iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

“If the fossils who believe the world does not move…had been with me in the Hall of the House of Representatives on the 31st…they would have been astonished…For I believe I was…a witness to one of those memorable scenes…which showed…that human progress cannot be checked…”

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

Pumped to get my copy of They Are Dead and Yet They Live: Civil War Memories in a Polarized America. Edited by Jenn Murray & John Kinder, this collection features many talented historians & covers important topics that connect our past to the present. Can’t wait to dive in!

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

Remembering when we got dressed up for our 100th birthday a few years ago.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

Every Packer fan right now.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

As printed in Douglass’ Monthly, 3/1/1859

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

Absolute garbage game from the Packers offense.

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Reposted by EJ Murphy

Dave Taylor @linconspirators.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

Edwin Booth’s saving of Robert Todd Lincoln at a train depot in 1864 is an interesting story, and I’m all for telling people about it, but don’t use generative AI for your illustrations. Otherwise you get images like this where Robert Lincoln has an extra arm coming out of his ass. #NoAI

A Bluesky post about Edwin Booth saving the life of Robert Lincoln illustrated with terrible AI art. AI art is theft and completely soulless and I judge you for using it.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

The recruiting office for Black soldiers during the Civil War, Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Just sitting here thinking about what a Benjamin Butler presidency would look like.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

🧵1/8 On April 18, 1861 Nicholas Biddle, an escaped enslaved resident of Pottsville, PA, marched through Baltimore with the Washington Artillerists on their way to defend the capital from a rumored rebel attack. While marching, they were attacked by rebel sympathizers.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Interesting. Different because we don’t *depend* on hunting but the main reason my dad wanted to buy our cabin was because most of the land he grew up hunting on was either being conserved or privatized in some way. We had the means to purchase our own land but for many folks that’s not an option.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

“Gen. Robert E. Lee…is fighting to enslave the black man. To accomplish this hellish purpose, he kills the loyal soldiers of the nation and attempts the destruction of the nation’s life… How appropriate that Lee’s lands should be dedicated to two such noble purposes…”

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Happy to see that the Hickory Grove Cemetery Association fixed up Rev. Leonard Batchelor’s headstone, which had fallen off the base and luckily stayed intact. Batchelor was a radical abolitionist, Underground Railroad participant, and member of the Liberty Party here in Waverly.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

Need to get to Petersburg. The 22nd USCT demands it.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

As I try to bring the edited collection back to life, another project begins (just a working title)…

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Giving me Michael Scott vibes.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Think I have enough material to put together a whole presentation on the phrase “Sic Semper Tyrannis.” From a speech by Rev. A.L. Post of Montrose in response to John Brown’s hanging: “The ghost of Virginia’s State Seal…exclaiming ‘Sic Semper Tyrannis’…has sent terror throughout all Slaverydom.”

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

We’re currently looking into expanding our program to officially include the towns of Wilkes Barre, Montrose, and Towanda. The Endless Mountains Heritage Region covers Bradford, Sullivan, Susquehanna, and Wyoming Counties so Waverly is just outside of that…

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

“We must rightly comprehend the unparalleled wickedness of slavery, and the desperate determination with which it makes war on the Government, or we shall fail to deal with it as our security and peace demand…a more imperious oligarchy never ruled a government.”

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Any good ideas for saving my map? Made it through 12 years of teaching but couldn’t survive the one year I had to share my classroom with another teacher. Brought it with me to the new job because I thought it’d be useful for when we host school groups.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry began #OTD in 1859. Brown’s plan to arm and liberate the enslaved failed and he was convicted of treason and hung. A little over 5 years later the 55th Massachusetts marched through the streets of Charleston to the tune of “John Brown’s Body.”

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

“Robert E. Lee was a traitor to his country and the military leader of an armed rebellion against the government of the United States…if Robert E. Lee had received his just dues he would have been hanged and the scaffold preserved as a monument to his infamy.”

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

New book alert. This should be interesting.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Just stumbled upon this great photo of Lincoln’s funeral procession in Philadelphia. I wish they noted which military unit is shown along the street. I know the 24th USCT, which included a formerly enslaved Scranton resident, participated and I would love to know if it’s them.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Middle school me is very excited about this.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

Super excited to be partnering with Steamtown National Historic Site for my first official National Park Service program! This upcoming Friday I’ll be hopping aboard their “Scranton Limited” yard shuttle and discussing Civil War Scranton. Pumped.

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Reposted by EJ Murphy

Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

“…the longor you keep my Child from me the longor you will have to burn in hell and the qwicer youll get their…” Spotswood Rice, a Black soldier in the US Army, to a Missouri woman who held his daughter in slavery, #otd 1864

that the longor you keep my Child from me the longor you will have to burn in hell and the qwicer youll get their for

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Found an interesting local 1857 article titled “SLAVERY ABOLISHING ITSELF IN VIRGINIA.” It makes the claim that the Underground Railroad was so successful in helping slaves escape bondage that enslavers were selling their “property” in order to not take a loss.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

I’m doing some more research about Civil War era Binghamton and found this short article reporting on the fact that during the 1864 presidential election every town in Broome County, including Binghamton, gave a majority for Lincoln. “We call this a clean-sweeping Broome.”

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

This is my all-time favorite take on a potential McClellan administration, from the Pittston Gazette. “Worse than Buchanan Times.”

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

I don’t know how I functioned before double screen life.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

New job means new office which means having to choose which books make the office cut. Right now, this is what I got.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Had a chance to swing by our local PBS affiliate this morning for a preview of Ken Burns’ upcoming Revolutionary War documentary and to meet with local organizations & community leaders to help plan events for America250PA up here in the northeast. WVIA’s updated facility is incredible.

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Reposted by EJ Murphy

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 20/08/2025

from chandra manning's wonderful book "what this cruel war was over"

Nothing made slavery’s toxicity more obvious to Union troops than its effect on the fundamental unit of society, the family. For one thing, slave sales separated families. In the Upper South, where many Union soldiers were stationed in 1861, about one in three first marriages was broken by sale, and about half of all slave children were separated from at least one parent. 129 With their own eyes, soldiers saw slavery snap bonds between parents and children. The men of the Seventh Wisconsin were awakened by gunshots one November night. The following day, soldiers “learned, and saw the cause of the alarm in the form of two negro women—a mother and a daughter.” The pair had fled to Union lines to avoid the proposed sale of the “goodlooking” daughter into the so-called fancy trade, which soldiers viewed as a form of concubinage. Outraged by the plight and moved by the vulnerability of the mother and daughter, “every private in the ranks” cursed “that system which tramples on the honor of man, and makes merchandise of the virtue of women,” according to one member of the regiment. 130 When an Iowan encountered a young child about to be sold by her own father, who was also her master, he vowed, “By G–d I’ll fight till hell freezes over and then I’ll cut the ice and fight on.” 131

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

“Slavery was bad.” - me to tour groups & lecture attendees “We will support…such men & measures, only…most likely to bring about the immediate emancipation of every slave…and…we will favor the extension of the elective franchise…to other than ‘white male citizens.’” - local Liberty Party, 1845

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

Had some time to revisit this one today, courtesy of Smithsonian Books. A great collection of essays that dive into the history and myths surrounding the Underground Railroad.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

We have one of these extremely large maps for each day of the Battle of Gettysburg and I have no idea what to do with them. My gallery doesn’t have room for them and there’s nowhere to put them anywhere else in the building. Shame they’re just collecting dust.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

After 12+ years of working in education I am making the shift to working full time in public history & non-profit work as the Director of Advancement & Historical Programs at the Waverly Community House. I’ll get to grow our Underground Railroad program & work w/ amazing partners! Pumped.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

This has once again proven to be very useful as of late. Even though it was published in 2018 it still holds up, imo.

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Reposted by EJ Murphy

Rob Hanna @robhanna.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

I'm not worried about the likes, just gonna do a thread of Civil War opinions.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

A few snags from this weekend in Gettysburg. I grabbed copies of T. Morris Chester’s dispatches and @jgiesber.bsky.social’s study on formerly enslaved families searching for lost family members for the work library. Grabbed @irishacw.bsky.social and Jonathan Lande’s new books for me. Pumped.

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