Travel Guide: Enjoy Civil War Experiences from Home

Maybe we can’t go visit Civil War sites right now, but there’s an excellent Plan B: Experiences from home. A slew of virtual tours, online galleries, and interactive experiences helps us to explore some of the war’s most famous, and lesser known, sites. And even when things get back to normal, these will still be … Read more

BGES Members Making a Difference: Bill McKinnon

Simone de Beauvoir, the noted French philosopher and activist, once said, “History is a great cemetery.” But you could just as easily argue the opposite, that a cemetery is great history. BGES member and retired surgeon Bill McKinnon certainly sees it that way. For more than two decades, he has made it his mission to … Read more

BGES Projects: Always Loyal, Never Forgotten

Over the past 26 years, BGES has completed some significant educational enhancements that stand in their own right as exceptional. However, a less heralded characteristic of the organization is its commitment to maintain whatever it does. If it has a BGES logo on it, it will be and is maintained. Pamplin Historical Park The latest … Read more

Creating a Philanthropic Pandemic

I am tired of talking about viruses and germs—aren’t you? What I would like to talk about is a really well-conceived, worldwide, coordinated effort to help the countless nonprofit groups around the world. GivingTuesday started in 2012, and since then has rallied increasing numbers of charities to work with their supporters to shore up fundraising efforts … Read more

Tour Talk: On Sacred Grounds, with Neil Mangum

If timing is everything in life, then perhaps it’s no surprise that the Indian Wars are so often overlooked in the annals of U.S. history. Wedged between the close of the Civil War and Custer’s last stand at Little Bighorn, this fascinating 10-year period saw awful bloodshed throughout the Northwest as white settlers tested the … Read more