The Seminary Explores

Dr. Christianson asks Dr. Daryl Black, new President and Executive Director of the Gettysburg Seminary Ridge Museum, the question, “Why do we have museums and should they do more than just collect “keepsakes”? Dr. Black describes the change in museums over the past two decades from emphasizing a collection of items, e.g. rifles, to interpretation of these items in the wider context of the need for human beings to make meaning of the past.  He illustrates this with the conflicting ways North and South used the Bible and even viewed God in the Civil War.

Dr, Christianson and Sue Hill discuss the life and writing of Elsie Singmaster.  Elsie Singmaster was one of the best-known authors of her day, appearing in anthologies along with Ernest Hemingway.  Her stories of Gettysburg citizens who were caught in the battle and still managed to serve the wounded and dying are worth discovering again.