New Lancaster museum spotlights Thaddeus Stevens, Lydia Hamilton Smith

A new Lancaster museum dedicated to statesman Thaddeus Stevens and his housekeeper, Lydia Hamilton Smith, focuses on their roles in 19th-century abolitionist movements and the fight for freedom. The Thaddeus Stevens & Lydia Hamilton Smith Center for History and Democracy opened in May on the site where Stevens lived and practiced law. Sixteen exhibition galleries cover a range of topics, from what Lancaster was like in the 1840s to the Civil War and Reconstruction era, focusing on Stevens’...