HistoricSiteMarkers
Civil WarReconstruction & Gilded Age

John Page Nicholson (1842-1922)

Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania

Marker Inscription

A veteran of the Civil War, he was a leading military historian. Editor & compiler of the two-volume Pennsylvania at Gettysburg. Active in preservation efforts at Gettysburg & Valley Forge. In 1888, a founder of The Civil War Library & Museum.

Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

The Story

John Page Nicholson fought in the Civil War and then devoted his life to remembering it. A meticulous scholar, he edited the two-volume Pennsylvania at Gettysburg and worked to preserve the battlefields at Gettysburg and Valley Forge. In 1888 he helped found a library and museum dedicated to the war he had lived through.

Why it matters

Nicholson belonged to the generation of veterans who turned battlefields into hallowed ground, shaping how Americans would study and memorialize the Civil War.

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  • · John Page Nicholson

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  • · Battle of Gettysburg

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