As Thanksgiving approaches, we all look back a bit over the last year and acknowledge all for which we feel grateful. There are certainly a host of reasons why this has been an especially good year for the park.
 
I want to acknowledge all of the staff, partners and volunteers who give of themselves daily to take care of this important place as well as welcome over 1 million visitors annually. On our own, we could not extend the range of programs, events, educational activities, and maintain our facilities without the assistance of many individuals and organizations that represent this community.

This past year, over 50,000 hours of volunteer time were donated to the park. Volunteers take part in all aspects of park operations including living history programming, park watch, trails maintenance, non-native invasive plant management, education programs, assist in operating the visitor center, and a host of other tasks that cannot be listed here.
 
Our partners have been instrumental in bringing new resources to the park, helping us to expand special events and growing community support.

The Friends of Valley Forge Park and the Encampment Store contributed to the revitalization of the Washington's Headquarters area by supplying needed funding for exhibits in the train station and in the landscape.

The National Park Service has approved the Record of Decision (ROD) for the Final White-tailed Deer Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement (Final plan/EIS) at Valley Forge National Historical Park.

The deer management plan addresses browsing by an increasing number of deer over the past two decades. Excessive browsing has led to the inability of forests to regenerate into the future and the loss of habitat for other animal species. Mike Caldwell, Superintendent, said "We look forward to a future that provides high quality habitat for all wildlife species at Valley Forge."

Click here for more information about the White-tailed Deer Management Plan
 

Save America's Treasures is a national effort to protect "America's threatened cultural treasures, including historic artifacts, works of art, maps and journals that document and illuminate the history and culture of the United States."

Established by Executive Order in February 1998, Save America's Treasures was originally founded as a public-private partnership that included the White House, the National Park Service and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Dedicated to the preservation and celebration of America's priceless historic legacy, Save Americas Treasures provides grants that will go toward the recognition and rescue of the enduring symbols of American tradition that define us as a nation.

Valley Forge National Historical Park is a repository for several thousand artifacts that survive from the American Revolution, which help us to better understand the past. Among these artifacts are documents, and it is through their words that we can gain the greatest knowledge. This project will allow for the conservation and preservation of these documents in order to help them survive so that future generations will be able to analyze our founders’ own words.

The Save America's Treasures grant is a matching grant. Once we received notice that we were awarded a grant of $ 61,299 the Friends of Valley Forge Park began the campaign to raise the required match of $ 61,300. The goal of this project is to preserve 42 documents and manuscripts that were in urgent need of conservation.  

Professional conservators and technicians will carry out the conservation and re-housing of all items involved in this project. Many of the objects involved in this project- including manuscript pages, official documents, and the pages of the orderly books and account books- consist of 18th century paper with iron gall ink. These paper documents will be washed, cleaned, flattened, and repaired. The 18th century books with printed text rather than iron gall ink will be surface cleaned and repaired.

All documents will be available digitally and printed manuscripts that are not already available electronically through the World Wide Web will be scanned. These digital images will not only allow for remote access by scholars unable to come to the park but will serve as a method of preservation.

Over time, first hand examination of the originally document can result in damage or loss of the document. But even with conservation, documents are still vulnerable to light and climate change, so any display would be for short periods such as with a changing exhibit.
 

This September, Philip Mead became the inaugural Bruce Baky Fellow at Valley Forge. Mead, a PhD candidate from Harvard University was awarded the fellowship, created by the National Park Service and The Friends of Valley Forge Park, in partnership with the McNeil Center for Early American Studies of the University of Pennsylvania.
 
The fellowship was designed for a PhD candidate specializing in military history during the American Revolution and honors the late Bruce Baky, former Chairman of the Friends and advocate of strengthening connections between the academic community and the park. Between September and June, Mead will "develop and present public programming at the park, work with park staff, and develop at least one research or educational project."
 
Given the underlying purpose of the fellowship, Mead believes it is important for university and public historians to come together to produce "fruitful new scholarship on both sides" that will benefit the public.
 
"I think history is most enjoyable and real to people when it seems to have a kind of human complexity, when people's lives that are described on a billboard or a book have the surprises - and the twists and turns of fortune - that we know from our own lives," said Baky. "Together, university and museum historians can express these common experiences and make the story of the revolutionary soldier as rich as possible for the public."
 
Therefore, Mead is currently working with park staff to develop several projects aimed at improving the park's visitor programming. Mead is organizing a series of guided readings with park interpretation rangers, designed to introduce park staff to recent scholarly interpretations of Revolutionary history.

These seminar-style meetings will focus on specific historic and academic themes including army demographics, military manuals and contemporary rules and regulations in the Continental Army. The purpose of this program is to introduce new scholastic material and interpretation to the park, which will ensure cutting-edge, updated visitor programming.
 
In addition to his work with park rangers, Mead will also assist the park with various projects and will be the Friends' lecture series speaker on January 21. In addition to his contributions to the park, Mead has also been "working furiously" to finish his dissertation sometime next year.

During his candidacy, Mead has studied over 200 diaries and journals of Revolutionary War soldiers in order to explain "how exposure to wartime landscapes hardened regional, ethnic, and racial prejudices that soldiers brought to the war experience."
 

Brought to you by The Encampment Store, Valley Forge will be showing movies about the American Revolution on Friday nights through November. Movies are free and family friendly, Friday Nights at 7 PM in the Park Theater. Call 610-783-1074 for more information.
 

November 20: 1776 The Musical (PG- for language) 166 min. with one short intermission Adapted from the hit Broadway Musical -see our founding fathers as never before -raucously debating the issue of independence, bashing each other's egos and then breaking out into musical numbers!
November 27: The Crossing (Not Rated- movie contains some language and instances of violence equivalent to PG or PG-13) 89 min. The daring Christmas Day crossing of the frozen Delaware and the attack on Trenton saved the cause of American independence. Jeff Daniels stars as General George Washington in a movie about our nation's darkest hour and greatest triumph.

Land Beautification at Washington's Headquarters

Volunteers of all ages rolled up their sleeves to assist with projects that included tree planting, weeding, fence building and repair, invasive plant and crayfish removal, painting the exterior of park structures, trail renovation and much more.

Community members continue to turnout for this special event - now celebrated for its 6th year at Valley Forge National Historical Park can be attributed in part to the growing emphasis on service and a growing recognition of the importance of public lands for recreation, travel, rejuvenation and health.

President Barack Obama issued a proclamation, calling National Public Lands Day a time to "affirm our resolve to conserve...cherished spaces for our enjoyment and for that of future generations."

Of course another big reason National Public Lands Day continues to be a big success and has grown so much is the numerous volunteers and partners that work hard to make each event as successful as the last.
 
Special thanks to all our sponsors and to all of you who came out to give time to your National Park. Your time and energy is appreciated.  Thank you!
 

 Sign Up Today!
 

The Friends sponsor educational, interpretive and awareness programs, foster and encourage conservation, and assist in the collection and preservation of historically significant artifacts and structures. The Friends assume this role as a means of support to ensure that Valley Forge will continue to remain a significant historical event and place in our country's history.

Learn more and how to join at www.friendsofvalleyforge.org
 

The official newsletter of Valley Forge National Historical Park - Fall 2009

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