired Robin in 2007 to create a development department here, and she did a spectacular job. (Ryan and Sarratt started dating four to five years later.)
I think the board has made a great choice, and not just because I know this woman so well. I see the way her colleagues respond to her, and I see the way the community embraces her.
For having lived with someone and worked with someone day in and day out, so that you’re virtually spending almost all of your time together, I think it’s probably a rare occurrence that it comes off as smoothly as it does. We don’t have a hard time putting work aside when we’re not here. I think we’re able to manage that work-and-life balance commitment fairly well.