ABOVE: Civil War veterans attending reunions wore these commemorative pins to indicate the brotherhood they shared as soldiers. (Museum Collection) SPACER

RESOURCES The National Civil War Life Museum Overview The theme "Civil War Life" will focus on the lives of Civil War Soldiers on both sides, but the conflict's impact on the lives of their families will also be explored. "Slavery" will address the life of enslaved African-Americans in the south and with particular focus on the support that this supposedly southern institution actually received from northern financial and business interests. "Civil War Science" will highlight advances driven by the war principally in the fields of manufacturing, medicine and ordnance technology. "Reunification" will explore veteran's organizations, reunions and the impact of Reconstruction on the existing and newly freed African-American population. Our content development of these topics will draw upon emerging new scholarship. Our three dimensional format consist of a series of gallery displays featuring artifacts and interpretive graphics that that will offer the visitor the opportunity to make their own discoveries and connections about the story of life in America during the American Civil War. First hand narratives will be employed as much as possible to help the visitor connect with the subject. These exhibits will support our goal to create this nation's most significant Civil War museum facility, research center and educational program. A dedicated school study tour program will be developed along with the exhibits.

Public, private and home school groups will be invited to visit the museum and take part in this educational program. We are able to undertake this project due to the sympathetic support of the W.J. Vakos development company and our partnerships with the Center for Civil War Photography, the Civil War Preservation Trust and the Friends of Fredericksburg area Battlefields.

The interpretive approach of the Museum exhibits and educational programs is to focus primarily on the lives of Civil War soldiers and secondarily on the lives of civilians during the war. Exhibits will provide a foundation for understanding the lives of those who fought in the war on both sides and on its effect on civilians, both free and enslaved. Nearly five million people were freed as a result of the war, but many of the issues of the Civil War and Reconstruction have survived to this day. These exhibits will illustrate how the people of the Civil War era faced the issues of race and war and will provide perspective for understanding the very same issues in our own time.

The humanities themes evident in all of the exhibits relate the challenges of living through the Civil War. The entrance exhibit will set the stage for the looming conflict. Visitors will enter the parlor of a home somewhere in America in 1860. Members of a family, some from the North and others from the South are discussing topics of the day. Slavery in the South and Abolitionists in the North are accused of leading the country to war. This discussion becomes heated until one member of the family stands and says "Enough - We are a family, and no matter what happens, when this is all over we will still be a family." The discussion ends. This display sets the stage for the war and for reunification. The exhibit uses original and reproduction artifacts to create a period parlor setting. Holograph projection is used to provide the family members.

Visitors will then be able to exit the parlor and enter the main Civil War Life gallery. Exhibits in the gallery are arraigned by subject. Subject exhibits will include: Pre-war militia, slavery and abolitionists, infantry, artillery, cavalry, navy, life in camp, officers, field surgery, manufacturing in the north, manufacturing in the south-with a focus on the use of specialized slave labor, martial music and the home front. Visitors will exit the gallery through the same residential parlor, completely devastated by war. Interpretive graphics will help to illustrate the cost of the war in human and economic terms.

Exiting the damaged parlor, the visitor will encounter exhibits exploring the themes of reunification, remembrance and battlefield preservation. These exhibits will express a sense of hope and promise for the future. We as a nation still have problems, but in the past 150 years we have come a long way. The exhibits devoted to the theme of remembrance will attempt to bridge the gap of 150 years and focus on what we as a nation have accomplished since Appomattox. Our third floor galleries will focus on photography and photographers of the Civil War. Photography was used extensively to document the lives of both soldiers and civilians. For the first time in history, graphic and unvarnished images of the war were brought into the American parlor. Our photography exhibits will include a working wet-plate photography studio and a 100-seat theater for the Civil War Life in 3-D theater. This theater provides visitors with a unique opportunity to experience Civil War stereo photography in its original format. The photography exhibits will be developed in close partnership with the Center for Civil War Photography.

The Museum is also fully committed to exploring the African American side of the story on both sides of the conflict. While actual collection artifacts are limited, photographs and first person accounts are not. These will be woven into every topical area where this story can be supported by such material. We consider this to be much more than a "roving topic"; the African American population played a huge but very different role on both sides. Both the economic and military aspects of their contribution will be explored throughout the exhibits.

The quality of the visitor's experience is paramount. People want to be transformed by what they experience, not just by what they read or see. Due to advances in all forms of media, the public expects a presentation that moves beyond the static. Sound and coordinated lighting, scenic treatments and even olfactory effects contribute to and strengthen the overall experience. Chances to touch or interact through decision-making scenarios cannot be overlooked either. All this provides real context and meaning to what is otherwise merely a superb collection of martial antiques. Fortunately, it appears that everyone agrees on these points, the challenge will be to exploit the collection in a manner that it conveys its message to the widest possible range of visitors, within the funding available for this project.