Elsie Singmaster: A Gettysburg Voice

Elsie Singmaster, both an Adams County citizen and a nationally acclaimed author, said she based her fictional writings on real people. She wrote books and stories about Gettysburg’s citizens, soldiers and visitors before, during and after the famous 1863 battle in her town. What stories and memoirs about town citizens, now located in the Civilian Accounts Collection at the Adams County Historical Society, may have influenced her Gettysburg tales? How do her stories contribute to the memory of the Battle of Gettysburg? Singmaster’s writing imagines Gettysburg’s participants on the streets of town but also on the broader stage of American history. This program will explore all of these questions, and provide background on the life and legacy of one of our area’s most famous authors.

Susan Colestock Hill is a graduate of the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and recently completed two terms on the Adams County Historical Society’s Board of Trustees. She is the author of a book, Heart Language: Elsie Singmaster and Her Pennsylvania German Writings, and has given extensive public presentations about Elsie Singmaster and her work.