About the Library
The Pohanka Reading Room at 61 N. West Street in Carlisle, Pennsylvania is a vital new part of the House Divided Project at Dickinson College. This non-circulating library of more than two thousand rare Civil War and nineteenth-century US history volumes comes from a variety of sources but mainly from the legacy of the late Brian C. Pohanka, a noted historian and member of Dickinson College’s Class of 1977. In 2026, Cricket Bauer donated Brian’s personal library to the House Divided Project and the Pohanka Family Foundation generously provided funding to help make the collection accessible to the campus and the general public. We opened the Pohanka Reading Room on October 30, 2026. For the time being, visitation is by appointment only but we have hopes and plans for establishing regular public hours in 2027 and beyond. To help support these efforts, please consider making a donation to Dickinson College through this page.
The new reading “room” is really several rooms stretched over three floors at the House Divided Studio near the corner of West and Louther streets. On the first floor, we are using selected volumes from the collection as essential components of displays that have been in place for several years. These displays include museum-quality exhibit panels and hands-on facsimile documents (“Please touch” read the signs) detailing the fascinating and under-appreciated role of Dickinson College and the Carlisle community across the long Civil War era. The panels in the middle room and outside the studio also include a special exhibition originally created in 2019 that tells the powerful story of Dickinson & Slavery, concerning the school’s ties to slaveholders, antislavery opponents, and eventually to the formerly enslaved.
The main Pohanka Reading Room begins on the second floor. As they enter the space, visitors will encounter various periodicals and a dedicated production studio that students and staff will be using for our extensive classroom-friendly multi-media efforts, which include documentary videos, podcasting, and Zoom sessions. The studio also features a House Divided logo backdrop designed for visitor photos.
On the second floor, there are two reading room areas containing primary sources and “teaching collections” about the Civil War and various topics in nineteenth-century US history. In these spaces, we feature a diverse collection of American history textbooks from across the decades along with a mix of primary and secondary sources on Lincoln, Gettysburg, American slavery and abolition. But the front room offers what will be the highlight for most visitors: beautiful bay windows that provide a serene reading experience amid an impressive collection of rare Civil War serial sets and a broad array of primary source volumes that provide special first-hand perspectives on US history.
On the third floor, our reading rooms feature an equally impressive collection of secondary sources heavily focused on the Civil War era. An adjacent conference room also holds a unique set of oversized volumes offering rare Civil War battle maps and photography.
Visitor Info
- Pohanka Reading Room, established in October 2026, currently open to the public by appointment only: hdivided@dickinson.edu or 717-245-1865
- Online catalog available: Over two thousand non-circulating rare volumes, focusing on Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, slavery, abolition, nineteenth-century military history, George Armstrong Custer, and western Indian wars.
- Three floors, including museum-quality exhibits on Civil War era and Dickinson & Slavery. The first floor is wheelchair accessible, but there is no elevator in the building. Bathrooms are available on all three floors.
- Contact Director Matthew Pinsker, Pohanka Chair for Civil War History, for additional information (pinskerm@dickinson.edu)
A snapshot of the online catalog:
About Brian C. Pohanka
Brian C. Pohanka (1955-2005) graduated from Dickinson College in 1977 as a history major and became “a founding figure of the modern Civil War battlefield preservation movement,” according to the American Battlefield Trust. Pohanka was the author or editor of more than twenty books, including the popular 27-volume series on the Civil War by Time-Life. Pohanka also served as a consultant for numerous Civil War films and documentaries, including the PBS series on “The Civil War” (1990) by Ken Burns and the “Civil War Journal” (1993) from the History Channel, as well as the Hollywood feature films, “Glory” (1989), “Gettysburg” (1993), “Gods and Generals” (2003), and “Cold Mountain” (2003). Brian was especially well known for his leadership as a Civil War “living historian.” He served for years as a company captain in Duryee’s Zouaves (5th New York) Civil War reenactment group and produced an excellent history of the regiment: Vortex of Hell with Patrick Schroeder (2012). Brian’s wife, Cricket Bauer, donated his personal library to the House Divided Project in 2026.