Henry K. Landis
Encyclopedia
Henry Kinzer Landis was an editor
, photographer, collector, and founder of the Landis Valley Museum
in Manheim Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
.
Landis was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
to Henry Harrison Landis (1838–1926), a farmer, and Emma Caroline Diller (1842–1929), daughter of a prosperous farmer
, in 1865. Henry was one of four children—George Diller (1867–1954), Nettie May (1879–1914), and Anna Margaretta, who died early in childhood.
The Landis family was historically typical Pennsylvania Dutch
, originating as Swiss Mennonite
folk with the earliest Landis antecedent living twelve miles south of Zurich
, Switzerland
in 1438. To escape religious persecution
, in 1717, three Landis brothers—John, Jacob, and Felix—fled Switzerland. Jacob and Felix Landis established themselves in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania where the name Landis is prominent today.
Henry K. Landis (1865–1955) was raised on multi-generational family farm
in a rather tumultuous environment of domestic strife. He attended local schools, and was eventually sent to Lititz Academy as a boarding student with his brother George. Afterwards, the two Landis brothers both matriculated at Lehigh University
, but only Henry would graduate in ____ with a degree in Engineering
. Landis’ sister Nettie was also educated locally and eventually attended a prep school
in Brooklyn
, New York
.
Landis worked as a mining engineer
and educator for several years after he graduated (in the west?). His interest in photography
developed at some point during college, but his picture snapping ripened as he became increasingly interested in…
Practicing as an engineer
was short-lived as Henry eventually relocated to New York City
where he worked as an editor of technical journals such as The Gas Age, a publication dedicated to the natural gas
industry. Weekends were dedicated to photography whether in and around Manhattan
and Brooklyn or in Port Washington
on Long Island
where he owned a houseboat
and sailing
vessel. He occasionally returned for vacations in Lancaster County.
Landis’ photography involved a wide range of subject matter including New York City architecture
, street and immigrant life, posed-thematic character studies, self-portrait
s (some of which were in the nude) and a diversity of others.
After several decades in New York City, Landis retired, returning to the family farm where his parents and unmarried siblings had lived for most of their lives. Landis and his brother George began collecting, packing their buildings with farming implements and the domestic artifacts of the culture that revolved around farming. They established an informal museum
with Landis as the main guide. Establishing a reputation among the Pennsylvania German community, the Landis brothers were rescued as money and age threatened their museum and ultimately the security of their extensive collection. Gustav Oberlaender (1867–1936), a wealthy German-born Reading, Pennsylvania
industrialist and President of the Berkshire Knitting Mills, founded and headed the Oberlaender Trust for Better Understanding Between Citizens of the United States and Germany. Oberlaender was also a Trustee of the Carl Schurz Memorial Association—an organization to honor Carl Schurz
(1829–1906), a poster boy for American-German relations. Learning about the collection of the Landis brothers, the Oberlaender Trust incorporated the Landis Valley Museum
in 1940, paying for the construction of new exhibition buildings. The museum opened in 1941. With the Oberlaender Trust facing money troubles and the advanced age of the Landis brothers, the museum was acquired by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and, eventually, administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
(PHMC), which in co-operation with the Landis Valley Associates still operates the facility today.
Landis, then in his eighties, retained life tenancy of their family home, retained some rights to the collections, and remained a lifetime curator
. Landis died in 1955.
1. Richman, Irwin. The Landis Family: A Pennsylvania German Family Album. Arcadia Publishing, 2008.
2. Richman, Irwin. Pennsylvania German Farms, Gardens, and Seeds: Landis Valley in Four Centuries. Schiffer Books, 2007.
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
, photographer, collector, and founder of the Landis Valley Museum
Landis Valley Museum
Landis Valley Museum is a nationally significant living history museum in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA. It collects, conserves, exhibits, and interprets Pennsylvania German material, culture, history and heritage from 1740 through 1940. The museum was founded by the Landis brothers--Henry K...
in Manheim Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Manheim Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Manheim Township is a township in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania established in 1729, which southernmost border meets the city limits of Lancaster. The population as of the 2000 census was 33,697.-Government:...
.
Landis was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Lancaster County, known as the Garden Spot of America or Pennsylvania Dutch Country, is a county located in the southeastern part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of 2010 the population was 519,445. Lancaster County forms the Lancaster Metropolitan Statistical Area, the...
to Henry Harrison Landis (1838–1926), a farmer, and Emma Caroline Diller (1842–1929), daughter of a prosperous farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
, in 1865. Henry was one of four children—George Diller (1867–1954), Nettie May (1879–1914), and Anna Margaretta, who died early in childhood.
The Landis family was historically typical Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch refers to immigrants and their descendants from southwestern Germany and Switzerland who settled in Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries...
, originating as Swiss Mennonite
Mennonite
The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...
folk with the earliest Landis antecedent living twelve miles south of Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
in 1438. To escape religious persecution
Religious persecution
Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group of individuals as a response to their religious beliefs or affiliations or lack thereof....
, in 1717, three Landis brothers—John, Jacob, and Felix—fled Switzerland. Jacob and Felix Landis established themselves in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania where the name Landis is prominent today.
Henry K. Landis (1865–1955) was raised on multi-generational family farm
Family farm
A family farm is a farm owned and operated by a family, and often passed down from generation to generation. It is the basic unit of the mostly agricultural economy of much of human history and continues to be so in developing nations...
in a rather tumultuous environment of domestic strife. He attended local schools, and was eventually sent to Lititz Academy as a boarding student with his brother George. Afterwards, the two Landis brothers both matriculated at Lehigh University
Lehigh University
Lehigh University is a private, co-educational university located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of the United States. It was established in 1865 by Asa Packer as a four-year technical school, but has grown to include studies in a wide variety of disciplines...
, but only Henry would graduate in ____ with a degree in Engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
. Landis’ sister Nettie was also educated locally and eventually attended a prep school
University-preparatory school
A university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education...
in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Landis worked as a mining engineer
Mining engineering
Mining engineering is an engineering discipline that involves the practice, the theory, the science, the technology, and application of extracting and processing minerals from a naturally occurring environment. Mining engineering also includes processing minerals for additional value.Mineral...
and educator for several years after he graduated (in the west?). His interest in photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
developed at some point during college, but his picture snapping ripened as he became increasingly interested in…
Practicing as an engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
was short-lived as Henry eventually relocated to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
where he worked as an editor of technical journals such as The Gas Age, a publication dedicated to the natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
industry. Weekends were dedicated to photography whether in and around Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
and Brooklyn or in Port Washington
Port Washington, New York
Port Washington is a hamlet and census-designated place in Nassau County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2010 Census, the community population was 15,846....
on Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
where he owned a houseboat
Houseboat
A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily as a human dwelling. Some houseboats are not motorized, because they are usually moored, kept stationary at a fixed point and often tethered to land to provide utilities...
and sailing
Sailing
Sailing is the propulsion of a vehicle and the control of its movement with large foils called sails. By changing the rigging, rudder, and sometimes the keel or centre board, a sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails in order to move the boat relative to its surrounding medium and...
vessel. He occasionally returned for vacations in Lancaster County.
Landis’ photography involved a wide range of subject matter including New York City architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
, street and immigrant life, posed-thematic character studies, self-portrait
Self-portrait
A self-portrait is a representation of an artist, drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by the artist. Although self-portraits have been made by artists since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid 15th century that artists can be frequently identified depicting...
s (some of which were in the nude) and a diversity of others.
After several decades in New York City, Landis retired, returning to the family farm where his parents and unmarried siblings had lived for most of their lives. Landis and his brother George began collecting, packing their buildings with farming implements and the domestic artifacts of the culture that revolved around farming. They established an informal museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
with Landis as the main guide. Establishing a reputation among the Pennsylvania German community, the Landis brothers were rescued as money and age threatened their museum and ultimately the security of their extensive collection. Gustav Oberlaender (1867–1936), a wealthy German-born Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...
industrialist and President of the Berkshire Knitting Mills, founded and headed the Oberlaender Trust for Better Understanding Between Citizens of the United States and Germany. Oberlaender was also a Trustee of the Carl Schurz Memorial Association—an organization to honor Carl Schurz
Carl Schurz
Carl Christian Schurz was a German revolutionary, American statesman and reformer, and Union Army General in the American Civil War. He was also an accomplished journalist, newspaper editor and orator, who in 1869 became the first German-born American elected to the United States Senate.His wife,...
(1829–1906), a poster boy for American-German relations. Learning about the collection of the Landis brothers, the Oberlaender Trust incorporated the Landis Valley Museum
Landis Valley Museum
Landis Valley Museum is a nationally significant living history museum in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA. It collects, conserves, exhibits, and interprets Pennsylvania German material, culture, history and heritage from 1740 through 1940. The museum was founded by the Landis brothers--Henry K...
in 1940, paying for the construction of new exhibition buildings. The museum opened in 1941. With the Oberlaender Trust facing money troubles and the advanced age of the Landis brothers, the museum was acquired by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and, eventually, administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission is the governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania responsible for the collection, conservation and interpretation of Pennsylvania's historic heritage...
(PHMC), which in co-operation with the Landis Valley Associates still operates the facility today.
Landis, then in his eighties, retained life tenancy of their family home, retained some rights to the collections, and remained a lifetime curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
. Landis died in 1955.
1. Richman, Irwin. The Landis Family: A Pennsylvania German Family Album. Arcadia Publishing, 2008.
2. Richman, Irwin. Pennsylvania German Farms, Gardens, and Seeds: Landis Valley in Four Centuries. Schiffer Books, 2007.