The Millersville Area Historical Society (MAHS) will host a presentation titled "19th-Century Education in the Millersville Area" when it meets on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. This is first of three presentations devoted to one-room schools that MAHS has scheduled; the others are set for Saturdays, Feb. 8 and March 8. The programs will begin at 9 a.m. in the Millersville Administration & Police Building, 100 Municipal Drive. Each of the one-hour presentations will focus on the history of some Lancaster County area.

The Jan. 11 presenter will be Frank Vitale, Millersville University (MU) assistant professor, archivist, and special collections librarian. Vitale's slideshow will chart the history of education in the Millersville area from its early beginnings through the Colonial era and into the post-Colonial era of the one-room schoolhouse. Included in his discussion will be the who and the how of one-room schoolhouse operations and the history of the Millersville State Normal School, the area's largest teacher training institution in the 19th century, and how it shifted the landscape of education in the region. A question-and-answer session will close the meeting.

Vitale joined MU in 2022 after having worked at the National Library of Medicine and at Dickinson College. His research has covered areas such as archival instruction, the history of medicine, and the history of the federal Native American boarding school movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He has a Bachelor of Arts in history from Dickinson College, a master's degree in library science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a master's degree in the history of science, medicine, and technology from the University of Oxford.

Although admission is free, donations will be accepted. For more details, contact one of the co-chairs: Phil Gerber, MAHS president, at 717-872-8837 before noon or at pge8507@aol.com or Kathy Brabson, MAHS secretary, at 717-682-5903 or at kathybrabson@comcast.net.