WHEREAS, The Civil War Library and Museum (CWLM) was founded in 1888 in Philadelphia and has been headquartered in a townhouse at 1805 Pine Street for the last eighty years, where it has held the most comprehensive collection of Union-related materials in the country with more than 13,000 books, 7,000 photographs, and 3,000 artifacts, including casts of the face and hands of Lincoln, Jefferson Davis' smoking jacket, the first John Wilkes Booth wanted poster, and a wide assortment of weapons; and
WHEREAS, The CWLM has consistently been in financial difficulty, which may have prevented it from caring for and displaying the collection in a professional manner, and which prompted its board last year to announce a plan to move a substantial part of its holdings to a new museum proposed in Richmond, Virginia, the former capital of the Confederacy; and
WHEREAS, This plan outraged Civil War scholars and descendants of Union officers, and the state Attorney General's office subsequently filed suit in Orphans' Court to prevent the move to Richmond; and
WHEREAS, State Senator Vincent J. Fumo and State Representative James R. Roebuck put together a coalition of Pennsylvania public and private institutions, including the Militar Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, an organization of descendants of Union Officers which originally founded the museum; the Union League's Abraham Lincoln Foundation; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg; the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; and city cultural officials; and
WHEREAS, After months of negotiations of formulation, this coalition has submitted to Orphans' Court and CWLM's board an ambitious proposal that would keep the collection in Philadelphia by establishing two new facilities, one for CWLM's books and archival records in a new Center for Civil War Studies at the Union League, and another facility for exhibition of its many artifacts; and
WHEREAS, The officials and organizations that created this plan possess the expertise, credibility and commitment to carry this project through to completion, and this proposal will save a national historical treasure that belongs to Philadelphia and in Philadelphia, and represents the best opportunity to enhance the collection and secure its place in the future of our city and region, so Council urges its immediate implementation to avoid a prolonged legal battle over the collection's future; now therefore
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That Council support the recent proposal to keep the Civil War Library and Museum's collections in Philadelphia.
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