Civil War and Underground Railroad Museum of Philadelphia

Philadelphia Portal

The Civil War and Underground Railroad Museum of Philadelphia (formerly the Civil War Library and Museum) is located at 1805 Pine Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, near Rittenhouse Square. The museum was founded in 1888 by veteran officers of the Union Army, Navy and Marine Corps. It claims to be the oldest chartered American Civil War institution in the United States. On August 7, 2007, the museum announced that it would relocate to the former First Bank of the United States building, near Independence Hall, by 2010. Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street presented the museum with a check for $1.2 million to assist in its relocation.^[1]

Collection

The museum contains the mounted head of "Old Baldy", the horse that was ridden by Union Major General George G. Meade during most of the Civil War. Old Baldy's head was mounted in 1882 and restored in 1991. It is displayed on a plaque in a glass case in the museum's Meade Room. In addition to a large portrait and artifacts associated with General Meade, the museum includes personal items from other Union generals including Ulysses S. Grant, John F. Reynolds, and George B. McClellan. The museum has on display a large collection of military escutcheons, which were made in the United States from the end of the Civil War until about 1907. They resemble a coat of arms and depict the military record of a veteran. Usually commissioned by the veteran or his family to memorialize his service, they were produced by an artist using chromolithography. The museum's collection also includes items pertaining to Abraham Lincoln, including a cast of his hands, a lock of hair, and a death mask.

References

1. ^ "Oldest Civil War museum gets a new home", MSNBC.com, August 7, 2007

External links

• Official web site

•  • e Pennsylvania in the American Civil War

Battles and events: Gettysburg Address - Gettysburg Campaign - Skirmish of Sporting Hill - Battle of Hanover - Skirmish at Carlisle - Battle of Gettysburg - Battle of Hunterstown - Battle of Fairfield Camps: Camp Curtin - Camp Union - Camp William Penn - Carlisle Barracks Manufacturers: Frankford Arsenal - Phoenix Iron Company Military organization: Department of the Monongahela - Department of the Susquehanna Museums: Civil War and Underground Railroad Museum of Philadelphia - National Civil War Museum - Soldiers and Sailors National Military Museum and Memorial - State Museum of Pennsylvania Places: Gettysburg Battlefield - Gettysburg Cyclorama - Gettysburg National Cemetery U.S. Army hospitals: Mower Hospital - Satterlee Hospital - York Hospital

Penna. Monument at Gettysburg