This year, experience Gettysburg’s Independence Day fireworks from a unique perspective! On July 4, join Seminary Ridge Museum and Education staff in the historic Cupola for a special sunset tour and stick around to enjoy a fireworks display from the Gettysburg Rec Park, courtesy of the Rotary Club of Gettysburg, Gettysburg Area Recreation Authority, and Destination Gettysburg.

Click Here to Register Today!

Tickets for this event are always limited and is an experience like no other in Gettysburg! 

Please arrive by 8:15 to begin the Cupola tour, followed by fireworks at 9:20pm. 

All registrations will include museum admission during regular business hours.

If registration is full, please email info@seminaryridgemuseum.org to be placed on a waiting list.

Refund/Cancellation Policy

• In the event of inclement weather, a rain date of July 5 may be scheduled. If you are unable to attend the rain date, a 75% refund will be offered.

• 100% refunds will be offered with notice given at least 72 hours (3 days) prior to the event.

• 50% refunds will be offered with notice of less than 72 hours prior to the event.

• If the event is canceled entirely, a 100% refund will be offered.

Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.

American Battlefield Trust may open the house at other times.
Click here to view their calendar.

Featuring

Food catered by Northern Redneck BBQ

Pulled Pork
Pulled Chicken
Macaroni and Cheese
Green Beans
Pasta Salad

Michaux Brewing Company will be on site to serve their popular craft beer throughout the evening! One drink is included with registration for guests at least 21 years of age.

Gettysburg Surgeons: Facing a Common Enemy

A research project that began with a goal to identify surgeons who cared for the wounded at the battle of Gettysburg in 1863 has grown into a searchable database and a publication.  More than 1200 surgeons, both Union and Confederate, were part of a complex system of doctors and caretakers both during and after the battle. By looking at the experiences of this particular group of surgeons at this  particular battle, the study includes not only well-documented and prominent physicians who left written accounts, diaries and letters, but also includes information about lesser-known surgeons whose stories have not been told. Far from the unskilled butchers of popular stereotypes, most had received the best training available to them in the United States or abroad, and were able to pass qualifying examinations that required advanced clinical knowledge.  Learning from each other and their shared military experience they acquired new skills and knowledge that would influence medical practice during and after the war. 

Barbara Franco is Founding Executive Director Emerita of the Gettysburg Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center.  As a public historian, curator, and museum director she has written and consulted about museum practice and historical interpretation.  Her broad interest in the social, cultural, and intellectual history of the 19th century includes the decorative and fine arts, communal societies, fraternal organizations, the role of religion, and the Civil War era. She served as executive director of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., and Assistant Director for Museums at the Minnesota Historical Society.

Additionally, a special gift basket raffle will feature prizes donated by local businesses, including:

Adams County Winery
American Battlefield Trust
Dale Gallon Art
Gettysburg Tour Center
Gettysburg Cookie Co.
Gettysburg Goods
Lark
National Civil War Museum
Oh Man!
Ragged Edge
Seminary Ridge Museum
Sixty East Hair Design
…and more!

We look forward to welcoming you to the Ridge for this special celebration!

Reserve your seats today!

Event will be outdoors, please dress comfortably.

Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.

American Battlefield Trust may open the house at other times.
Click here to view their calendar.

From the evening of July 1 through the morning of July 5, 1863, the Confederate army controlled the Lutheran Seminary. Robert E. Lee established his headquarters just north of the campus and made some of the most important decisions in American military history from this point. Join a guide for a walking tour of the Confederate-occupied grounds.

- Free, donations appreciated-

Outdoors Weather Permitting - **Meet at Luther Statue**

Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center

Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.

American Battlefield Trust may open the house at other times.
Click here to view their calendar.

Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.

American Battlefield Trust may open the house at other times.
Click here to view their calendar.

Join Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center staff at the historic Mary Thompson house, which is open in conjunction with the American Battlefield Trust. On-site interpreters are ready to answer questions and tell the story of this crucial ground, which witnessed deadly fighting on July 1, 1863, and subsequently served as the headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Meet at 401 Buford Ave. (Route 30), 0.2 miles north of Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center.

American Battlefield Trust may open the house at other times.
Click here to view their calendar.

Join us for a half-mile walking tour of ground on which soldiers fought during the first day at Gettysburg, with a specific focus on the importance of the Seminary to the battle. Learn about the United States army’s defensive action, how Confederates overcame the position, and how the fighting on July 1, 1863, set up the action for the remainder of the battle.

- Free, donations appreciated-

Outdoors Weather Permitting - **Meet at Luther Statue**

Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center

The Gettysburg Animated Battle Map APP

Join us as we welcome Tom March who will present selected battle segments from the acclaimed Gettysburg Animated Battle Map APP, as well as welcoming requests from attendees to view and discuss their own favorites. This Web-APP offers users the capability to examine animations of the entire 56-square mile battlefield, over the course of the battle from early morning on July 1st thru early evening July 3rd. Users of the APP can go anywhere on the battlefield, at any time during the three days, and view and examine anything. It’s your opportunity to view animations of the high-profile battle vignettes; Pickett’s Charge, The Wheatfield, Barlow’s Knoll, Herbst Woods, etc.; as well as lesser-known engagements such as Humphrey’s trek to Black Horse Tavern, Brinkerhoff Ridge, Neill Ave., and Longstreet’s Counter March.

No registrationis required. All participants will receive a complimentary download code for trial access to the Gettysburg Animated Battle Map APP!

Tom Marchesani (March) is an independent scholar of the battle of Gettysburg. A student of the Battle all of his life, he began this project in 2017. Now, after working over 7-years on the project, investing over 14,000 manhours, the last animation segments were completed in May 2023. There are over 400,000 moving parts and over 8,000 footnotes behind the scenes. Every military unit is shown. Infantry and cavalry regiments, and batteries are shown from the time they arrive on the battlefield’s outer boundaries until the end of Day 3’s fighting. Key infantry companies, skirmish lines; cavalry squadrons, as well as individual artillery guns and sections are depicted. We guarantee you’ve never seen a Battle animation like this one.

From Seminary to Cemetery

In the aftermath of the fierce fighting on July 1, 1863, the grounds surrounding the Lutheran Theological Seminary were transformed from a place of peace into a somber landscape of death. Many soldiers were buried where they fell, turning Seminary Ridge into a makeshift graveyard.

Join Kaleb Kusmierczyk, Director of Museum Operations, as he explores the solemn transformation of the Seminary's campus—from a quiet center of learning to a landscape dotted with hastily dug graves.

- FREE -

Lydia Ziegler Clare Education Center

Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center

Treated at the Seminary: Sergeant Adam Heilman

“Treated at the Seminary” is a series created to take an in-depth look into some of the 486 known patients treated at the Seminary Hospital between July 1 and September 16, 1863. This program aims to shed a new light on lesser-known, but certainly no less important, figures who fought in this historic battle. For some, their stories ended within the walls of Schmucker Hall, and for others, the life-saving medical care rendered here made the next chapter in their lives possible.

Join Kaleb Kusmierczyk, Director of Museum Operations, as he uncovers these seldom-told stories that reach far beyond the Gettysburg battlefield.

- FREE -

Lydia Ziegler Clare Education Center

Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center

Two Lights for Tomorrow is a nationwide initiative to commence the celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States of America. The famous ride of Paul Revere occurred overnight on April 18 – 19, 1775. Two Lights for Tomorrow originated out of multi-state collaboration at A Common Cause to All in Williamsburg and uses the imagery of that shining light 250 years ago as a uniting call to action today for our fellow citizens, no matter where they are, to commemorate and remind ourselves that our history is about working together for a better tomorrow.

At it’s heart it is a call across the country, in private homes, local communities, and statehouses alike, for two lights to be displayed to remind us all of the importance to come together to form a more perfect union.

Join Seminary Ridge Museum and Gettysburg Foundation on April 18 to commemorate this momentous part of American history! Children’s activities will include paper lantern/luminary making. This free, family-friendly event is open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to bring chairs or blankets.

Codie Eash, SRMEC Director of Education and Interpretation, will present “‘If it Takes Three Years More’: Lincoln at the Sanitary Fairs of 1864” at the York Civil War Roundtable. The meeting begins at 7:00pm at the York County History Center Museum (121 North Pershing Avenue, York, PA, 17401). For more information from the YCWRT, visit https://www.yorkhistorycenter.org/event/civil-war-roundtable-april/.

In 1864, Abraham Lincoln spoke at three fairs benefiting the Sanitary Commission in Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, pleading for a new “definition for the word liberty,” promising “retribution” against Confederates who slaughtered Black U.S. soldiers, and vowing to proceed even “if it takes three years more” — collectively encompassing the most under appreciated orations of his presidency, set against the backdrop of the Civil War’s costliest year and a looming reelection campaign.

Join us on Zoom for our final History Happy Hour of the season as we welcome historian and educator, Keith Harris, author of Across the Bloody Chasm.

There are over 1300 monuments memorializing sacrifice and commemorating fortitude at Gettysburg. Most of these monuments went up during the late-19th and early-20th centuries and nearly all of them commemorate the victory of the United States Army of the Potomac in July 1863. Veterans played a vital role creating this commemorative landscape. The words that resonated on the battlefield during this commemorative era explained why Union soldiers supported a cause to secure the integrity of the Republic on the premise of freedom and free institutions. Their commemorative ethos suggests that a generation of citizen soldiers thoroughly embraced a national creed and used the Gettysburg battlefield as the central place from which to articulate their beliefs and national vision. They told the world that they had fought to resolve a mid-19th century crisis of American exceptionalism, and by the Grace of God they were victorious. 

Keith Harris is a historian, a high school history teacher, an author, a Star Wars fan, and a cat person. He received his BA at the University of California at Los Angeles (summa cum laude) and his Ph.D. in United States history at the University of Virginia. He has taught courses in United States history at the University of Virginia and the University of California at Riverside, and currently teaches at a private high school in Los Angeles. His work focuses on nineteenth and twentieth-century American history with a special emphasis on the Civil War, Reconstruction, historical memory, the Progressive Era, and national Reconciliation. His first book, Across the Bloody Chasm: the Culture of Commemoration Among Civil War Veterans, is available from the Louisiana State University Press. He is currently writing a book on American exceptionalism and the monuments at Gettysburg. He lives and works in Hollywood, California.

Click Here to Register

From Appomattox to Adams County: Gettysburg and the End of the Civil War

The first two weeks of April 1865 are among the most consequential in American history. From the 2nd to the 15th, the breakthrough at Petersburg, the fall of Richmond, the surrender at Appomattox, and the assassination and death of Abraham Lincoln brought an effective end to the Civil War.

Join Codie Eash, Director of Education and Interpretation, as he explores these events’ impacts on the people of Gettysburg and the soldiers who once fought here as they received news of these momentous affairs.

- FREE -

Lydia Ziegler Clare Education Center

Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center

Rescheduled from February 15

Join us for another lighthearted evening of family-friendly general trivia (but not about generals) for prizes!

A taco bar will be provided by Ragged Edge catering. The evening is BYOB, though water, lemonade, and iced tea will be included. 

Registration is individual, but you may register up to 6 total people (a full team) at one time.

Click Here to Register

Chambersburg residents Rachel and Samuel Cormany’s diaries provide a microcosm of life in south-central Pennsylvania throughout the American Civil War, both on the home front and on the conflict’s battlefields.

Join Codie Eash as he examines their backgrounds in Canada, Ohio, and Franklin County; their lives before, during, and after the Gettysburg Campaign; and how the war years disrupted their relationship, their livelihood, and their family for decades to come. Also explore the collection of which these letters are part—Edward Ayers’s Valley of the Shadow Project—an immense and extraordinary online primary source repository that provides understanding for military and civilian life in the Great Valley of Pennsylvania and Virginia, from Antebellum through Reconstruction.

- FREE -

Lydia Ziegler Clare Education Center

Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center

Join us on Zoom as we welcome Jonathan Steplyk, author of Fighting Means Killing: Civil War Soldiers and the Nature of Combat.

The Civil War was fundamentally a matter of Americans killing Americans. This undeniable reality is what Jonathan Steplyk explores in Fighting Means Killing, the first book-length study of Union and Confederate soldiers’ attitudes toward, and experiences of, killing in the Civil War.

Drawing upon letters, diaries, and postwar reminiscences, Steplyk examines what soldiers and veterans thought about killing before, during, and after the war. How did these soldiers view sharpshooters? How about hand-to-hand combat? What language did they use to describe killing in combat? What cultural and societal factors influenced their attitudes? And what was the impact of race in battlefield atrocities and bitter clashes between white Confederates and black Federals? These are the questions that Steplyk seeks to answer in Fighting Means Killing, a work that bridges the gap between military and social history—and that shifts the focus on the tragedy of the Civil War from fighting and dying for cause and country to fighting and killing.

Jonathan M. Steplyk is the author of Fighting Means Killing: Civil War Soldiers and the Nature of Combat and a frequent contributor to the Civil War Campaigns in the West series; he teaches at the University of Texas at Arlington. He has also worked as a historical interpreter at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park. He received the 2023 Grady McWhiney Award from the Dallas Civil War Round Table.

Click Here to Register

In addition to trained medical personnel, dozens of civilian nurses from Gettysburg and surrounding communities tended to wounded soldiers at the Seminary Hospital in the summer of 1863. Join Codie Eash, Director of Education and Interpretation, as he examines the diaries, letters, and memoirs they left behind.

- FREE -

Lydia Ziegler Clare Education Center

Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center

Join us for an evening of dinner, drinks, dessert, and more!

Dinner options include:
Filet Mignon
Baked Chicken
Maryland Crabcakes
Vegetable Pasta

Cost: $100

Click here to secure your seat!

Dobbin House Tavern
89 Steinwehr Avenue, Gettysburg

Featuring Special Guest Speaker
Dr. James Broomall

William Binford Vest Chair in History
University of Richmond

presenting

Trophies of Battle:
Tourists, Relic-hunters, and the Aftermath of Gettysburg

Click here to secure your seat!

Space is limited!

In the summer of 1861, soon after the start of the Civil War, the United States Coast Survey published a pair of influential maps based on data gathered in the previous year’s national census. Both depicted the percentage of enslaved people living in individual counties utilizing varying shades of black and gray—one map featuring Virginia, and the other all slaveholding states in the American South. Join Codie Eash, Director of Education and Interpretation, as he explores who created the maps, how the U.S. Army used them to benefit sick and wounded soldiers, and their influence on directly impacting emancipation policy enacted by leaders of the Union war effort, up to and including President Lincoln.

- FREE -

Lydia Ziegler Clare Education Center

Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center

We are excited to once again welcome Gettysburg historians James Hessler, Stuart Dempsey, Eric Lindblade, and Jody Wilson as they join SRMEC's Judy Morley and Codie Eash to examine undervalued individuals whose actions left an indelible mark on the course and consequences of the Gettysburg Campaign. 

This year’s event will feature a mysterious twist: Individual topics will not be revealed until the day of the event, though teasers may be shared along the way. What we CAN tell you is that there will be no presidents or commanders at army or corps level.

In-person registration is now full.
Please contact us to be placed on a waiting list!

Click here for in-person registration.

Click here for virtual (livestream) registration.

**All proceeds support Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center and The Battle of Gettysburg Podcast.**

Throughout human history, nature and environment has impacted the way that people make war on each other. While the United States and Confederate armies clashed with each other at Gettysburg, they both had to contend with this oft-overlooked foe. Join Pete Miele for an overview of how weather and landscape impacted the fighting at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863.

Click here to register!

Pete Miele is Senior Project Leader at Susquehanna National Heritage Area, overseeing the Susquehanna Discovery Center project at the historic Mifflin farm site. He began his career as a public school educator in New Jersey before shifting towards public history and museum work. He spent more than eleven years at Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center in Gettysburg, PA, including four years as President and Executive Director. Miele recently completed coursework towards a Ph.D. in American Studies at Penn State, Harrisburg, where his academic interests include the social and cultural history of the mid-Atlantic, nature and environment, and historical memory. In his spare time, he enjoys exploring the region’s cultural and culinary offerings, camping, hiking, and kayaking, all with his wife.