My aide-de-camp “acquired” some of these this weekend:
(Photo From WHTM ABC27 News)
Full story and the news clip are on the Harrisburg area ABC affiliate web site. I would point out not only are the battlefield parks participating, but also other parks with less direct Civil War connections. As Katie Lawhorn, of Gettysburg NMP, states, “They’re being used as a reward for younger visitors who attend programs with rangers.” My aide-de-camp approves of these such “lures” to entice the young ones into the ranger programs.
Perhaps not a unique approach – I think Topps has been using this method to get young boys to purchase their otherwise bland and overpriced bubble gum for some time. But another “reach out” in this sesquicentennial that, at least from my perspective, appeals to a different (if not broader) audience. Items like trading cards are laying a foundation in those young minds. And fifty years from now, those same minds will help shape the Civil War’s bicentennial.
I remember the NPS selling National Park trading cards back in the 90′s. There were at least two different series and featured different units of the National Park System. They were available in parks from Yellowstone to Shenandoah, but I never saw them offered anywhere outside the NPS system.
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