On a Great Battlefield

The Making, Management, and Memory of Gettysburg National Military Park, 1933–2013

Jennifer M. Murray

• Publisher: University of Tennessee Press
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN: 9781621908814
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

Of the more than seventy sites associated with the Civil War era that the National Park Service manages, none hold more national appeal and recognition than Gettysburg National Military Park. Welcoming more than one million visitors annually from across the nation and around the world, the National Park Service at Gettysburg holds the enormous responsibility of preserving the war’s “hallowed ground” and educating the public, not only on the battle, but also about the Civil War as the nation’s defining moment. Although historians and enthusiasts continually add to the shelves of Gettysburg scholarship, they have paid only minimal attention to the battlefield itself and the process of preserving, interpreting, and remembering the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. In On a Great Battlefield, Jennifer M. Murray provides a critical perspective to Gettysburg historiography by offering an in-depth exploration of the national military park and how the Gettysburg battlefield has evolved since the National Park Service acquired the site in August 1933.

As Murray reveals, the history of the Gettysburg battlefield underscores the complexity of preserving and interpreting a historic landscape. After a short overview of early efforts to preserve the battlefield by the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association (1864–1895) and the United States War Department (1895–1933), Murray chronicles the administration of the National Park Service and the multitude of external factors—including the Great Depression, the New Deal, World War II, the Civil War Centennial, and recent sesquicentennial celebrations—that influenced operations and molded Americans’ understanding of the battle and its history. Haphazard landscape practices, promotion of tourism, encouragement of recreational pursuits, ill-defined policies of preserving cultural resources, and the inevitable turnover of administrators guided by very different preservation values regularly influenced the direction of the park and the presentation of the Civil War’s popular memory. By highlighting the complicated nexus between preservation, tourism, popular culture, interpretation, and memory, On a Great Battlefield provides a unique perspective on the Mecca of Civil War landscapes.

Jennifer M. Murray, assistant professor of history at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise, is the author of The Civil War Begins. Her articles have appeared in Civil War History, Civil War Times, and Civil War Times Illustrated.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Illustrations
• Preface to the 2023 Edition
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. We Are Met on a Great Battlefield: Gettysburg, 1863–1933
• 2. We Cannot Hallow This Ground: The National Park Service’s Beginnings at Gettysburg, 1933–1940
• 3. From These Honored Dead We Take Increased Devotion: Gettysburg Does Its Part for Victory, 1941–1945
• 4. The World Will Little Note Nor Long Remember: Postwar Tourism, Patriotism, and the New Birth of Commercialization, 1946–195
• 5. The Great Task Remaining Before Us: MISSION 66 and Cold War Patriotism, 1956–1960
• 6. Dedicated to the Proposition That All Men Are Created Equal: The Civil War Centennial at Gettysburg, 1961–1965
• 7. Our Fathers Brought Forth on This Continent a New Nation: The New Gettysburg Experience, 1966–1975
• 8. So Conceived and So Dedicated: Balancing Preservation and Visitor Access, 1976–1988
• 9. Now We Are Engaged in a Great Civil War: Finding a Vision Amidst a Sea of Turmoil, 1989–1997
• 10. They Who Fought Here: Culture Wars and a New Direction at Gettysburg, 1998–2000
• 11. Shall Not Perish from the Earth: A New Beginning at Gettysburg, 2001–2009
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index