For most of my time as a blogger, I’ve stayed away from posts like this one. However, I feel that a little explanation is in order to describe a few changes that are coming to the blog.

But first, the news:

Wynning History is moving to Washington!

As of the end of June 2018, I’ll be moving to the nation’s capital and working at the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum.

Earlier this spring, I took on responsibilities as Director of Interpretation at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine and its two satellite locations – the Missing Soldiers Office and the Pry House Field Hospital Museum.

With this change in job and location, I’ll be tasked with helping to market, promote, and envision future development at the Missing Soldiers Office. This wonderful little museum occupies the space where Clara Barton lived and worked during and immediately after the American Civil War. From her small boardinghouse room in the Union capital, she launched a campaign to resupply and provide nursing care for U.S. Army soldiers from Maryland to South Carolina.

In the same space, she opened the Missing Soldiers Office in the spring of 1865 to assist in efforts to location missing Union soldiers. She and her team located more than 22,000 soldiers, most of whom had died on the battlefields and in the prison camps of the Civil War. The years she spent in this boardinghouse on 7th Street in Washington launched Clara Barton into her career as one of the nation’s foremost humanitarians.

As I move into my new role and my new city, I’m excited by the opportunities and challenges that await me.

As for Wynning History, I plan to continue my efforts to tell compelling stories from the Coal Region and Central Pennsylvania. However, at least for a little while, my posts may become less frequent. I have some big plans for the future, but they may take a while to become fully developed.

In the meantime, I hope you’ll continue reading Wynning History and hope you’ll consider coming for a visit to the Missing Soldiers Office on your next visit to Washington! – Jake

Featured Image: The exterior of the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum on 7th Street in Washington, DC. 

Interested in coming for a visit? Here’s the link for more information about the museum!