An inside look at how Monocacy's new museum has taken shape: Better technology and overlapping stories of soldiers, civilians and the Maryland landscape

The story of Monocacy, the battle and its people, is told in an upstairs museum (NPS photos)

Having weathered delays, a broken air conditioning system and the government shutdown, staff at Monocacy National Battlefield near Frederick, Md., are putting the finishing touches on exhibits in the park’s revamped museum.

“The museum is undergoing a soft opening currently …We still have a few pieces to put out and some cosmetic elements to finish in-house,” park ranger Matt Borders said in e-mail to The Civil War Picket on Thursday.

The exhibits are upstairs in the visitor center.

The museum closed late last year for a long-overdue overhaul. Revamped exhibits are telling a wider story than when the old iteration opened in 2007, officials said.

"What is currently up are the big exhibits, the digital program, etc., that were done by the museum exhibit contractors and (look) really nice," Borders said of the new offerings.

The new museum themes include, combat, terror and tedium, care for the wounded and civilian-military interaction.

“Their stories overlap and those relationships are important to the story of Monocacy, and we want to focus on more personal stories,” said Tracy Evans, chief or resource education and visitor services.

Borders said reviews from visitors who have seen the new exhibits since the shutdown ended have been positive. One big change is a new map of the battle and troop movements. It will be projected onto a white surface rather the old physical map that sometimes had broken parts.

At Monocacy on July 9, 1864, outnumbered Federals delayed Confederates bent on taking Washington, D.C. By the time Rebel troops reached the capital’s outskirts, Union reinforcements had arrived. 

The staff provided three photos showing the phases of the work and Borders provided details, told in chronological order.

DECONSTRUCTION

Last December, Monocacy National Battlefield staff, along with staff from the Harpers Ferry Training Center, began the deconstruction of the visitor center museum. The museum space and exhibits were nearly 20 years old, so it was time for an upgrade. The removal of the central island in the museum, which had housed the electronics for the previous museum, opened up the floor plan and will allow guests to move much more freely around the space. We have also opened up the overheard, making the museum space brighter and utilizing the architecture of the building. 

TIME FOR DRYWALLING

While the center of the room was opened, we have also pushed out the walls, particularly on the east side of the building. This additional space will allow the new museum to focus more on the Monocacy Campaign than the previous museum had been. To do this. we will have several themes utilized throughout the museum, looking at not only the soldiers of the American Civil War, but also the civilian stories of the farms and those of the enslaved that worked the farms. 

PAINTED WALLS, READY FOR CARPET

With new paint and very shortly to have new carpets, the museum has really been coming together. One of the big questions we have received throughout this process has been, "Will you still have the electric map?"

Yes, sort of. The fiberoptic map was at the end of its life, so the entire map program has been redone and expanded upon. It will be located in the center of the museum now, to better accommodate guests, especially in large groups and will be on two large display screens to provide easy viewing and closed captioning.