‘Old Baldy’ Will Remain On Longterm Museum Loan
By Deborah Fitts
May 2005
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — Old Baldy, the head of Union Gen. George Meade’s warhorse, will remain on display permanently at the Civil War & Underground Railroad Museum of Philadelphia.
That was the settlement signed off on in late March by the Orphans Court. It dashed the hopes of the GAR Civil War Museum & Library, which believed it owned Old Baldy and wanted him back.
“We’re not exactly happy about it, but we have to face it and move on,” said Margaret Atkinson, secretary of the GAR Museum’s board of directors. “It’s a quirky item and it draws a lot of attention. But our funds are limited. I felt we couldn’t put any more time, money and effort into trying to get it back.”
The GAR Museum loaned the horse’s head to the Civil War & Underground Railroad Museum (then the Civil War Library & Museum) in 1978. But the Civil War Library & Museum fell on hard times, and when word came that it was planning to loan much of its collection to a new museum in Richmond, the GAR Museum asked for Old Baldy back.
Atkinson said the Civil War Library refused. “They said since we didn’t request Old Baldy since 1978, it was now theirs.” Also, the mounted head, which had grown increasingly tattered, had undergone a major refurbishment while at the Library.
In 2002 the GAR Museum filed suit to get Old Baldy back. The suit was folded into a much larger lawsuit brought by several parties against the Library to prevent it from moving the collection to Richmond. The larger suit was ultimately successful, and a settlement resulted in the transformation of the Library into a new entity, with a new name, a new board and improved resources.
Under the terms of the settlement, the Civil War & Underground Railroad Museum will be required to renew the loan after 10 years, and periodically thereafter. If the museum fails to care for Old Baldy, it must go back to the GAR Museum.
John Rumm, the new executive director of the Civil Wear & Underground Railroad Museum, noted that Old Baldy “occupies a very prominent place” in one of the museum’s galleries.
“It’s a very widely recognized artifact,” Rumm said. “People really respond well to Old Baldy, and we want to play on that.” Rumm said he planned to use the horse as an object and as a motif to “broaden the appeal” of the museum to families and children.
Atkinson said that while the nine-member GAR Museum board may be disappointed in the outcome of the suit over Old Baldy, the other museum’s location near the center of the city on Pine Street was more accessible and appealing to visitors than the GAR Museum’s site in the Frankfort area of the city’s lower northeastern sector.
Old Baldy, whom Meade rode when he commanded at Gettysburg, died after his famous rider and was buried on the outskirts of Philadelphia. But he was surreptitiously dug up and the head cut off, stuffed, and presented to GAR Post No.1 in Philadelphia, named for Meade. As veterans died and the posts closed, Old Baldy eventually went to Post No.2, the largest post, and the source of the GAR Museum’s collection. The GAR Museum & Library was formed in 1926.
The terms of the settlement did, however, provide that the head of a mule, also on loan to the Civil War & Underground Railroad Museum, be returned to the GAR Museum. Unfortunately, Atkinson said, the mule doesn’t enjoy Old Baldy’s cachet. “We have no history on it whatsoever.”
The GAR Museum is open the first Sunday of the month when it has a special speaker’s program It is also open every Tuesday from noon to 4 p.m. and Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Among the items in the collection are a strip of bloody pillowcase on which Lincoln’s head lay as he was dying; an original post from the Andersonville stockade; the handcuffs that John Wilkes Booth carried when he and his fellow conspirators were plotting to kidnap Lincoln; and 3,000 books and numerous guns, swords and other GAR memorabilia.
The museum is located at 4278 Griscom St., in Philadelphia. It can be reached at (215) 289-6484, or found on the Internet at GARMuslibe.org.
