EVENTS

The Midtown Scholar Bookstore and the National Civil War Museum are honored to welcome author Jon Clinch to Harrisburg for an in-person conversation and signing on his new historical novel, The General and Julia. In this superb work of historical fiction, Ulysses S. Grant reflects on the crucial moments of his life as a husband, a father, a general, and a president while writing his memoirs and reckoning with his complicated legacy. Clinch will be in conversation with the CEO of the National Civil War Museum, Jeffrey L. Nichols. This free event is in partnership with the National Civil War Museum. *Reminder: To enter the signing line, books must be purchased from the Midtown Scholar Bookstore. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event, or you may preorder a copy of the book for pickup/shipment. About the Book: Ulysses S. Grant reflects on the crucial moments of his life as a husband, a father, a general, and a president while writing his memoirs and reckoning with his complicated legacy in this epic and intimate work of “superb historical fiction” (Booklist, starred review). Barely able to walk and rendered mute by the cancer metastasizing in his throat, […]

Civil War Dance Classes - Free Sunday ~ January 21, February 25, March 10, 2024, 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Get ready for the Civil War Preservation Ball, in March 2023. This is great family fun!  Attend one or all of the classes and learn the popular formation dances of the 1860s. Partners are encouraged but not required and wear modern, comfortable, clothing since this is a physical workout. Register here: contact@civilwardance.org Please include the dates you plan to attend and the names of the attendees. Enrollees will be sent a Civil War Dance Manual. Conducted by the Victorian Dance Ensemble, the performing troupe of the Civil War Dance Foundation: * 2011 Civil War Trust’s Reenactment Unit of the Year * 2016 President’s Volunteer Service Gold Award Regular museum admission applies for entrance to the museum galleries.   Images courtesy of VDE and the Barefoot Historian

The National Civil War Museum is proud to announce its Community Free Day on February 17, 2024, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, in honor of Black History Month and Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. The museum is reopening its doors after a short, planned closure to perform scheduled maintenance. The National Civil War Museum welcomes visitors to enjoy a day of fun activities and entertainment free of charge. Families can participate in a coloring activity grab-and-go station, Music with the Long Hill String Band, Dean Auchenbach: Recruitment into the Army, the U.S. Sanitary Commission, and much more. Guests also can witness James Hayney portraying Abraham Lincoln and delivering a special presentation. “We are excited to celebrate Black History Month and Abraham Lincoln’s birthday with our community on this special day,” said Jeffrey L. Nichols, CEO of The National Civil War Museum. “We invite everyone to join us for a day of learning, entertainment, and fun activities.” The National Civil War Museum is a premier destination for history enthusiasts, scholars, and families. It is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the legacy of the American Civil War and its impact on American society. In addition to the scheduled programming, the NCWM will open […]

Get ready for the Civil War Preservation Ball, in March 2023. This is great family fun!  Attend one or all of the classes and learn the popular formation dances of the 1860s. Partners are encouraged but not required and wear modern, comfortable, clothing since this is a physical workout. Register here: contact@civilwardance.org Please include the dates you plan to attend and the names of the attendees. Enrollees will be sent a Civil War Dance Manual. Conducted by the Victorian Dance Ensemble, the performing troupe of the Civil War Dance Foundation: * 2011 Civil War Trust’s Reenactment Unit of the Year * 2016 President’s Volunteer Service Gold Award Regular museum admission applies for entrance to the museum galleries.   Images courtesy of VDE and the Barefoot Historian

Sunday ~ February 25, March 10, 2024, 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Get ready for the Civil War Preservation Ball, in March 2023. This is great family fun!  Attend one or all of the classes and learn the popular formation dances of the 1860s. Partners are encouraged but not required and wear modern, comfortable, clothing since this is a physical workout. Register here: contact@civilwardance.org Please include the dates you plan to attend and the names of the attendees. Enrollees will be sent a Civil War Dance Manual. Conducted by the Victorian Dance Ensemble, the performing troupe of the Civil War Dance Foundation: * 2011 Civil War Trust’s Reenactment Unit of the Year * 2016 President’s Volunteer Service Gold Award Regular museum admission applies for entrance to the museum galleries.

Join us on Thursday, March 21, 2024, at 7:00 pm for a CIVIL CONVERSATION. This is a live ZOOM event ~ Dr. Bruce Levine, author of Thaddeus Stevens will engage in a Civil Conversation with NCWM CEO Jeffrey Nichols. Register here: Book Talk with Dr. Bruce Levine on Thaddeus Stevens About the book: A “powerful” (The Wall Street Journal) biography of one of the 19th century’s greatest statesmen, encompassing his decades-long fight against slavery and his postwar struggle to bring racial justice to America. Thaddeus Stevens was among the first to see the Civil War as an opportunity for a second American revolution—a chance to remake the country as a genuine multiracial democracy. As one of the foremost abolitionists in Congress in the years leading up to the war, he was a leader of the young Republican Party’s radical wing, fighting for anti-slavery and anti-racist policies long before party colleagues like Abraham Lincoln endorsed them. These policies—including welcoming black men into the Union’s armies—would prove crucial to the Union war effort. During the Reconstruction era that followed, Stevens demanded equal civil and political rights for Black Americans—rights eventually embodied in the 14th and 15th amendments. But while Stevens in many ways […]

  The National Civil War Museum is proud to announce the rescheduled Community Free Day on April 20, 2024, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. The National Civil War Museum welcomes visitors to enjoy a day of fun activities and entertainment free of charge. Families can participate in a coloring activity grab-and-go station, Music with the Long Hill String Band, the U.S. Sanitary Commission, and much more. Guests can also watch a very special one-act play, "Independence: The True Story of Dr. Mary Walker," scheduled at 1:00 pm in the Museum Ballroom, with Kathie Barnes as Dr. Mary Walker, written and directed by Lloyd J. Schwartz, and produced by Tina Dwyer. Jeffrey L. Nichols, CEO of The National Civil War Museum. “We invite everyone to join us for a day of learning, entertainment, and fun activities.” The National Civil War Museum is a premier destination for history enthusiasts, scholars, and families. It is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the legacy of the American Civil War and its impact on American society.   The Community Free Day is proudly sponsored by Abel & Son Roofing and Visit Hershey Harrisburg.

  The National Civil War Museum Proudly Presents INDEPENDENCE: The True Story of Dr. Mary Walker, with Kathie Barnes as Dr. Mary Walker, written and directed by Lloyd J. Schwartz, and produced by Tina Dwyer on Saturday, April 20, 2024, at 1:00 pm, and is Free to the public. This one-act play is followed by a Q&A with the actress. About the play: A women's history play about Dr. Mary Walker - Civil War Surgeon, Heroine, and Positive Role Model. This theatre piece brings to the forefront the life of Doctor Mary Edwards Walker, the Only Woman to have been awarded our country's highest honor, The Congressional Medal of Honor. Living in an era when women had few rights, Dr. Walker didn't take 'No' for an answer, becoming one of the first women to wear pants, to take 'obey' out of her marriage vows and the first woman surgeon in the US. A trailblazer for Women's Rights, Dr. Mary Walker was inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls. Several hospitals bear her name, yet most people do not know of her. Dr. Mary Walker is truly a heroine who needs to be known - and through the powerful art of theatre, this is […]

Join us on Thursday, May 2, 2024, at 7:00 pm for a CIVIL CONVERSATION. This is a live ZOOM event ~ Dr. Robert K. D. Colby, author of An Unholy Traffic will engage in a Civil Conversation with NCWM CEO Jeffrey Nichols. Register here: Civil Conversation with Dr. Robert Colby About the book: The Confederate States of America was born in defense of slavery and, after a four-year struggle to become an independent slaveholding republic, died as emancipation dawned. Between Fort Sumter to Appomattox, Confederates bought and sold thousands African American men, women, and children. These transactions in humanity made the internal slave trade a cornerstone of Confederate society, a bulwark of the Rebel economy, and a central part of the experience of the Civil War for all inhabiting the American South. As An Unholy Traffic shows, slave trading helped Southerners survive and fight the Civil War, as well as to build the future for which they fought. They mitigated the crises the war spawned by buying and selling enslaved people, using this commerce to navigate food shortages, unsettled gender roles, the demands of military service, and other hardships on the home front. Some Rebels speculated wildly in human property, […]

Join us for our in-person event: Lessons in History, Saturday, May 11, 2024, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm ~ John Reeves, A Fire in the Wilderness: The First Battle Between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee Author John  Reeves tells the story of the first bloody showdown between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee in May 1864; when the future of the United States depended on the Union Army’s success in a desolate forest roughly sixty-five miles from the nation’s capital. Guests can tour the Museum Galleries for an entrance fee of $16.00 for Adults, $15.00 for Seniors and AAA, and $14.00 for Students and Military. Admission to the presentation is free.   About the Author; John Reeves is the author of The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee and A Fire in the Wilderness: The First Battle Between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. He has been a teacher, editor, and writer for over twenty-five years. The Civil War, in particular, has been his passion since he first read Bruce Catton’s The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War as an elementary school student in the 1960s. John’s articles on Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. […]

The Midtown Scholar Bookstore presents An Evening with Harold Holzer, with NCWM CEO, Jeffrey Nichols, welcoming bestselling historian Harold Holzer to Harrisburg for a conversation and signing on his new novel, Brought Forth on This Continent": Abraham Lincoln and America Immigration. This event is free and open to the public. To enter the signing line, books must be purchased from the Midtown Scholar Bookstore. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event, or you may preorder a copy of the book for pickup/shipment. Preordered copies will not be signed until after the event. PREORDER A SIGNED COPY About the Book: From acclaimed Abraham Lincoln historian Harold Holzer, a groundbreaking account of Lincoln’s grappling with the politics of immigration against the backdrop of the Civil War. In the three decades before the Civil War, some ten million foreign-born people settled in the United States, forever altering the nation’s demographics, culture, and—perhaps most significantly—voting patterns. America’s newest residents fueled the national economy, but they also wrought enormous changes in the political landscape and exposed an ugly, at times violent, vein of nativist bigotry. Abraham Lincoln’s rise ran parallel to this turmoil; even Lincoln himself did not always rise […]