News Release

Steamtown NHS Hosts Military Memorabilia Preservation Workshop, Saturday, June 30, 2018

Date: June 8, 2018
Contact: Bill Fischer, 570-340-5244

SCRANTON, Pa. – As part of its programming to commemorate the World War I Centennial, Steamtown National Historic Site (NHS) will host a free military memorabilia preservation workshop from 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 30, 2018. The workshop will be held in the park theater.

Whether it’s great-grandad’s uniform worn in the trenches of France; a World War II Victory Mail (V-Mail) letter sent from Europe or the Pacific; a tintype photo of a Civil War ancestor; unit patches from Korea or Vietnam; a cruise book from a naval deployment; an email or digital photo from a loved one who served in Iraq or Afghanistan; or any of a host of other military mementos that have deep personal meaning, then Steamtown NHS welcomes you – veterans, family members, and those interested in learning how to care for such objects – to our military memorabilia preservation workshop.

Led by Steamtown NHS museum curator Kathy Lang, we invite the public to bring those objects relating to military service that have become treasured family heirlooms. Letters, photos, sketches, orders, medals, ribbons, patches, uniform parts, journals, printed copies of digital media (no computers will be available during the workshop), and the like are welcome. You can also come empty handed just to learn more. However, NO weapons or weapon facsimiles of any sort are to be brought on site.

Curator Lang has decades of National Park Service museum experience and will share her expertise by providing simple, low cost preservation ideas/techniques that anyone can perform if they have the proper conservation materials. Samples of these items will be on hand for visual inspection.

While Kathy will be pleased to answer questions following her presentation, we hope that you will make this event a two-way dialogue by sharing the history of the objects you seek to preserve. The human stories associated with those otherwise inanimate objects are what give them meaning, not only to you and your family, but also to the greater community. We will limit your personal presentations to five minutes so that others have a chance to share.  In the end, we hope that everyone in attendance will come away with a better appreciation for the sacrifice of our military veterans who held dear those objects that have been passed down as treasured family inheritances.

Located in downtown Scranton, Pa., Steamtown NHS, a unit of the National Park Service, is open daily from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. The theater building is mobility-impaired accessible and assistive listening devices are available.

From I-81 follow exit 185 (Central Scranton Expressway); then follow the brown and white signs to the park entrance at Lackawanna Avenue and Cliff Street (GPS: N 41.41, W 75.67). General park information is available by phoning [phone] during regular business hours, or by visiting the park website anytime.

www.nps.gov/stea


About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 417 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Visit us at www.nps.gov, on Facebook www.facebook.com/nationalparkservice, Twitter www.twitter.com/natlparkservice, and YouTube www.youtube.com/nationalparkservice.