You are viewing 4 posts for February 2012
Coming Soon
The Civil War Museum of Philadelphia is planning a new facility to showcase the largest and most significant collection of Civil War artifacts outside of government hands and to tell the story of Philadelphia’s central role in prosecuting the war.
The Civil War Museum Welcomes Michael Useem
Board member, Ken Butera, and Karol Wasylyshyn, welcomed the Board of Governors and their guests to a very special event on May 12th where Michael Useem, Wharton professor and leadership expert, presented his analysis of how effective leaders like Joshua Chamberlain take action and face their moments of truth, revealing how they made decisions when the stakes were really high. A student of the Civil War, as well as of leadership, Useem takes his MBA students to Gettysburg every year to walk the battlefield so they can understand better the conditions on the ground faced by Chamberlain and his comrades in arms.
Dr. Useem is the author of ground-breaking books on leadership so attendees were pleased to receive copies of The Go Point: When It’s Time to Decide—Knowing What to Do and When to Do It and The Leadership Moment. Useem’s Harvard Business review article “Four Lessons in Adaptive Leadership” was also sent to each guest and has been attached below.
Michael Useem:
William and Jacalyn Egan Professor of Management
Director, Center for Leadership and Change Management
Editor, Wharton Leadership Digest
Conserving soldier Carlton Birch's Record in War
Carlton Birch created an extensive account of his day-to-day life serving as a soldier in the Civil War through the letters, notes, and small drawings he sent to his family. A Michigan native, Birch originally enlisted in the First Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment, then transferred to a Pennsylvania unit. Although little is known about Birch’s history, Civil War Museum of Philadelphia Curator Andrew Coldren speculates that this transfer occurred because Birch’s wife may have spent the war at her family’s home in Philadelphia, the destination of many of Birch’s letters.
Record in War, a collection of 31 manuscripts, consists of these letters, notes, and drawings, as well as four albumen photographs (one a carte-de-viste portrait of Birch, another a portrait of sculptor J.A. Baille) and an ivory miniature portrait. With hinges along just one side so that the backs may be viewed, the manuscripts and photographs are mounted to support pages, which are bound into a scrapbook.
Since the time they were written, the manuscripts had discolored due to contact with the acidic scrapbook pages. Many letters were creased, and several had losses and tears, some of which someone once repaired with paper tapes. The brown ink Birch occasionally used had faded. Overall, the letters were moderately soiled and stained. Fortunately, through a Save America’s Treasures grant, the Civil War Museum of Philadelphia was able to conserve Record in War at the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) in Philadelphia, PA.
CCAHA conservators surface cleaned the manuscripts and photographs with white vinyl erasers to reduce dirt and grime. They sprayed the manuscripts with ethanol to protect the inks during treatment before washing the manuscripts in several baths of calcium-enriched deionized water to reduce discoloration and remove water-soluble degradation products. Tears were mended, losses bridged, and weak areas reinforced with various toned mulberry papers and wheat starch paste. Then the manuscripts were humidified and pressed into plane.
View before- and after-treatment images (as well as examples of Birch’s drawings) in the slideshow above.
National Congress of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, Commandery-in-Chief
The Civil War Museum President, Sharon Smith, was a featured speaker at the National Congress of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, Commandery-in-Chief, on October 15, 2011 at Union League of Philadelphia. Take a look at the video.