News---Gettysburg's Electric Map Will Be Enlarged and Reside in Hanover

Putting Hanover On The Map, Editorial Staff, The Evening Sun, September 19, 2012 

"Where are the eyes of my army?" Gen. Robert E. Lee asks in the movie "Gettysburg." "Where is Gen. Stuart?" As any serious local student of the Gettysburg campaign can tell you, Lee's cavalry commander, J.E.B. Stuart, was right here in Hanover the day of the great battle to the northwest. Area historians say the cavalry clash here on June 30, 1863, delayed Stuart long enough to change the outcome at Gettysburg. And soon enough they'll have a chance to illustrate their position on the famous Electric Map of the Gettysburg battlefield.

Like the cavalry riding to the rescue, Hanover developer Scott Roland has swooped in and bought the five-decade-old artifact at government auction for $14,010, beating out a still-unknown rival bidder in a daylong auction last week. And with his new acquisition, he wants to put Hanover on the Civil War map - literally. Roland plans to install the 12-ton, 29-foot-square map at the former Wachovia Bank building, which he hopes to turn into a downtown Hanover Heritage Conference Center. And he plans to add another section to the map so that the battle of Hanover can be featured as a proper prelude to Gettysburg.

The news of Roland's winning bid couldn't come at a better time, with the desire to revitalize downtown Hanover as strong as ever. And with the 150th anniversary of the 1863 Civil War battles coming up next year, national interest in the Gettysburg campaign is at an all-time high. Hanover has wayside  exhibits explaining the unusual cavalry fight that took place in and around the borough; there are historians here who know the story and can share it effectively. And now the Electric Map - a favorite bit of battlefield nostalgia for at least three generations of Civil War enthusiasts - will be able to serve to attract history aficionados to downtown Hanover.

Read the rest of the full text article at The Evening Sun, September 19, 2012 

Image Source:  Courier Times

News---Gettysburg's 12 Ton Electric Map Goes For $14K

Hanover Business Man Gets His First Look At $14K Electric Map, Tim Stonesifer,  The Evening Sun, September 18, 2012. 

Jim Baumgardner was excited to see a bit of Gettysburg history. "Oh look," he said, "it's Little Round Top." His voice echoed off the sides of the 40-foot storage container. Baumgardner, a Hanover architect, was standing on Tuesday afternoon with Scott Roland, the Hanover developer who last week bought the Gettysburg Electric Map at online auction for just more than $14,000, a move he said was made to bring the 12-ton map to Hanover. On a gray, rain-drenched Tuesday, Roland got his first look at it. "It's not as bad as I thought," he said, after a brief inspection of four metal shipping containers where the map has been held for the past few years. "Actually, it's a lot better than I thought."

The map was cut up into four pieces and placed in storage after a new visitors center was built, and the National Park Service decided not to add the map, which dates from 1963. Chief among the government's concerns is what officials say is 3 percent friable asbestos in the map's plaster coating. It was set to be destroyed until an outcry from preservationists, a waiver obtained by the Park Service and an online auction that ended on Friday. Today, it sits in storage at a site previously unnamed by the Park Service. That holding area - which site officials asked not be disclosed because of vandalism concerns - is located not up the road from the battlefield in Gettysburg, but rather in York County.

Read the rest of the story at The Evening Sun. 

News: Gettysburg's Electric Map Now On Auction Block, GSA Link Attached

Gettysburg Electric Map Up For Auction Online, Timothy Stonesifer, The Evening Sun,  September 8, 2012

If you have an extra $5 in your pocket you might be able to buy a 12-ton piece of Gettysburg history. Only thing is, you'll probably have to drop another $100,000 or more to refurbish and display the beloved but beleaguered tourist display. The Electric Map is currently up for auction through General Service Administration, an online auction site for federal property, according to an email from National Park Service spokeswoman Katie Lawhon. 

As of Saturday evening, no one had placed the opening bid of $5. The map - nearly destroyed because it contains asbestos but saved for auction after an outcry from preservationists - was put up for bid last Friday, according to the Park Service. The Gettysburg Electric Map, which dates from the 1960s, is currently up for auction online after approval of a waiver that kept it from being destroyed because of its asbestos content. Online listing indicates a seven-day auction, with the bidding to close Friday.

Brendan Synnamon, president of the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association, said Saturday afternoon he didn't know the map was up for auction. Synnamon was 
among those pushing to save the map, which was added to the old visitor center in 1963 but contains about 3 percent friable asbestos in its plaster surface.

Synnamon said likely the group would be unable to organize the funds this week to buy the map, but added the group would help another potential bidder if possible.  The Electric Map likely won't bring a high price at auction, he said, but added the associated costs of transportation and storage could be considerable. The Park Service has not disclosed where the Electric Map is being stored, but has said the 29-foot square map was cut into quarters and placed into four large shipping containers. Images that accompany the online auction listing show such containers.

Synnamon said his group hopes to be a part of restoring the map, and perhaps updating it with new technology. Old electronics could be replaced, he said, and the miles of wire that made the map work could be simulated with LED and other devices. The map used hundreds of miniature light bulbs to depict troop movements during the Battle of Gettysburg. It was added as part of the commemoration for the 100th anniversary of the battle.  In June the Park Service announced federal authorities approved a waiver request allowing it to be auctioned instead of destroyed. Synnamon said the important thing is that it's saved as a teaching tool for another generation. That's a process that could cost $100,000 or more, he estimated. But it would also bring back a unique piece of local history.  "You'd be the only kid on your block to have one," he said. "That's for sure." 

Text and Image Source: The Evening Sun, September 08, 2012

Second Image Source and Link to GSA Auction 

News---Will Gettysburg's Famed Electric Map Become Hazardous Waste?

The final fate of Gettysburg's Electric Map as yet to be decided, according to battlefield Superintendent Bob Kirby. But the map is "infused with asbestos," Kirby said in an email, and he must "determine the most environmentally appropriate and legal way" to dispose of it. Kirby sent the email in response to earlier reports the map was to be destroyed.

Created in 1963 for the 100th anniversary of the great battle, the map depicts troop movements with colored lights flashing across its topographically accurate surface. Other battlefields - nearby Monocacy outside Frederick, Md., for example - still use such maps to depict fighting and troop movements.

But when the new visitors center opened in 2009, the map was replaced with a 20-minute movie, "New Birth of Freedom," narrated by Morgan Freeman. The map, in pieces, now sits in storage; the Park Service has offered to give it away, but has said in the past it can't find a taker with the space to display it. Years after its closure, the map remains dear to many longtime battlefield visitors, and people reportedly still ask to see it.

Text Source: Gettysburg Times

News---Gettysburg's Electric Map: The Movie

Electric Map Could Make A Comeback: New Gettysburg Visitor Center Could Host A Video Presentation Of The Map, Erin James, In York Daily Record Sunday News, September 13, 2009.

The Electric Map might have a place at the new Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center after all. More than 16 months since the famous map's last showing, visitors continue to ask about the Gettysburg icon, park spokeswoman Katie Lawhon said. She said rave reviews of the new museum center are often punctuated by a single comment from visitors: "I really wish that you still had the map."

Park officials have taken note, she said, and are in the middle of an "experiment" they hope will satisfy those visitors and critics who have argued that the 46-year-old Electric Map deserves to have a place in the new facility. Their idea is to create a film "based on the Electric Map presentation" that would orient visitors to Gettysburg history -- and give them an alternative to viewing the museum's current film, "A New Birth of Freedom." The details of how it would work are still sketchy, but Lawhon said the Electric Map film has potential to create a better visitor experience.

"The common ground here is that for people who are coming to the park and they want to see the Electric Map, it's a way to meet their needs," she said. Created in 1963 by Joseph Rosensteel, the Electric Map used lights to depict troop movements during the Battle of Gettysburg. It could be viewed by the public for $4 before the old visitor center on Taneytown Road was closed last April.

Though the Electric Map had originally been included in the park's general-management plan as one of three pay-to-see "interpretive venues," park officials ultimately decided not to reopen the exhibit at the new site on Baltimore Pike. They cited a lack of interest from the public and an opportunity for new technology. Then, a year ago, some suggested reinstating the Electric Map as a means of generating revenue after the park announced its plan to institute an admission fee for the previously free museum. Officials had projected a $1.78 million shortfall. But park and foundation officials said they believed the potential revenue from the Electric Map would not resolve the overall problem.

The Electric Map was disassembled earlier this year and placed in storage, where it remains today. But before it was taken apart, the Electric Map presentation was filmed, Park Superintendent John Latschar said Thursday. The film is being edited, he said.

"When it's ready, we're just going to run an experiment," Latschar said, adding that park officials have heard from many visitors who "desperately missed the map." The experiment, Latschar said, will be to show both the Electric Map film and "A New Birth of Freedom" simultaneously "and let visitors vote."

Asked to explain further, Lawhon said that doesn't mean the park intends to offer only the more popular film. Rather, she said, visitors will likely have a choice of which film they'd like to view before moving on to the Cyclorama painting presentation. That's possible because there are two theaters in the museum. Calling it a hybrid of old and new technology, Lawhon stressed the Electric Map film is still an experiment. "If we get it up and running, we would probably leave it as a second option," she said.

Text and Top Image Source: In York Daily Record
Image Caption: Light bulbs marked the troop movements on the old Gettysburg Electric Map. Blue showed the Union; orange, the Confederates.
Bottom Image and Source: Rosensteel descendant with Electric Map at old visitors center. Civil War Librarian Web Log April 4, 2008.

News---Gettysburg' Electric Map May Revive Faltering Steinwehr Avenue Business District

Electric Map May Have Hound A Home, Scot Andrew Pitzer, Gettysburg Times, Tuesday, May 12, 2009.

A nonprofit group is working with the National Park Service to keep the historic Electric Map in Gettysburg. Historic Gettysburg-Adams County is talking to the park about obtaining the map and featuring it in a new museum, possibly along Steinwehr Avenue. “It’s quite possible that it could be coming out of storage,” HGAC President Curt Musselman said Monday morning.

Musselman was the guest of broadcaster Fred Snyder during the Breakfast Nook program on 1320 WGET. Musselman’s group has been working to obtain the map for “about a year,” and the group has set up a task force to acquire it. “We’re going to build a museum — a map museum — making the Electric Map a centerpiece for that,” said Judi McGee, chairwoman of the HGAC task force.

“The map itself will be restored,” McGee said. “We’ll also be able to preserve and restore some other period maps along the way and some artifacts.” She promised that the map will be staying in the Borough of Gettysburg, although she did not name specific sites. “We’re looking at an adaptive re-use of an old building,” McGee told Snyder. “We’re also looking at building something new. We’re looking at a number of sites.”

Steinwehr Avenue businessman Eric Uberman said Monday that he has land beside his American Civil War Museum to accommodate the group. He called the property an “optimum site” for the Electric Map. “We’re cooperating with them — we’re not buying the map,” said Uberman. “We have the space,” continued Uberman. “It’s the spot that has the most visibility, it’s in Gettysburg, and it’s literally right where the map was before.”

Gettysburg National Military Park spokeswoman Katie Lawhon confirmed Monday afternoon that the park is talking to the group, but stressed that “it’s very early in the process.” The park has entertained offers for the map in the past, but nothing panned out. “Their goals would certainly be in sync with the Park Service’s goals, which would be to display the Electric Map once again to the visiting public,” said Lawhon. “The goal is to work cooperatively and re-open it to the public.”

Uberman’s property is located across the street from the entrance to the old visitor center. He thinks that the map would “do wonders” in revitalizing Steinwehr Avenue, which has seen a dramatic drop-off in commerce since the old visitor center closed. “It would be a tremendous boost to Steinwehr,” said Uberman. “I really hope that the town fathers support this group. It would be a tremendous tax benefit to the area, and maybe pull back some of the revenue that has been lost since the new visitor center opened.”

The map was cut into four pieces in March and moved out of the old park visitor center. It is now being stored in a park facility along the Hanover Road, just east of Gettysburg. The map was not incorporated into the plans for the new $103 million Battlefield Visitor Center, which opened in April 2008 along the Baltimore Pike. “I just think in their new design, the Electric Map didn’t fit in,” Musselman said. “Some day again, people will be able to see it.”

McGee noted that “there are some issues there with asbestos and construction that we need to address,” and that talks are ongoing between the federal government and HGAC. HGAC has worked with the Park Service on other projects, said Musselman. The group is aiming to have the map on display again in time for the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, which occurs in 2013. “That would sort of be the time-line on the project, so don’t hold your breath waiting for it to happen,” Musselman said. “Everything would take time. It’s not just a little project.”

The map entertained millions of tourists over the years, when it was the park’s primary attraction. It used 625 flashing Christmas bulbs to illustrate the movement of troops during the Battle of Gettysburg. Opponents argue that the map’s technology is obsolete, while proponents believe that it’s an iconic American treasure. The current map dates back to 1962-63, although the original map dates back to the 1930s.

See the complete transcript of the Breakfast Nook interview by visiting www.gettysburgtimes.com/blogs.

Text Source: Gettysburg Times May 12, 2009

Photo:Emily O'Neil's father, Joseph Rosensteel, created the Electric Map at the Gettysburg Battlefield Visitors Center. (Jeb Kairchbaum, Baltimore Sun, October 18, 2007)