Wednesday, December 1st, 2010
7:00 PM
Memorial Auditorium, Shippensburg University
Boiling Springs – The history of preservation at Gettysburg will be the seventh and final lecture for the 2010 South Mountain Speakers Series on Wednesday, Dec. 1 at Shippensburg University
The event, entitled, “Contesting Gettysburg: Preserving an American Battlefield Shrine,” is free and open to the public. It runs from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Environmental historian and Penn State Altoona professor Dr. Brian Black will us e Gettysburg as an example to discus s the need for preservation of sacred symbols throughout the region and the nation.
“When the Gettysburg Battlefield quieted following the fighting in July 1863, another story began,” said Dr. Allen Dieterich-Ward, an assistant professor of history at Shippensburg University and the chair of the South Mountain Partnership’s steering committee for the speaker series. “Dr. Black will tell this story, which spans almost 150 years, of how the landscape at Gettysburg passed through many differing episodes in the culture of preservation, and national trends related to protecting our sacred symbols.”
After the lecture, a panel including Black, Greg Goodell from the National Park Service and Mark Shaffer from the Pennsylvania Historical and Mus eum Commission will answer audience questions and discus s the future of Gettysburg National Military Park and the relationship between environmental conservation and cultural preservation in the South Mountain region.
The South Mountain Speakers Series is organized in the spirit of the Michaux Lectures, a series of talks given by Joseph Rothrock as part of his work to restore Pennsylvania’s forests during the late 19th century.
The series is led by the South Mountain Partnership, which is a unified group of private citizens, bus inesses, not-for-profit organizations and government representatives in Adams, Cumberland, Franklin and York counties.
The partnership works to advance environmental conservation and economic development by encouraging best-management practices in agriculture and forestry, and supporting and promoting working farms, forests and watersheds while emphasizing the unique cultural and historic heritage of the region.
The South Mountain Partnership and Shippensburg University are sponsoring this event.
For more information about this event, contact Allen Dieterich-Ward at ajdieterichward@ship.edu.
To learn more about the speaker series, visit southmountainspeakers.blogspot.com or contact Kim Williams at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy at 717-258-5771.
Media contact: Allen Dieterich-Ward, 717-477-1192
