Program to commemorate Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
The Andrew Carnegie Free Library will hold a special Remembrance Day program from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Nov. 23 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and consecration of the National Cemetery in Gettysburg.
After receiving a grant to establish the new position of part-time curator for its rare Civil War room, the Andrew Carnegie Free Library has offered the position to Diane Klinefelter, ACFL&MH’s former library director. She will assume the position in January.
Klinefelter, wearing period dress, will give special tours of the Post, focusing on a Gettysburg and a fascinating artifact, the Commander’s Gavel. This gavel was carved from wood felled at Devil’s Den, where fierce fighting on the second day of the battle took place – the gavel still has a bullet in its head. Carnegie Mayor Jack Kobistek will deliver Lincoln’s famous speech at 12:30 and 2 p.m.
The Remembrance Day program is free. Cookies, coffee and punch will be served in the second floor Reception Hall.
Klinefelter served as the library director from 2005 until early 2012. As the author of two books on the Civil War with deep connections in the regional Civil War community, she played a critical role in the in stewarding the Espy Post collection during restoration, developing a docent program and public programming to complement the Post. One of her accomplishments included registering the Espy Post’s significant manuscript collection with the Library of Congress’s National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections, thereby providing international bibliographic access to this national treasure in Carnegie.
The Library & Music Hall is home to a true national treasure: the Captain Thomas Espy Post No. 153 of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). The GAR was the pre-eminent veterans’ organization of the Union armed services.