Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center

The Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center is the Gettysburg National Military Park facility which displays the 1884 Gettysburg Cyclorama and provides the tour center for Licensed Battlefield Guides and buses to the Gettysburg Battlefield and Eisenhower National Historic Site. The museum displays artifacts including cannon, firearms, uniforms, etc. and includes an exhibit gallery and theater (22-minute A New Birth of Freedom about the American Civil War). Additional facilities are a "computer resource room",^[2] a bookstore with gifts, and a restaurant.^[3]

Background

The first excursion train to the battlefield arrived 2 days after the Battle of Gettysburg, and throughout the following months, family members arrived looking for their casualties (e.g., during October-March battlefield exhumations for the Gettysburg National Cemetery). The Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association erected numerous monuments by the end of the 19th century when a hackmen's industry had developed to provide horse-drawn jitneys (group taxis) from the 2 train stations. Private coaches could also be rented, and across the battlefield were an 1884 steamtrain railroad and an 1894 electric trolley. In the early 20th century, Gettysburg permits were required for automobile taxis, thousands of automobiles visited on one day during the 1913 Gettysburg reunion, and small stations were established for tour guides--e.g., on the Harrisburg Road (the trolley and railway were removed in 1917 and c. 1942). Tests and licenses for battlefield guides were mandated in 1915, and the park's first reception building was the Gettysburg Parkitecture guide station on the Emmitsburg Road. Similar tourist services on the battlefield included parkitecture comfort stations with restrooms and water fountains, e.g., at Devil's Den and The Pennsylvania State Memorial. During the 1938 Gettysburg reunion, hundreds of thousands of visitors arrived for the dedication of the Eternal Light Peace Memorial.

One of the first Gettysburg museums displayed the J Albertus Danner collection of artifacts in 1881, and in 1894 the Gettysburg Cyclorama was displayed in a tent at The Angle[1] (groundbreaking for a building on Cemetery Hill was in 1912.) The 1888-1964 Round Top Museum and 1921-2008 Gettysburg National Museum were both acquired by the National Park Service after the 1963 battle anniversary. During the post-WWII increase of tourism, Mission 66 improvements for the NPS 50th anniversary included the construction of the Cyclorama Building at Gettysburg as the first NPS visitor center for the battlefield. Plans in 1973 for a projected tourist increase included an Oak Ridge visitor center and an Eisenhower parkway on the west (neither was built, nor was an Appalachian Trail spur to the battlefield considered in 1982.) The Gettysburg National Museum became the visitor center in 1974 and after technology and sewer improvements in 1995[2], was demolished in 2008 after the Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center was completed to display the Gettysburg Cyclorama.

References

For references regarding the Background for tourist services, use the hyperlinks to the sub-pages (e.g., Gettysburg Battlefield) to see specific citations.