Saturday, February 10, 1:00 p.m.:
Abraham Lincoln Birthday Celebration
featuring “Abraham Lincoln: Philosopher Statesman”
Lecture/Book Signing with Dr. Joseph Fornieri
at the Lehigh County Historical Society
432 W Walnut Street
Allentown, PA 18102
Come celebrate Lincoln’s birthday with a taste of his favorite cake, and learn more about his life and political greatness. Leading Lincoln scholar Dr. Joseph Fornieri will explore how Lincoln's greatness of thought, speech, and deed made him a true Philosopher Statesman. FREE to members; non-members $8 adults, $3 children.
Clara Barton (as suggested by a student)
The following post was suggested by a school student who found the research page of our website to be helpful for a school project. We hope she (and others) continue to learn from history: past, present and future! Keep on learning, Rebecca!
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All About Clara Barton
Clara Barton is a famous teacher, nurse, and humanitarian. She is considered to be one of the most famous nurses of the Civil War but is most recognized for establishing the American Red Cross. Because she was able to do more than many women were allowed to do at the time, Barton is also a role model for many girls and women.
Clarissa Harlowe Barton was born in Massachusetts on Christmas in 1921. She was the youngest of five children, and she was a very shy girl, but she had a very close relationship with her four older siblings. During her childhood, her father often told her war stories, which gave her a sense of pride in her country and helped teach her the importance of being prepared. She also developed an interest in caring for others, which began when she had to take care of one of her brothers after he fell off of a roof and severely injured himself. She was not accused of abuse at a nursing home.
Barton's Role as an Educator
Barton's shyness was a big problem when she was young. Her parents believed that teaching would help her get over her shyness. Because she liked helping people, they also thought that she would make a very good teacher. She began teaching in Massachusetts when she was nearly 17 years old, and she was very good at it. During her time as a teacher, she became more confident, and she did very well with students. Her teaching style made even the most difficult children enjoy learning.
In 1850, she moved to New York to further her education, and after, she went to teach in New Jersey. Because there were no free public schools in New Jersey, Barton opened her own small school in Bordentown. As her school became more popular, Bordentown decided that it should be made larger. When the new school opened, officials decided that Barton should no longer be in charge because she was a woman. They hired a man to replace her, and they paid him more for the job. This angered Barton, who later resigned from the school entirely.
Barton's Role During the Civil War
When the Civil War started, Barton lived in Washington, D.C., where she worked at the U.S. Patent Office. After the Baltimore riot of 1861, she assisted injured soldiers, and she recognized some of the men as former students and other people that she knew. She also saw that there were not enough supplies to care for the injured soldiers. To help fix this problem, she encouraged friends in every place where she had lived to gather supplies such as medicine, food, blankets, and clothing for the soldiers. This support network became very important for Union soldiers and played a huge role in getting them aid when their supplies ran out or were low. She would travel by carriage and deliver supplies to field hospitals herself and was even given approval to travel to some battlefields. This was surprising to many people, as women did not normally travel to battlefields or field hospitals alone. Even though she mainly delivered supplies, she would also act as a nurse at times. When she could, she and other nurses would assist with medical care and provide comfort and food to the injured. Her actions earned her the nickname "Angel of the Battlefield."
As the Civil War came to an end, Barton's desire to help continued. Families who were missing sons, husbands, and fathers needed help finding out what happened to them. With the support of President Abraham Lincoln, she started the Missing Soldiers Office. This new organization was able to get information about more than 20,000 missing men.
Barton and the Red Cross
The Civil War and her search for missing soldiers had a negative effect on Barton's health, and her doctors advised her to travel and relax. In 1869, she traveled to Europe, and while in Switzerland, she learned about the International Red Cross. Impressed, Barton began working with the International Red Cross to deliver supplies during the Franco-Prussian War. In 1873, she returned to the U.S., where she worked to establish a Red Cross in the United States. After a lengthy fight, she succeeded in 1881. At the age of 60, she became the first president of the American Red Cross, a position she held for 23 years.
Source
Why Doesn’t Garfield Assassination Site on the National Mall Have a Marker?
Why Doesn’t Garfield Assassination Site on the National Mall Have a Marker?
A new campaign by historians seeks to bring recognition to the site where the 20th president was shot
By Jason Daley
January 25, 2018
Published in the Smithsonian.com
Yesterday, a tiny ripple made its way through the feeds of history geeks on Twitter. The James Garfield National Historic Site announced that it was working with historians, filmmakers, authors and other interested parties in placing a marker at the site where President James Garfield was assassinated in 1881. He is the only assassinated U.S. president without a marker at the site he was shot.
So why is there no marker for Garfield, 137 years after his murder? One reason might be his short term in office. Evan Andrews at History.com reports that after he was sworn in, Garfield clashed with fellow Republicans in Congress and cared for his wife, Lucretia, who was fighting a life-threatening bout of malaria. But the 20th president only served four months in the White House before he was shot at the Baltimore and Potomac rail station on July 2, 1881.
The other barrier to placing a marker at the site is the fact that the Baltimore and Potomac rail station, where the assassination took place, was torn down in 1908. According to Richard Brownell at WETA’s Boundary Stones, the rail station was built on Constitution Avenue, then B street, and 6th Street NW in 1873. While the station itself was rather beautiful, Washingtonians always hated the train shed that extended out from the station. Garfield’s murder at the site, of course, cast its own pall over the station. By 1901, plans were afoot to tear down the station during a large-scale renovation of the National Mall. In 1908, it finally came down and the tracks were dug up. The National Gallery of Art was opened on the site in 1941, covering the spot where a marker of the assassination might be placed.
The J.A. Garfield National Historic Site, which operates Garfield’s home and farm in Mentor, Ohio, is now looking at sites around the National Gallery of Art to place the marker.
The story of Garfield’s death is something of a potboiler. Garfield, a former Union General and Congressman from Ohio, was hoping to take a break from the D.C. heat with a visit to New England in July of 1881. As his carriage pulled up to the train station, a 39-year-old man by the name of Charles Guiteau was lying in wait, armed with an ivory handled pistol he thought would look nice in a museum one day and a note addressed to the White House. Upon seeing the president, Guiteau opened fire, shooting two point blank shots at the president, one which grazed his elbow and the other, which lodged itself in his lower back.
What was Guiteau’s motivation? Gilbert King at Smithsonian.com reports that Guiteau was a “mentally unstable 41-year-old lawyer [who] had stalked Garfield for months before shooting him.” After giving a few small local speeches supporting Garfield during the election, Guiteau became convinced that he was responsible for the president’s victory. He began writing to Garfield and moved from Chicago to Washington. He even received a meeting with the president where he asked for a post in Paris. His request was rebuffed. Later, he said he was lying in bed one night when God told him to kill the president so that Vice President Chester A. Arthur could return the country to Republican principals and save America. He considered killing the president using dynamite or a stiletto before settling on a revolver. Several times, he had opportunity to take Garfield’s life but held off, fearing he might hit his children or the first lady. One time, he followed the president to the secretary of state’s home, but lost his nerve when he had a clear shot. Finally, that morning at the train station he felt emboldened and brandished his weapon.
Garfield did not die immediately after being shot. In fact, he lingered, in agony, for 80 days. Researchers believe that today Garfield would have survived the assassination attempt, but because doctors of the day were unaware of sterilization practices, they likely created a deadly infection by poking and prodding the wound. By September, the president had a major infection and abscesses all over his body. A special railroad spur line was built directly to the White House, so that Garfield could be transferred by rail car to Long Branch, New Jersey, to take in the sea air. It did not help his condition. He died on September 19, 1881.
Guiteau was convicted and hanged in 1882. Portions of his brain are held in Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum. And what became of the Guiteau’s museum-quality revolver? A black-and-white Smithsonian file photo of it exists, but the weapon itself has been lost to history.
Read the entire article by clicking this link
Photos below:
LEFT: Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Terminal, 6th Street & Constitution Avenue, Washington, D.C. Opened in 1873, demolished in 1908. RIGHT: View of the Constitution Avenue entrance, north side, of the National Gallery of Art. (Public Domain/Smithsonian Archives)
Project to Develop Data Base for “Enslaved: The People of the Historic Slave Trade”
Project to Develop Data Base for “Enslaved: The People of the Historic Slave Trade”
By Jason Daley, smithsonian.com, January 16, 2018
A new project called “Enslaved: The People of the Historic Slave Trade” will give scholars and the public a massive resource to help search for enslaved people and their descendants in one source.
As Brian McVicar at MLive.com reports, Michigan State University received a $1.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to develop the online data hub linking together several important databases on enslaved people in the Americas. It will also allow users to analyze and create maps and charts of enslaved populations in the United States.
According to a press release, it will take 18 months to build a proof-of-concept version of the project, which will pull from eight major online databases. “By linking data compiled by some of the world’s foremost historians, it will allow scholars and the public to learn about individuals’ lives and to draw new, broad conclusions about processes that had an indelible impact on the world,” says project co-investigator Walter Hawthorne, professor and chair of MSU’s Department of History.
In a video presentation, Hawthorne explains that much of what historians know about enslaved people come from things like baptismal records, plantation inventories and other scattered documents that include mostly fragmentary information about each person. The problem for those researching geneaology is that such handwritten paper documents are often damaged and very difficult to read, even when they’re made into high-resolution scans or photos. But by extracting the data from these documents and entering them in databases, online databases have made these primary documents more accessible to historians and genealogists.
While there are dozens of digitization projects going on around the world doing this work, tracking the story of one individual or running analyses on one population can become difficult across so many databases. “Enslaved” will act as a hub, linking open data-sources together. “If I can do an analogy, it’s kind of like what you might do for an airline ticket or a hotel room when you go on Expedia,” says Hawthorne. “You’re searching across multiple databases.”
Though online databases and digitization of census records and other documents has led to a genealogy boom in the United States in recent years, for people with enslaved ancestors, tracing their roots remains a daunting task. Historian Rebecca Onion at Slate reports that freed slaves did not show up in the U.S. census by name until 1870. Tracking ancestors by last name is also difficult. Many people assume that many enslaved people took the last name of their owners, but Tony Burroughs, founder of the Center for Black Genealogy, tells Onion that’s not necessarily the case—last names come from many sources and don’t often link up with a slave owner. This difficulty of linking a free person with records from a plantation has thus been dubbed the “1870 Brick Wall.”
When “Enslaved” debuts, it hopes to join with other resources to help scale that barrier.
Read more at the Smithsonian Magazine
Emma Louise Nagle of Bethlehem - One of the Last Four Civil War Nurses
Emma Nagle of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania is memorable for having lived to become of of the last four women known to have nursed in the Civil War. However she never actually enjoyed this distinction, for neither she not those about her, knew how many or how few such nurses remained. Emma, at ninety-seven, knew only that it had been years since she could recall seeing another who had nursed in the Civil War. In fact, she hadn't seen a Civil War soldier for several years either. Of publicity, she sought little and got little.
Born in Philadelphia to... (click here to read the rest of the story)
National Park Service Begins Roof Replacement, Masonry Repair At Lincoln Memorial
National Park Service Begins Roof Replacement, Masonry Repair At Lincoln Memorial
By NPT Staff on January 9th, 2018
An eight-month-long project is under way to make repairs to the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington/NPS
The National Park Service has begun an eight-month project to replace the roofs and repair cracked marble at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The memorial will remain open for the duration of the project, though some areas will be inaccessible.
The flat upper and lower roofs of the memorial were last replaced 20 years ago and are starting to fail. Incoming water is staining the interior walls of the memorial, most noticeably on the southeast wall. A sound roof is one of the most important ways to protect and preserve a historic building, and the new roofs will be constructed with five layers to keep the interior dry and watertight. From interior to exterior, the roofs will be composed of: hollow clay terracotta tile, concrete decking, a hot rubberized asphalt membrane, rigid insulation and slate pavers.
The project will also repair the white marble at the (click here to read the entire article)
Daughter of a USCT Civil War veteran has died
Daughter of a USCT Civil War veteran has passed on.
With sadness we report the passing of Maggie Devane, of St. Paul, Minnesota on
Friday, September 12, 2017 at the age of 111. She is survived by her son Gene Devane, three
grandsons, and a niece Doris Bonds. Her husband Junious Devane and a sister Inez Womack
having preceded her in death. Maggie was born on November 17, 1905 to Henry Johnson and
Nannie Bell Montgomery, his third wife. Her father was a former slave from Jackson
Mississippi who fought in the Civil War as a USCT and was discharged in 1865 near Louisville,
KY
NJ CIVIL WAR FLAGS TO BE UNVEILED DECEMBER 30th AT NJ STATE MUSEUM
NJ CIVIL WAR FLAGS TO BE UNVEILED DECEMBER 30th AT THE STATE MUSEUM
A Chance To See More Battle Flags Carried by NJ Troops During The Civil War As Part of Patriots Week Actives in Trenton
What: New Jersey Civil War Flag Exhibition Unveiling and Flag Lecture
Where: NJ State Museum, Main Building, 205 West State St, Trenton, NJ
When: Saturday, December 30th 2017 at 2:00 PM
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[TRENTON, NJ - December 20, 2017] - New Jersey contributed over 80,000 men to the fight and the New Jersey State Museum has over 100 flags carried by New Jersey's troops in the war in its collection.
Flags served a simple purpose, it allowed commanders viewing the battlefield to identify regiments as well as a rallying point during combat. They also brought unit esprit de corp, binding the soldiers together, inspiring enthusiasm, devotion with a strong regard for their own regimental colors. All NJ regiments were provided two large flags, one which was the United States National colors and a second flag, a blue state regimental color, having an Federal eagle clutching arrows and olive branch in it's talons, on one side and usually the New Jersey State seal on the other side. All flags were cherished by their units, and vigilantly guarded by a color company within the regiment, it being a high honor to be selected as a member of this detail, as it was based on personal courage and steadiness under fire.
Five of these historic flags will be unveiled in specially designed exhibit cases in their new exhibit hall at the New Jersey State Museum, located at 205 West State Street in Trenton, at 2:00 PM on Saturday, December 30, 2017.
The flags to be unveiled are some of the most distinctive in the collection, and they have not been shown for several years:
40th New Jersey Infantry National Colors
2nd New Jersey Infantry State Regimental Colors
4th New Jersey Infantry National Colors
2nd New Jersey Cavalry Guidon
A Confederate flag captured by New Jersey troops on May 3, 1863 at the battle of Chancellorsville. The CSA regiment was never identified so the flag stayed within the collection.
New Jersey troops captured well over twenty Confederate flags in battle during the Civil War. One of them will be included in this exhibit. New Jersey regiments lost six flags which were captured throughout the war. This exhibit will include two of them, from the 2nd and 4th New Jersey Infantry regiments. Those flags were captured at the battle of Gaines' Mill in 1862 and then were recovered after the Civil War.
The flagstaff of the 2nd New Jersey Cavalry, also included in this exhibit, was broken by Confederate fire at the battle of Brice's Cross Road, Mississippi, in 1864.
Each flag has its own amazing story to tell.
Organized by the New Jersey State Museum and the New Jersey Civil War Heritage Association, the unveiling event will feature an educational gallery walk by flag historian Dr. David Martin, author of the award winning New Jersey at Gettysburg Guidebook. Dr. Martin is currently preparing a detailed history of the State's Civil War flags for publication.
The gallery is newly installed on the first floor of the main museum building, having been moved from its former location at 225 West State Street last summer. It also features a rotating exhibition including Civil War related photographs, sculptures and related memorabilia, prepared by Nicholas Ciotola, Curator of Cultural History at the New Jersey State Museum, with the aid of members of the New Jersey Civil War Heritage Association.
For more information and details about these specific flags
contact David G. Martin at dmartin@peddie.org.
For more information on Trenton's Patriots Week see www.destinationtrenton.com
Winter Lectures and Battlefield Book Series at Gettysburg National Military Park
Winter Lectures and Battlefield Book Series
at Gettysburg National Military Park
Winter is a great time to visit and explore Gettysburg National Military Park. On January 6, the park’s winter programs begin. This year Gettysburg National Military Park is offering lectures, a book series, and the popular reading adventures program for children ages 4 to 10 and their families. These free programs run January through March at the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center.
Gettysburg will continue its popular Winter Lecture Series and Battlefield Book Series. Featuring some of the best National Park Service rangers and historians from across the region, the 11-week Winter Lecture Series of hour-long talks will examine pivotal turning points during the American Civil War era. From the Compromise of 1850, the Battle of Stones River, and the Lincoln – Douglas Debates to the legacy of George Meade, these moments and individuals mark significant epochs in the course of the conflict. The Winter Lecture Series is held at 1:30 p.m. on weekends in the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center from January 6 through March 10, 2017.
Sat. Jan. 6 - Matt Atkinson
After Gettysburg: The Army of Northern Virginia Tries to Regroup
Sun. Jan. 7 - Daniel Vermilya
The Battle of Shiloh: Conquer or Perish
Sat. Jan. 13 - Troy Harman
Capt. Johnston's Sunrise Reconnaissance: How Lee and Longstreet Lost the War on July 2, 1863.
Sun. Jan. 14 - Karlton Smith
USS Monitor: The Ship That Launched a Modern Navy
Sat. Jan. 20 - Jared Frederick, Penn State Altoona
The Unfinished Work: The World Wars at Gettysburg
Sun. Jan. 21 - Tom Holbrook
If These Things Could Talk: Artifacts in the Collection of Gettysburg National Military Park
Sat. Jan. 27 - Zach Siggins
Breaking the Final Bond: The Presbyterian Church and the Coming of the Civil War
Sun. Jan. 28 - Christopher Gwinn
“A Great Weight at My Heart”: The Army of the Potomac after Gettysburg
Sat. Feb. 3 - Bert Barnett
God Has Granted Us a Happy New Year!” – An Unappreciated Turning Point of 1862: The Battle of Stones River
Sun. Feb. 4 - Angie Atkinson
Cogs in a Different Wheel: Non-combatant Life During the American Civil War
Sat. Feb. 10 - Steve Phan, Civil War Defenses of Washington DC
Early at the Gates: The Battle of Fort Stevens
Sun. Feb. 11 - John Hoptak
"before the fearful and dangerous leap is taken:" The Fateful Compromise of 1850
Sat. Feb. 17 - Daniel Vermilya
The Lincoln - Douglas Debates
Sun. Feb 18 - Karlton Smith and Matt Atkinson
Gettysburg & Vicksburg: "The Confederacy totters to its destruction."
Sat. Feb. 24 - John Heiser
“The movement was south.” General Grant and the Overland Campaign
Sun. Feb. 25 - Dr. Jennifer Murray, University of Virginia - Wise Campus
“God Knows My Conscious Is Clear”: Constructing George Gordon Meade’s Legacy
Sat. March 3 - Troy Harman
After Gettysburg: Religion, Lee's Army, and Southern Culture
Sun. March 4 - Mark Mahosky, Gettysburg NMP Artist in Residence
Mark Mahosky: 30 Years of Drawing the Gettysburg Battlefield
Sat. March 10 - Bert Barnett
Personal Turning Points – Jefferson Davis and George Thomas.
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Gettysburg Battlefield Book Series
Meeting from 11 a.m. until noon every Saturday from January 6 to March 3 the Gettysburg Battlefield Book Series will examine significant works of history and literature on topics related to the Battle of Gettysburg and the American Civil War. Gettysburg National Military Park invites you to read along over the course of the winter before attending the informal one hour discussions in the Ford Education Center of the park Museum and Visitor Center. Park staff will lead the meetings, providing a brief overview of that week’s topic and discuss the chapters read.
From January 6 to February 3 the Gettysburg Battlefield Book Series will examine our first book, Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee through His Private Letters, by Elizabeth Pryor Brown. This landmark biography sheds new light on every aspect of the complex and contradictory general’s life story. From February 10 to March 3, read along as we delve into Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech that Nobody Knows by Dr. Gabor Boritt. Boritt chronicles the crafting of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, delving into the context behind America’s most famous speech.
Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters
by Elizabeth Brown Pryor
January 6 – February 3
Reading the Man
January 6 Chapter 1-5
January 13 Chapter 6-10
January 20 Chapter 11-15
January 27 Chapter 16-20
February 3 Chapter 21-26
Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech that Nobody Knows by Gabor Boritt
February 10 – March 3
Gettysburg Gospel
February 10 Chapter 1-2
February 17 Chapter 3-4
February 24 Chapter 5-6
March 3 A Conversation with Dr. Gabor Boritt
Summer Internships at Gettysburg National Military Park
Public Historians Wanted! Summer Internships at Gettysburg National Military Park
by Gettysburg National Military ParkAre you interested in a career with the National Park Service? Do you enjoy talking to people from across the country and around the world? Would you like to share your interest in history and help others appreciate the stories of this park? Gettysburg National Military Park offers public history internships to motivated, enthusiastic individuals who seek to share their talents and gain valuable experience working at one of America’s iconic historic sites.
We want you to enjoy your internship and be successful. Interns receive over 40 hours of formal training as well as on-the-job training as part of their internship. Training is in subjects such as: researching, informal interpretation; operating visitor facilities, organizing and presenting effective formal interpretive talks, interpretive techniques, and digital interpretive media. A typical internship in the Division of Interpretation consists of three things. Interns serve as front-line representatives of the National Park Service at Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center, greeting visitors, providing park information and conducting informal interpretation. This offers experience in meeting and greeting the public, providing information/orientation to the park and area, as well as an understanding of what it is visitors seek in a visit to the park.
Interns are also responsible for researching, preparing and presenting formal interpretive programs and living history demonstrations relating to the Battle of Gettysburg, the American Civil War and the themes evoked by the National Cemetery and President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
A third project is often assigned that matches the specific talents and goals of the intern. Previous projects have included interpretive writing, transcriptions of archival materials in the park library, working with the park’s Social Media Team, and creating first person living history programs.
Internships are typically offered in the summer months when the park is busiest, and a typical internship lasts 10-12 weeks. Interns work 40 hours each week, and weekend work can be expected. Positions are unpaid, although the park provides free housing and a cost of living stipend. Our interns are in public contact positions and serve as representatives of the National Park Service. Therefore are all interns required to wear a uniform (usually khaki pants and a dark blue shirt). Currently we provide a uniform allowance to cover this cost.
To apply for an internship at Gettysburg National Military Park you should submit a resume, cover letter and reference list by December 31. Your resume should include your name, address, email & telephone number, the names of any colleges or universities attended, and a brief synopsis of your work experience. Your cover letter should address why you want an internship at Gettysburg National Military Park, and how it relates to your career goals. Even more importantly, it should demonstrate your writing skills.
Please email your application materials by sending it to: gett_education@nps.gov
You can also mail your application materials, by Dec. 31, 2017 to:
Internship Program
Attention: Barbara J. Sanders
Gettysburg National Military Park
1195 Baltimore Pike Gettysburg, PA 17325
If you have further questions please contact Education Specialist, Barbara Sanders by phone at 717-338-4422 or by email gett_education@nps.gov
