Pamplin Park Buys Gladstone African American Collection

November 2005

DINWIDDIE, Va. — Pamplin Historical Park and the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier has acquired William Gladstone’s collection of African American documents, photographs and objects, considered by some to be the finest personal collection of its kind in the world.

The first special exhibit featuring the Gladstone Collection will debut in February in conjunction with Black History Month. It will be displayed in the park’s new changing exhibits gallery at the Battlefield Center.

Valued at more than $1.3 million, park officials indicated that Gladstone conveyed his collection for much less than full market value.

“Bill Gladstone is a friend as well as a business partner,” said park director A. Wilson Greene. “He wanted his lifetime collection to be at Pamplin Historical Park and we are proud to be its perpetual caretakers.” The park purchased Gladstone’s Civil War photograph collection last year.

Gladstone assembled his collection over more than 30 years. In the process, he earned a reputation as an expert on the history of black troops from the Civil War era and published United States Colored Troops, 1863-1867 in 1990 and Men of Color (both Thomas Publications) in 1993.

In his role as a photohistorian Gladstone widely lectured, published and exhibited images from his collection.

His goal was stated in the introduction to Men of Color where he wrote that the service of black soldiers during the war must “be passed on to future generations because the black soldiers must not be forgotten. Their participation is of notable significance because they were literally fighting for freedom and acceptance in their country.”

Pamplin Historical Park acquired more than 1,600 individual items in the collection, including 544 cartes de visite of African Americans, nearly 300 original documents, 67 objects such as a slave collar and slave tags, many of them unique, and newspapers, prints and patriotic envelopes.

Greene said there is enough material to present dozens of specialized exhibitions.

Park Curator Randy Klemm has invested hundreds of hours cataloging the collection and entering it into the park’s museum database.

“Anyone publishing about African Americans in the Civil War or museums interested in borrowing items should contact us,” said Klemm. The park makes its photographs and images available for publication and loan in accordance with usual museum policies.

For more information, call (804) 861-2408 or visit www.pamplinpark.org.