Penn State Altoona Encampment

Free at last, free at last! Summer has finally arrived and this extremely slow and busy semester has reached an end. In reflection, I thought I would share some photos from Penn State Altoona's (my school) 2nd annual Living History Encampment. This event is hosted by the campus' History Society (of which I am president) every April. This year, we welcomed the 110th Pennsylvania Volunteers, an original regiment from our area. We even had one or two WWII reenactors camp out too. Several hundred students attended demonstrations and talks all day. It was a truly great event!

Meet Captain Michael Gherrity, commander of Company A, 110th PA Volunteers. He broke out his new tent just for us.

The encampment included a small printing press and 1860s political/recruitment brochures. Students and passersby were welcome to take some.

Students check out the telegraph station. Pay no attention to that crazy guy in the red shirt! (He's one of my friends and a dedicated member of the History Society.)

Many students were shocked by the primitive nature of Civil War medicine as seen at the Surgeon's tent.

As you can see, we had a constant crowd of students for most of the day. You will notice in the foreground our accurate 1860s lunch - Little Caesar's Pizza...

John Michael, one of my good friends, checks out the Signal Corps exhibit.

Captain Gherrity had a display table with a number of artifacts including weapons, camp equipment, newspapers, and more. Here, he explains how the Minie Ball and rifle worked more efficiently than prior weapons.

They even did some Signal Corps demonstrations with their flags.

Here are fourteen of our over 160 members of the History Society. There are also some great History professors here with their kids. This was from our April 12 trip to Gettysburg. We are at the Amos Humiston monument. One of the many public services our group does is to travel to Gettysburg each semester and aid the Park Service in their Landscape Restoration program. This semester, we removed brush and small trees in the Devil's Den area. That too was a fun day. We'll be at work once again next semester...but let's enjoy a long summer first!