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A Gettysburg family whose members donated thousands of Civil War artifacts to the National Park Service filed a federal lawsuit yesterday seeking the items' return or relocation to an environmentally sound site.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. Middle District Court in Harrisburg, accuses the Park Service of "callous disregard for the care of the artifacts" at its Gettysburg National Military Park museum and visitors' center.
The suit was filed by Angela Rosensteel Eckert and her husband, Lawrence H. Eckert III, who was the museum's curator for 20 years. It says the Park Service has failed to maintain the artifacts, donated by the family almost 28 years ago.
The Park Service contends the artifacts were donated with "no strings attached," said Katie Lawhon, spokeswoman for Gettysburg National Military Park.
The Park Service has pointed to the deteriorating artifacts kept in its museum and visitors' center to argue for private construction of a $40 million visitors' center.
"The National Park Service has stated publicly that they have no money and cannot adequately care for the artifacts," said attorney John R. Fenstermacher, who filed the suit for the Eckerts and their children, Pamela A. Jones and Richard P. Eckert. "They have also conducted tours of the curatorial facilities, showing the public and the media how badly the artifacts are deteriorating and stating they cannot stop it."
The suit names the U.S. Interior Department and Secretary Bruce Babbitt, the National Park Service and Director Robert Stanton, and Gettysburg National Military Park and Superintendent John Latschar.
The lawsuit quotes a letter from Stanton to Angela Eckert advising that the "lack of central heat and air conditioning and the lack of humidity and dust controls are putting the artifacts at risk."
"The irreplaceable Rosensteel Collection is sitting in cardboard boxes or on shelves, entirely unprotected from deterioration," according to the lawsuit.
Angela Eckert, 80, said the conditions make her "very sad because the last thing my father told my mother and I was that we were to look after the artifacts....I intend to do that until I die."
Her great-uncle, John Rosensteel, started the collection at age 16 when he found a dead Confederate soldier shortly after the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863.
His nephew, George Rosensteel, founded the National Civil War Museum and Visitors' Center in the home he built in 1921. The building, where his daughter, Angela Eckert, grew up, houses the visitors' center and museum.
The family donated the collection of 38,000 artifacts to the United States in 1971.
In October, the Eckerts asked for the return of the items, the largest collection of Civil War and Indian artifacts in the world, valued at more than $50 million, according to Fenstermacher.
Although Park Service officials met with the Eckerts, the family received no formal response to its request, Fenstermacher said.
Lawhon defended the collection's care, saying the Park Service has spent more than $700,000 since 1993 preserving the artifacts, about 70 percent of which came from the Rosensteel family.
"We've done everything we can to care for those artifacts," she said.
"We need a new building."
In January, Lawhon said only about 7 percent of its collection was on display because of space constraints. The rest of it is stored in unheated basement storage rooms, she saiThe Park Service intends to tear down the visitors' center and Cyclorama Center and restore the site to its 1863 appearance
The Park Service intends to tear down the visitors' center and Cyclorama Center and restore the site to its 1863 appearance.
"You cannot return that spot to 1863," Angela Eckert said. Superintendent "John Latschar wants his new building, so he's not listening to me or anybody else."
Fenstermacher said the deteriorating artifacts cannot wait the years it will take to open a new visitors' center at another site.
"We're not going to have anything to look at in 25 years if we don't do something now," he said.
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