The Gettysburg Foundation is the non-profit partner of the National Park Service at Gettysburg working to enhance preservation and understanding of the heritage and lasting significance of Gettysburg.
In 1999, Gettysburg National Military Park’s General Management Plan called for a new Museum and Visitor Center to accomplish four goals:
- Preserve the Park’s extensive collection of artifacts
- Preserve the massive Cyclorama painting
- Rehabilitate the battlefield - returning it as closely as possible to its 1863 appearance
- Present the Battle of Gettysburg to visitors within the larger context of the causes and consequences of the Civil War.
To accomplish this goal, the Gettysburg Foundation was created. (At the time of the General Management Plan, the organization was known as the Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum Foundation. In 2006, that organization merged with the Friends of the National Parks at Gettysburg, forming the Gettysburg Foundation.)
The Foundation raised the money for and now operates, in partnership with the National Park Service, the Museum and Visitor Center at Gettysburg National Military Park, which opened in April 2008. A portion of revenues from the Museum and Visitor Center are returned to not only Gettysburg National Military Park, but also to the National Park System, helping to ensure that generations of visitors will be able to enjoy these natural and educational treasures.
The Foundation’s broad preservation mission and partnership with the National Park Service means that it focuses its efforts of several areas of critical importance to this hallowed ground’s future:
- Battlefield Rehabilitation
- Land Preservation
- Artifact Preservation
- Monument Preservation
- Museum and Visitor Center
- Education
