Rich Condon
@richcondon.bsky.social
| Historian | Researcher | Writer | Yinzer | *Opinions shared here are my own*
On World Ranger Day we recognize those who protect and interpret our natural, historical, and cultural resources around the globe for this and future generations. It’s been an honor to serve among so many talented and passionate colleagues and friends; I hope we get to do so for many years to come.
On July 30, 1866 white police officers and ex-Confederates murdered at least 34 Black freedmen in New Orleans as they peacefully assembled in support of the Louisiana Constitutional Convention. www.nps.gov/articles/000...
The world is on fire, a baby tyrant is in office, and lettuce is giving us the shits… but the spirit of Mr. Rogers is still alive and well.
A view of Pittsburgh from Coal Hill. Mark Twain had a similar perspective in 1884, noting “we sauntered about the mount, and looked down on the lake of fire and flame. It looked like a miniature hell with the lid off.“
The feeling of enrolling for my final semester at @gettysburgcollege.bsky.social & @gliamericanhistory.bsky.social. A master’s thesis is loading…
Corporal Harry Curry, who guarded the colors of the 155th Pennsylvania Infantry as his regiment repelled Confederate attacks against Little Round Top on July 2, 1863. He returned home to Pittsburgh after the Civil War, where he became a business partner of Andrew Carnegie.
When the park is running low on brochures and we’re waiting on additional funding…
As we continuously face adversity and opposition to sharing a complete national history, on this 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding, I’m continuously encouraged by voices of the past.
Me being designated acting supervisor on July 4 weekend:
For the first time, likely since the dedication of his regiment’s monument, Lt. Isaac Sowers’s likeness returns to the battlefield of Gettysburg, where the 9th Pennsylvania Reserves huddled near a stone wall between July 2-3, 1863.
It’s been a long day, and an especially long year, but connecting with a landscape such as this, and at such an important time, is a stark reminder that there is much work left to be done.
Just casually videobombing Pennsylvania Cable Network’s annual Gettysburg Battlefield Walk program.
I know swearing in the research room is frowned upon, but it’s not every day you get to handle a 163-year-old document signed by Abe Lincoln.
On June 27, 2015, 10 days after a white supremacist murdered 9 Black members of Charleston’s Mother Emanuel AME Church, Bree Newsome scaled a flagpole in front of the South Carolina State House and removed a Confederate flag that had hung on the grounds since 1961. 🧵 1/4
There’s a war on intellectualism and the idiots seem to be winning.
Robert Smalls and 15 enslaved people emancipated themselves against impossible odds on May 12, 1862, escaping on a confiscated Confederate vessel under the cover of darkness in Charleston Harbor. On May 13 they lived their first day as freed people.
“I had been an abolitionist too long, and had known and loved John Brown too well, not to feel a thrill of joy at last on finding myself in the position where he only wished to be.” -Colonel Thomas W. Higginson, who died on the 111th anniversary of his friend’s birthday
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” -Mark Twain, 1869
That’s a wrap on Spring 2026. My final full semester of the Gettysburg College/Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Master’s Program has come to an end, and a beer is in order. With my thesis slated for the autumn, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Between May 1-3, 1866 a mob of white supremacists, led by local police, attacked the Black community surrounding Fort Pickering in Memphis, Tennessee. An estimated 46 Black residents were murdered while 4 churches, 12 schools, and 91 homes had been burned. 🧵 1/3
Jim Crow Didn't Die. It Went to Law School. #CivilWarMemory open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...
Jim Crow Didn't Die. It Went to Law School.
The attempt to return Confederate monuments, the erasure of Black history, and today's Supreme Court ruling aren't coincidences. They're a coordinated campaign
open.substack.com
Today marks eight years with the National Park Service, and it’s been the honor of my life. It feels like just yesterday I was donning my first flat hat as a seasonal park ranger at Flight 93 National Memorial. I’ve been sharing ranger points and historical anecdotes ever since.
The priority of entertainment over education during the NFL draft speaks volumes about the state of the nation. A250 is marked by bread and circus.
NPR@npr.org · 4mo agoThe influx of fans later this week has led the school district to make a controversial decision: canceling in-person school. n.pr/4cxl1MM
On April 13, 1873 over 100 Black Americans were murdered by white supremacists near Colfax, Louisiana. The massacre was among the most devastating acts of race-driven terrorism during Reconstruction, though memory of what white Southerners called a “riot” has since been hotly contested.
