ISSUED: 16 March 2023
MEDIA CONTACT: Dana Costa
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — The George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War (GTM Center) will expand its offerings thanks to a $5,000 grant from Americana Corner’s Preserving America Grant Program. The grant will allow the GTM Center to transform a room in its headquarters, the Conrad Shindler House, into exhibit space that will tell the story of how the war impacted Shepherdstown.
“The exhibition, ‘Crossroads: Shepherdstown in the American Civil War,’ will explore how civilians and soldiers endured the trials of war and the ways in which conflict transformed a small Appalachian community,” said Dr. James Broomall, GTM Center director. “War changed this town of 1,000 inhabitants perhaps most indelibly in September 1862 when approximately 4,000 wounded soldiers turned the town into a vast field hospital.”
An exhibition room in the Conrad Shindler House, 136 W. German St., Shepherdstown, West Virginia, will include interpretive panels and costumed mannequins depicting a female nurse and a male wounded soldier.
Broomall said the circa 1795 house has traditionally been used as historical research offices, however there is a steady stream of visitors who are looking for museum space. He estimates about 2,500 people a year visit the house.
“It is essential that we broaden our operation and create more exhibitions and interpretation to cater to the evolving needs of our audience while fulfilling our core mission of education and programming,” Broomall said. “The project will support our educational mission, promote lifelong learning, and emphasize our historic site’s linkages to the American Civil War.”
Broomall will conduct the primary work for the exhibition with the support of Kristen Marino, GTM Center administrative assistant. Broomall, who is also an associate professor of history at Shepherd, plans to create a series of student-led discussions about organizing and framing content as part of long-term class projects.
Broomall is grateful to Americana Corner for its investment in United States history and organizations like the GTM Center.
“Through their generosity and support, organizations like ours can bring forward the layered stories of our nation’s founding and its rebirth during the trials of civil war,” Broomall said. “We are especially excited that visitors to Shepherdstown will be able to see through museum exhibits how structures like the Conrad Shindler House were transformed into temporary field hospitals during the 1862 Maryland Campaign. They can read about the trials this community and its inhabitants endured.”
Americana Corner is an online resource focused on the founding of the United States. Its Preserving America Grant Program was established in 2022 to help other organizations tell the story of America through its first century as a nation. For 2023, Americana Corner awarded 119 grants to programs across 35 states.
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