Museum eyed for Fort Monroe after closure

[unhappycamper]

Fort Monroe, partly surrounded by a moat, was named for President James Monroe and is the headquarters for the Army Training and Doctrine Command. Scholars want to turn the heart of Fort Monroe into a museum about the military, the Confederacy and the end of slavery.


Museum eyed for Fort Monroe after closure
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jan 4, 2008 16:03:48 EST

HAMPTON, Va. — Scholars want to turn the heart of Fort Monroe into a museum about the U.S. military, the Confederacy and the end of slavery.

A group of professors, curators, archivists and a university president has been in Hampton discussing what to do with the fort when the Army departs in 2011.

The base is being closed to save money, leaving local, state and federal officials to figure out how to use the 570-acre property. The scholars favor putting a museum inside the base’s 63-acre stone fort.

Symposium participants included Edward L. Ayers, president of the University of Richmond and an American history scholar; Robert Francis Engs, a history professor at the University of Pennsylvania; and Laranett Lee, founding curator of African-American history at the Virginia Historical Society.

The meeting was sponsored by the Fort Monroe Federal Area Development Authority, which is overseeing the post’s transfer from Army control. Engs was to present the recommendations to the authority on Friday.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/ap_fortmonroemuseum_080104/