The Gettysburg Battlefield Commission Reports:
The Lost Episodes

ntil only a few months ago a comprehensive collection of the Annual Reports of the Gettysburg National Military Park Commission was unavailable to the general public. Even the NPS library at Gettysburg did not possess a complete set of the reports.

In 1905 the Government printing office published a bound copy of the reports for the years 1893 through 1904. The book is aptly titled: Annual Reports of the Gettysburg National Military Park Commission to the Secretary of War 1893 - 1904; Washington, Government Printing Office, 1905. This book though somewhat scarce is still relatively attainable from dealers in old books, especially dealers in the Gettysburg area. The best aspect of this book is its inclusion of an incredible collection of photos of the park under construction.

The task of locating Gettysburg Battlefield Commission reports published after 1904 is difficult. Although individual copies of the annual reports were published over the years, in my experience they are a rarity. I have found only two original printings for my collection, the 1908 and 1918 reports.

The breakthrough discovery which made the collection of reports here presented, possible, was made by Gettysburg discussion group member, and Electric R.R. tour guide, Eileen Murphy of Manassas, Va. Eileen visited the National Archives in Washington, D.C. to track down the elusive reports. Eileen was able to quickly locate the reports for 1905 through 1909. There were no other years listed in the indexes kept by the archives, but with persistence and ingenuity Eileen continued to pursue other possible sources for the reports. She finally managed to locate all of the reports from 1905 to 1920. On a later trip, Eileen located the reports from 1927-1933. It is largely through Eileen's efforts that this rare collection of reports is made available to you today. Eileen has also donated photo copies of these reports to the NPS library where you can examine them in their original form.

If anyone has knowledge concerning the location of the as yet undiscovered 192-1927 reports, please pass this information on to Bob or Dennis Lawrence, or Eileen Murphy, or Terry Moyer via the Gettysburg Discussion Group.

Finally, it should be noted that Eileen Murphy performed the computer entry work for the annual reports of 1905 through 1919 (odd years), and that the reports for 1893 through 1904, and 1906 - 1920 (even year) were entered by Terry & Diane Moyer. The duties for the 1927-1933 reports were similarly shared.

Now under the auspices of Dennis and Robert Lawrence, a truly unique offering of invaluable Gettysburg material is made available to you all. Enjoy.

Terry Moyer
September 1996

Zipped file of the Reports-1893-1920 - 1927-1933 in txt format may be downloaded.