HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I can't believe 2009 is almost here! It's such a great day--time to wipe the slate clean and start over! 2008 was a challenging year...I don't doubt that everyone felt that way. But I also feel I have so much to be thankful for--including wonderful readers like you!!!

HAVE A BLESSED AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hopefully I will see you at the battlefields in 2009!

Kristie

PS--check out this great news below!

Bible Currently Undergoing Restoration for Unveiling During Author’s Bicentennial Year

Richmond, VA-In honor of Edgar Allan Poe's 200th birthday, the Library of Virginia, in partnership with Richmond, VA's Poe Museum, is preparing an exhibition on Poe's life and works. The centerpiece of the exhibition will be the Poe Family Bible, a rarely-seen artifact in the Poe Museum's collections. The exhibition will open July 18, 2009.

The Poe Family Bible includes genealogical information such as birth and death dates of Poe family members and notes on marriages, with the earliest family information entry dating to 1725. The handwritten notes also include a sketch of the Poe family burial plot at Westminster Hall and Burying Ground.

The Bible is currently undergoing restoration at Cat Tail Run Hand Bookbinding in Winchester, VA. EMC Corporation, the world's leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions, is funding the restoration and digitization of the Bible through its Information Heritage Initiative, which preserves, protects, and makes cultural treasures globally accessible in digital form. The digital images and the Bible itself will be on display from July through December 2009 at the Library of Virginia.

The exhibit is part of Poe Revealed 1809-2009, a cooperative effort among Virginia historical sites, museums, libraries and performing arts organizations to commemorate the life and works of Poe throughout 2009. A schedule of Poe-related events as well as information for educators, students, Poe enthusiasts and visitors is available on the Poe Bicentennial Web site www.Poe200th.com.

Throughout 2009, Richmond, Virginia will host numerous events in honor of the Poe Bicentennial. During his adulthood, Poe spent time in Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore, but it was Richmond, Virginia that Poe considered home; the place where he grew up, married and first gained a national literary reputation.

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The Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, Va interprets the life and influence of E.A. Poe for the education and enjoyment of the public. Founded in 1921, the Poe Museum preserves and exhibits artifacts and archival resources related to the life and works of Edgar Poe for a global audience. For more information about the Museum and its programs visit www.poemuseum.org.

The Library of Virginia is the state's oldest institution dedicated to the preservation of Virginia's history, literature, and culture. The Library was created by the General Assembly in 1823. The collections illustrate the rich and varied past of the commonwealth, documenting the lives of Virginians whose deeds are known to all, as well as those of ordinary citizens whose accomplishments are the foundation of our heritage. This rich treasure-house of materials attracts more than 190,000 visitors each year. For more information about the Library of Virginia please visit www.lva.virginia.gov.

Cat Tail Run Hand Bookbinding was established in 1991 by Jill Deiss, who studied bookbinding and restoration first in Northampton, Massachusetts, then at Cornell University's Department of Library Conservation, and in the Smithsonian Institution's Conservation Laboratories. Mrs. Deiss holds a B.S. in Chemistry and received a Master of Library Science degree from Syracuse University where she specialized in the study of archives and rare book collections. The other staff binders include Dee Evetts, Bill Deiss, Susan McCabe, and Amy Jackson with support from Brandi Ferrebee and Charlotte Kirks who serve as bindery elves.

Exciting new show about Abraham Lincoln on PBS!

ENJOY!!! I know I will!
Kristie

West Point Launches Center for Oral History

"Every soldier has a story."

Although countless works of fiction and journalism have examined the soldier’s life in wartime, there has never been an archive of soldiers’ experiences, spanning historic conflicts and other missions, told in the soldiers’ own words.

Now there is. The United States Military Academy at West Point, NY, has established the Center for Oral History, an online research center gathering the personal stories of American service men and women of all ranks – beginning with those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and going back to veterans of Vietnam, Korea, World War II and other campaigns. http://www.westpointcoh.org/

Housed by the History department at West Point, the new Center – which will officially launch in 2009 – is advised by a board that includes documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and 1947 West Point graduate and former Presidential advisor Gen. Brent Scowcroft, among many other eminent historians, journalists, and educators.

Gen. David Petraeus, who recently became head of U.S. Central Command, welcomed the new Center: “Our army has a proud history, one that is chronicled in innumerable books and films. This Center aims to record our army's history in a different way, through the personal oral histories of our soldiers captured by thorough, thoughtful interviews. This is an exciting prospect,” General Petraeus said. The Center was conceived to help educate West Point cadets, through the stories of soldiers who preceded them into conflict; but also to create a trove of personal testimony that will assist the work of scholars and historians; and to help build a bridge of greater understanding and empathy between the military and the civilian population it serves. The Center’s web site will be open to all users.

“Oral history delivers a spontaneity and intimacy that you can’t draw from any other research sources,” said the Center’s director, Todd Brewster, a journalist and co-author of two best-selling books with the late Peter Jennings of ABC News. “In the best West Point tradition, we hope our recorded interviews will speak directly to the soldiers of tomorrow while contributing to the policy dialogue going on right now.” The choice of Brewster, who has served as senior producer at ABC News and has written for Time and Vanity Fair, underscores the Academy’s intention to make its new oral history center a resource for the general public as well as the military community.

Among the early projects undertaken by the COH: an oral history of the Iraqi conflict as well as a look back at the West Point Class of ’67, most of whose graduates were immediately sent to Vietnam. The Center will also interview former U.S. Secretaries of State and Defense whose decisions have been so pivotal to the fate of American soldiers.

The Center’s ambition is captured in its motto: “Every soldier has a story. Here is where the story is told.”

Here is a link to additional material about the Center – including a 12-minute video that includes some early interviews of soldiers featured in the news announcement below: http://www.westpointcoh.org/