Annual Symposium - "First Day at Gettysburg"
"First Day at Gettysburg"
Annual Symposium - February 26, 2022
8:00am - 5:15pm
Join us as our Annual Symposium returns to an in-person format with, for the first time, an available virtual option.
We are excited to welcome renowned Gettysburg historians James Hessler, Stuart Dempsey, and Eric Lindblade as they join SRMEC's Pete Miele and Codie Eash to examine stories, decisions, and experiences which made July 1, 1863 one of the most consequential days of the American Civil War.
Topics include:
Army of the Potomac Command Challenges on July 1
Ames’s Brigade at Gettysburg
Health and Medicine During the Civil War: A July 1 Case Study
General Buford’s Signalman, Aaron Jerome at the Seminary and Beyond
…and more!
Included with your registration is light breakfast, lunch, a book signing opportunity, admission to Seminary Ridge Museum and a guided tour of the historic Cupola.
An optional evening reception in Seminary Ridge Museum will include heavy hors d’oeuvres, spirits tasting with a local distillery, an opportunity to visit the Cupola after dark, and more!
Unable to attend in person? A digital-only streaming option is available so you can experience this exclusive event from the comfort of home!
**Please note that in accordance with United Lutheran Seminary policy, face masks will be required.**
Questions may be directed to Rob Williams, Director of Outreach at rwilliams@seminaryridge.org or 717-339-1354
Free Online Educator Seminar - "Civil War Math: A Hybrid, Storytelling Approach"
In every battle of the Civil War, soldiers and officers used math! Whether it was rate of march, angle of battle lines, or aiming a cannon, calculations were ever-present on the field. Join the staff of SeminaryRidge Museum and Education Center and discover an interdisciplinary approach to the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg that can get those math students interested in history, and history students interested in math! Register today.
Just Introduced: A Special Educator Membership Program. Join by 12/31/21 and get 14 months of membership benefits for the low annual price of $34.95. Click for details.
Sunset at the Seminary Walking Tours Meet on the west side of Seminary Ridge Museum
Art and Photography on Seminary Ridge
Soon after the Lutheran Seminary moved to the ridge that now bears its name, various 19th-century observers remarked upon the campus as “a delightful and hallowed retreat” with “a beautiful view,” featuring a “handsome four story brick building...on a commanding eminence.” Soon, artists turned those words into imagery, creating sketches, paintings, engravings, and photographs of the picturesque grounds and structures—from before the Civil War, through the Battle of Gettysburg, and into modern times. During this tour, we will focus on a handful of such artistic representations, including landscape painters in the 1830s, post-battle photographers, and military history artists of today.
Sunset at the Seminary Walking Tours Meet on the west side of Seminary Ridge Museum
The Hospital at the Seminary
Between July 1 and September 16, 1863, hundreds of wounded soldiers were treated in and around the brick Seminary building. Dozens of civilians came to the hospital complex to help care for these men broken in body and spirit. During this tour, we will focus on how soldiers received initial care after wounding, as well as the structures that were put in place to feed, clean, and care for patients throughout the months following the battle.
Visit Lee's Headquarters
Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.
American Battlefield Trust will also open the house on May 15, June 26, July 3, July 10, Aug. 21, Sept. 11, Oct. 9, Nov. 20, and Dec. 11.
Visit Lee's Headquarters
Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.
American Battlefield Trust will also open the house on May 15, June 26, July 3, July 10, Aug. 21, Sept. 11, Oct. 9, Nov. 20, and Dec. 11.
Visit Lee's Headquarters
Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.
American Battlefield Trust will also open the house on May 15, June 26, July 3, July 10, Aug. 21, Sept. 11, Oct. 9, Nov. 20, and Dec. 11.
Visit Lee's Headquarters
Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.
American Battlefield Trust will also open the house on May 15, June 26, July 3, July 10, Aug. 21, Sept. 11, Oct. 9, Nov. 20, and Dec. 11.
Sunset at the Seminary Walking Tours Meet on the west side of Seminary Ridge Museum
Artillery on Seminary Ridge
No portion of the Gettysburg battlefield was occupied longer than the campus of the Lutheran Seminary, serving one army or the other for all three days of the battle and beyond. Though it operated as an observation post, hospital, headquarters, rallying point, and fighting ground, perhaps no aspect of the landscape has remained as quietly influential as its use as a heavily concentrated artillery platform. During this tour, we will focus on more than 20 United States cannon that occupied the campus on July 1, the 18 Confederate cannon that took their place on July 2 and 3, and the stories of the artillerists who manned these guns.
Visit Lee's Headquarters
Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.
American Battlefield Trust will also open the house on May 15, June 26, July 3, July 10, Aug. 21, Sept. 11, Oct. 9, Nov. 20, and Dec. 11.
Visit Lee's Headquarters
Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.
American Battlefield Trust will also open the house on May 15, June 26, July 3, July 10, Aug. 21, Sept. 11, Oct. 9, Nov. 20, and Dec. 11.
Visit Lee's Headquarters
Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.
American Battlefield Trust will also open the house on May 15, June 26, July 3, July 10, Aug. 21, Sept. 11, Oct. 9, Nov. 20, and Dec. 11.
Visit Lee's Headquarters
Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.
American Battlefield Trust will also open the house on May 15, June 26, July 3, July 10, Aug. 21, Sept. 11, Oct. 9, Nov. 20, and Dec. 11.
Visit Lee's Headquarters
Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.
American Battlefield Trust will also open the house on May 15, June 26, July 3, July 10, Aug. 21, Sept. 11, Oct. 9, Nov. 20, and Dec. 11.
Visit Lee's Headquarters
Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.
American Battlefield Trust will also open the house on May 15, June 26, July 3, July 10, Aug. 21, Sept. 11, Oct. 9, Nov. 20, and Dec. 11.
Visit Lee's Headquarters
Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.
American Battlefield Trust will also open the house on May 15, June 26, July 3, July 10, Aug. 21, Sept. 11, Oct. 9, Nov. 20, and Dec. 11.
Virtual Symposium 2021
As the guns were silenced, Union and Confederate veterans and the public began erecting monuments to memorialize the Civil War. Contentious debates surrounded the construction of these monuments from the very beginning. In the last five years, the debate has spilled onto the front pages of newspapers across the nation.
This year, our annual Symposium will take a deep look at Civil War memory and monuments. Join a panel of historians as we look at the role monuments have played in shaping our country’s remembrance of the conflict.
Register Here
Civil War Nursing at the Seminary Ridge Museum (virtual)
Join us on Wednesday, March 17 at 1:00 PM on Facebook Live for a virtual program hosted by the National Museum of Civil War Medicine and the Seminary Ridge Museum. You can tune in live by visiting facebook.com/civilwarmed/live or facebook.com/seminaryridgemuseum/live at the scheduled time.
Did you know that a knife fight almost erupted in the Seminary Hospital in July 1863? This is only one of the many stories that played out within the walls of Schmucker Hall during its use as a hospital following the Battle of Gettysburg. Join Pete Miele of Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center and Jake Wynn Director of Interpretation at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine as we explore the lesser-known deeds of patients, nurses, and chaplains during the summer of 1863.
The Work For Freedom—York Civil War Roundtable (virtual)
South-Central Pennsylvania is known for the Battle of Gettysburg, the largest military clash in the western hemisphere. Over the course of twenty-five years, however, this area was a battleground of a different kind as the hills and valleys of this region represented both freedom and danger for free and self-emancipating African-Americans. As a network of free African-Americans and whites emerged to protect escaping enslaved and free citizens, slave catchers frequently prowled the area, looking to kidnap these freedom seekers and sell them south into bondage. During the Civil War, African-Americans from the small towns and cities of South-Central Pennsylvania flocked to the United States Army to strike back at the institution of slavery. These stories shed new light on what was at stake during the four years of fighting. Topics covered in this presentation include the kidnapping of Kitty Paine (1845); Daniel Kaufmann and the Underground Railroad (1847); Frederick Douglass and John Brown in Chambersburg (1859); and the 54th Massachusetts in Franklin County (1863).
On February 17, 2021, Peter C. Miele, Executive Director, Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center will present “The Work For Freedom: Life in the Pennsylvania Borderlands, 1840-1865”
Webinar - Teaching History with Museum Resources: A Hybrid Learning How-To
Hosted by edWeb
The recording will be posted on this page after the live session. Closed captioning will be added to the recording within 2 weeks of the live presentation.
Get a CE Certificate for this edWebinar Learn more
November 19, 2020 marks the 157th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address and the Dedication of the Gettysburg National Military Park. This edWebinar is presented by the Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center, the site of the Civil War’s first battle. The museum’s Executive Director, Peter Miele, a former high school history educator and now a sought-after history lecturer, along with Kara Boehne, the library chair of the Cumberland Valley School District (PA), will share ideas and approaches for using museum-based resources to enrich and expand history explorations and understanding.
They’ll use examples of the free multimedia learning resources created by the Seminary Ridge Museum to illustrate the use of primary sources, museum artifacts, and contextual information in creating remote, hybrid, and onsite learning experiences for students. They’ll cover strategies for integrating museum resources into student research and independent learning projects and activities. Participants will receive free access to the museum’s growing portfolio of digital resources.
This edWebinar will be of interest to middle and high school teachers, librarians, and school and district leaders. There will be time to get your questions answered at the end of the presentation.