How Well Do You Know Gettysburg's Women's History?
The following quiz appears on the Destination Gettysburg website dated April 15, 2021.
We share the link with you… CLICK HERE
The women of Gettysburg endured quite a few hardships during the summer of 1863 and for quite a few months following. With the men off to war, the women of Gettysburg pulled themselves up by the bootstraps and began putting their town back together.
It is during the month of March we recognize the contributions of women to society and history, and without the women in Gettysburg, who knows what would have become of the town.
Take this quiz to test your knowledge of women in Adams County throughout history. Good luck and don’t forget to share your results with your friends!
We share the link with you… CLICK HERE
CANCELLED -- Thaddeus Stevens - A Webinar -- TO BE RESCHEDULED
The Thaddeus Steven Webinar has been cancelled at the request of the presenter.
It will be rescheduled.
Nat. Civil War Museum Community Free Day June 19 ~10 am - 4 pm
On June 19th, the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg is proud to provide a community-free day with activities and entertainment for the community, completely free of charge to visitors.
Click here for information
Museum guests will enjoy special presentations, children's activities, and a living history encampment.
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Coloring Activity Station
Period Clothing Station for children & adults to try on garments and take selfies
10:00 AM, 1:00 PM & 3:00 PM: *Living History Encampment -Thompson's Battery C
Museum visitors will see the flash and smell the smoke of Civil War muskets and rifles. Visitors are encouraged to visit the camps and ask living historians questions about their attire, food rations, and daily life.
Presentations (Times to be Determined)
Alaina Roberts - "Black Slaves & Indian Masters: A New Story of Reconstruction in the West"
In this presentation, Alaina E. Roberts will discuss the history of Black slave-owning among the Five Tribes (the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole Nations) and the Reconstruction project the United States enforced in Indian Territory (Oklahoma), which ended with the Black people in this region becoming the only group of former slaves in the world to receive reparations in the form of land.
Bio: Alaina E. Roberts is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on the intersection of African American and Native American history from the nineteenth century to the modern-day with particular attention to identity, settler colonialism, and anti-Blackness. In addition to her first book, I’ve Been Here All the While: Black Freedom on Native Land (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021), her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the Journal of the Civil War Era, and the Western Historical Quarterly.
Dorothy Wickenden - "The Agitators"
From the intimate perspective of three friends and neighbors in mid-nineteenth century Auburn, New York—Harriet Tubman, Frances Seward, and Martha Wright, the “agitators” of the title—acclaimed author Dorothy Wickenden tells the fascinating and crucially American stories of abolition, the Underground Railroad, the early women’s rights movement, and the Civil War. Beginning two decades before the Civil War, when Harriet Tubman was still enslaved and Martha and Frances were young women bound by law and tradition, The Agitators ends two decades after the war, in a radically changed United States. Wickenden brings this extraordinary period of our history to life through the richly detailed letters her characters wrote several times a week.
Bio: Dorothy Wickenden is the author of Nothing Daunted and The Agitators, and has been the executive editor of The New Yorker since January 1996. She also writes for the magazine and is the moderator of its weekly podcast The Political Scene. A former Nieman Fellow at Harvard, Wickenden was national affairs editor at Newsweek from 1993-1995, and before that was the longtime executive editor at The New Republic. She lives with her husband in Westchester, New York.
Deb Willis - “Reading the Image of the Black Civil War Soldier”
Bio: Deborah Willis, Ph.D., is a University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She is the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She is the author of The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship and Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present, among others. Professor Willis’s curated exhibitions include: "Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits” at the International Center of Photography; Out of Fashion Photography: Framing Beauty at the Henry Art Gallery and "Reframing Beauty: Intimate Moments" at Indiana University.
*Program is weather contingent. Visitors should check back for updates to this schedule, as they are subject to change.
Gettysburg NMP Museum & Visitor Center to Resume Daily Hours May 1
By Sean Adams | sadams@pennlive.com
The Gettysburg National Military Park Museum & Visitor Center has announced it will resume daily hours of operation in May.
The museum and visitor center are home to the Gettysburg Museum of the American Civil War and the Gettysburg Cyclorama. The historical center reopened after the COVID-19 shutdown in June of 2020 with reduced hours, and again in January of this year following a second closure.
The new hours will begin on May 1, and the center will be open for visitors from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. daily through the summer. Visitors are encouraged to read the center’s health and safety protocols before visitor, and to purchase tickets in advance by phone via 877-874-2478 or by visiting the Gettysburg Foundation website.
Gettysburg Foundation Names Motts as New President
The Board of Directors of the Gettysburg Foundation has appointed Wayne E. Motts as the Foundation’s new president to lead the operations of the national preservation and education organization.
The Gettysburg Foundation owns and operates the LEED Gold-certified Gettysburg National Military Park Museum & Visitor Center in partnership with Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site. The Foundation has a robust preservation and education mission that includes land and artifact preservation, educational events and programs. It also owns and operates the Rupp House History Center, the George Spangler Farm & Field Hospital and the Gettysburg Lincoln Railroad StationTM.
Motts most recently served as CEO of The National Civil War Museum located in Harrisburg, Pa., successfully leading the institution for nine years. Previously, Motts served as Executive Director of the Adams County Historical Society, located in Gettysburg, Pa., and was named its Director Emeritus in 2019.
“I am honored to be named the next president of the Gettysburg Foundation,” said Motts. “I look forward to working with the Foundation’s board, staff, volunteers and key partners— especially Gettysburg National Military Park and the Eisenhower National Historic Site—in advancing the Foundation’s mission. As a small boy dreaming of one day living and working in Gettysburg, my life now comes full circle with this wonderful opportunity.”
A long-time resident of Adams County, Pa., Motts has been a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg National Military Park for 33 years and now holds the title of Guide Emeritus.
“We are proud to have Wayne lead our operations into the future,” said Barbara Finfrock, co-chair of the Foundation’s Board of Directors. “Wayne has been a champion of Gettysburg for many years, and we are confident in his vast knowledge of history, leadership experience and talents as our new president.”
Motts received his Bachelor of Arts with a Major in Military History from The Ohio State University and holds a Master of Arts in American History from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania. He is an accomplished author, publishing books and articles about the Civil War including, Trust in God and Fear Nothing: General Lewis A. Armistead and Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg: A Guide to the Most Famous Attack in American History, which he co-authored.
An expert in the field, Motts has appeared on numerous television documentaries and videos produced by the History Channel, American Heroes Channel, TNT Network and A&E Channel.
“We are thrilled to welcome Wayne to our team, especially during this critical time as we emerge from the impact of the pandemic,” said Craig Bashein, co-chair of the Foundation’s Board of Directors. “His enthusiasm and passion for sharing the importance of the Battle of Gettysburg in the greater context of the American Civil War and our country’s history, combined with his keen understanding of museum and nonprofit operations makes him an ideal candidate to join us as our new president.”
Motts will assume the responsibilities as the Foundation’s new president May 24, 2021.
Underground Railroad Tours Are Back at Gettysburg
From the Gettysburg Connection
April 18, 2021
Walking tours of Gettysburg’s only Underground Railroad (UGRR) Site recognized by the National Park Service’s “Network to Freedom” will begin on Saturday, May 1st at 11:00 a.m and everyone is invited to attend. The McAllister’s Mill UGRR Tours were cancelled last year due to the COVID pandemic, but all of the tour guides have received their COVID vaccinations and the tours will be conducted out of doors in the open air with social distancing being encouraged.
Curt Musselman, the McAllister’s Mill Underground Railroad Tour Coordinator of the Historic Preservation Society of Gettysburg – Adams County (HGAC), announced today that one-hour tours will be given by professional guides every Saturday morning at 11:00 a.m, from May through August. Tours leave from the historical marker at the south end of the former Mulligan MacDuffer Adventure Golf parking lot at 1360 Baltimore Pike in Gettysburg, PA. The parking lot is at the intersection of the Baltimore Pike and the McAllister Mill Road. It is not necessary to make a reservation for the tour. Just show up for the tour and enjoy an informative, enlightening walk in the woods.
The site, now a ruin with foundations and waterways still visible, was most probably one of the first stops made in Adams County by people seeking freedom on their flight north from slavery in the South. About two miles south of Gettysburg, PA and six miles north of the Mason-Dixon Line, McAllister’s Mill provided shelter to hundreds of freedom seekers during the years leading up to the Civil War. After receiving assistance at the late 18th century grist mill, the formerly enslaved were guided north through Gettysburg into Upper Adams County to the homes of free African Americans and Quaker Abolitionists, forming critical links in one of the earliest regional networks of the Underground Railroad in the nation. The property now includes remnants of the mill building and related mill structures, all set amid large boulders that line Rock Creek in a densely wooded area where the mill once stood.
On July 4, 1836, McAllister’s Mill was the site of an early and significant gathering of Abolitionists in Pennsylvania. Chaired by mill owner and farmer James McAllister, Jr., the group agreed to publish bold anti-slavery principles, which were reportedly ghostwritten by Gettysburg attorney and later U.S. Congressman Thaddeus Stevens. This meeting led to the formation of the Adams County Anti-Slavery Society.
In 2011, the McAllister’s Mill site was accepted into the National Park Service National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom (UGRR NTF) which is a nationwide collection of sites that have a verifiable association to the Underground Railroad. For more information on the Network to Freedom, please consult the NPS website at www.nps.gov/history/ugrr/.
The first tours of the site were given by HGAC during the summer of 2011 and since then, hundreds of visitors have taken advantage of the unique opportunity to visit a rarely seen part of the battlefield. The walk to the mill from the historical marker at the parking lot is a somewhat strenuous, approximately one-half mile round trip. Suggested donations for the tour are $5 for students and $10 for adults. Everyone who comes on the tour will receive an NPS Underground Railroad brochure in addition to a souvenir brochure for the McAllister’s Mill Site that was created exclusively for HGAC and that is generously illustrated with a map, photographs and the art of historical artist Bradley Schmehl. Junior Ranger booklets and badges are available for students who participate in the tour.
Donations made to HGAC will support HGAC’s preservation activities including maintenance of the beautifully restored GAR Hall at 53 East Middle Street in Gettysburg. The McAllister’s Mill site is privately owned and is not open to the public. However, persons interested in the story of the Underground Railroad at the site will be able to join these tours that are conducted as fund-raisers by HGAC.
For more information about the weekly tours, or to make special arrangements, please call McAllister’s Mill UGRR Tours at 717-659-8827.
Nearly $7 Million Rehabilitation Coming To Antietam National Battlefield Visitor Center
By NPT Staff - April 6th, 2021
Click here for Original Story
A $6.8 million project to rehabilitate and preserve the visitor center at Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland is coming this spring. Through this rehabilitation, the National Park Service will bring the almost 60-year-old facility into the 21st century to preserve the building and provide improved visitor services.
“Each year, thousands of people begin their visit to Antietam National Battlefield at this historic visitor center,” Superintendent Susan Trail said. “We look forward to welcoming visitors to an improved facility that is more sustainable and accessible, and that offers even more engaging and up-to-date educational opportunities to learn about the Civil War and the Battle of Antietam.”
The project at the visitor center will:
· Rehabilitate the visitor center’s interior and exterior.
· Expand the building’s visitor entrance.
· Increase accessibility with a new elevator and sidewalk reconfiguration.
· Install solar panels to increase efficiency and sustainability.
· Replace outdated mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.
· Share a broader story of the Battle of Antietam.
Starting in July, visitor services and educational exhibits will be available in a temporary building during construction. The park plans to reopen the visitor center in late 2022.
The NPS completed the visitor center at Antietam National Battlefield in 1962 as part of the Mission 66 program. Mission 66 was an ambitious national program to modernize national parks across the country around the National Park Service's 50th anniversary in 1966. The NPS and architect William Cramp Scheetz Jr. designed the visitor center at Antietam in the “Park Service Modern” style, and it’s a prime example of more than 100 NPS visitor centers constructed through Mission 66 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Learn more about the visitor center and how Mission 66 helped shape Antietam National Battlefield.
The visitor center project is part of a larger rehabilitation of the park’s infrastructure. Recently, the park completed a restoration of Burnside Bridge, which played a significant role in the Battle of Antietam. A project is currently underway to rehabilitate the walkways leading to the bridge and increase accessibility for all park visitors. The park is also completing a rehabilitation of a battlefield observation tower.
Culps Hill Cleared at Gettysburg
Old-Growth Oaks Poached From Chickamauga and Chattanooga NMP
By NPT Staff - March 29th, 2021 2:15am
Garrity's Alabama Battery stands sentinel overlooking Moccasin Bend, the Tennessee River, and Chattanooga from Lookout Mountain/NPS
Garrity's Alabama Battery stands sentinel overlooking Moccasin Bend, the Tennessee River, and Chattanooga from Lookout Mountain/NPS
How do you value a century-old tree? That's a tough one when you factor in not just the board feet, but the value it provided to Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park in Georgia and Tennessee. It's a site that preserves and interprets key battles that helped cripple the Confederacy, and one that a 53-year-old man viewed as his private lumber yard.
According to the National Park Service, James Darren Scott, who claimed both Bryant, Alabama and Trenton, Georgia, as home, drove off the Old Wauhatchie Pike and onto Lookout Mountain, where he cut down more than a dozen trees, including several old-growth oaks.
His incursion into the park was noticed last September, when a ranger spotted the path that led off Old Wauhatchie Pike and into the woods.
"Upon further investigation, the ranger noted over a dozen cut trees, including several old-growth oaks. One large diameter cut tree section was removed by dragging it from the forest, down the road, to a parking lot," a park release said. "The ranger installed several live-monitored cellular game cameras and was able to capture a man revisiting the site a few days later. The ranger interviewed nearby neighbors, family members and acquaintances in Georgia, and visited a sawmill specializing in old-growth white oak trees in Alabama. The suspect’s personal information, as well as information on the vehicle used to commit the theft, were obtained."
Eventually, investigators were able to track down Scott; several people who knew him "identified him from the game camera photos and confirmed the make/model of his vehicle. With this corroborating information, the ranger successfully obtained an arrest warrant, and Scott was taken into custody without incident. Prior to trial, Scott accepted a plea to serve 11 months and 29 days in the Silverdale Correctional Complex in Hamilton County."
The damage assessment remains ongoing.
"It is difficult to put a price tag on trees that are over 100 years old and to offer more than just board feet value to national park visitors," the park release said. "A specialist with the U.S. Department of the Interior estimates Scott’s combined theft and damage to the park is approximately $60,000."