Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall

Annual Civil War Event 2008

The Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall’s annual Civil War program begins with a concert on Friday April 25, offers a full day of programming on Saturday, April 26 and concludes with a keynote address on Sunday April 27.   This year’s Civil War programming is made possible through a generous grant from the Massey Charitable Trust.
 

The ACFL&MH is home to one of the most intact original Grand Army of the Republic Posts in the country.  In 1906 members of the Capt. Thomas Espy Grand Army of the Republic Post #153 signed a charter with Library trustees. Local veterans of that war used the room from 1906 until the mid-1930s for meetings and to house their collection of flags, books, prints and relics. When the Thomas Espy Post of the Grand Army of the Republic ceased operations, the Civil War Room was locked and left undisturbed for 50 years. Not only does it house invaluable artifacts, but the room itself provides a unique historical record of the first part of the century.
 

“We launched this annual program in 2006 to mark the centennial of the Espy Post at the Library,” says Library Director Dianne Ragan.  “The Espy Post is a true national treasure, and we find it so gratifying to see the interest in our Civil War Room.  Thankfully, our wonderful facility accommodates a full spectrum of public programming.”
 

The ACFL&MH is again working closely with the 9th Pennsylvania Reserves, a Pittsburgh-based living history and re-enactment group that works with the Library to maintain and restore the Espy Post.  Click here for a complete schedule.
 

Friday night’s concert features the NewLanders, singing “Songs of Southwestern Pennsylvania, and takes place at 8:00 p.m. in the Music Hall.  The NewLanders are a group of Pittsburgh area musicians and songwriters who have researched and rediscovered songs written by, and about, the people of southwestern Pennsylvania. Featuring vocals, guitar, bass, violin, octave violin, jaw harp, bones, Appalachian dulcimer and mandolin the NewLanders have forged a rich musical sound all their own to tell the tales southwestern Pennsylvania’s rich past.
 

According to NewLander Art Gazdik (violin, octave violin, mandolin and vocals)," The NewLanders and the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall are a perfect fit, both work to make elements of our past vital again."
 

The NewLanders concert is part of the “Meet the Challenge” performance series at the Library & Music Hall. Tickets to the NewLanders concert are $10.00.  Purchase tickets at the Library or by calling 412/276-3456, x. 6.   All daytime programming is free and open to the public. 
 

Saturday’s programming includes:

• Ongoing tours of the Espy Post
• An historical interpretation of Confederate spy, “Rebel Rose” O’Neal Greenhow
• An exposition in the Reception Hall featuring exhibitors and vendors with booths on the G.A.R., shoulder arms, commissaries, civilian life, art, antiques, currency and more.  Exhibitors include representatives from Soldiers and Sailors National Military Museum and Memorial; members of the 9th Pennsylvania Reserves; and Mechling Book Bindery with author Art Fox, who’s most recent book is “Our Honored Dead: Allegheny County in the American Civil War.”
• An historical interpretation of Abraham Lincoln delivering the “Gettysburg Address”
• An encampment, drills and skirmishes on the grounds
• One-on-one historical and genealogical research instruction in the Library’s Kathleen Bowman Eynon Memorial Civil War Collection

Actress and opera singer Emily Lapisardi has a continually expanding repertoire of first-person portrayals of notable women.  She will appear as Rose O’Neal Greenhow at 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.  “Rebel Rose” was a well connected Washington socialite with “decidedly southern” sympathies, was a confederate spy, the only woman to be buried with full military honors by the Confederacy.
 

9th Pennsylvania Reserve member Rea Redd will present President Lincoln. People in period dress – military as well as civilian men and women – as well as actual historic characters will be part of the day’s programming that also includes special activities for children.
 

On Sunday at 2:00 p.m., Stuart McConnell, Professor of History at Pitzer College in Claremont, CA will deliver the weekend’s keynote address.  Professor McConnell is the author of GLORIOUS CONTENTMENT: THE GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC, 1865-1900.  The book is a close look at how the GAR worked at the local level, coupled with an examination of its meaning as a national organization lobbying for Union Army pensions, "correct" Civil War history, and a kind of preservationist vision of American nationalism. 
 

“The GAR was not just a political club, as many imagine, but also a ritualized fraternal order, a patriotic society, a charity agency, and a major social organization,” explains McConnell. It was not only the largest Union Army veterans organization, but by 1890 one of the half-dozen largest private organizations of any kind in the United States. With the exception of Grover Cleveland, every president from Grant to McKinley was a GAR member.
 

A special exhibit, LOOKING AT LINCOLN: Political Cartoons from the Civil War Era, on loan from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, will be on display at the Library & Music Hall from April 21- May 21.
 

“We wondered what we would do to top last year’s wedding,” says Executive Director Maggie Forbes (referring to the 1861 military wedding between 9th Pennsylvania Reserves members Joanne Shelby and Michael Klein.  Mrs. Klein will be appearing as Mary Todd Lincoln for this year’s programming).  “Last year’s program had such an impact that we had to extend it to three days this year!” 

Click here for a copy of the flier announcing the event.