Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Mitch McConnell’s triumphant return to the office. 091
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Much has changed over the last year, for good and for bad. What’s stayed constant is our love and a mutual desire to go off the grid, if at least for a few days. We’ve set the bar pretty high for our first wedding anniversary. Here’s to many more. 0111
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Happy 110th Birthday to the National Park Service! It’s an honor to be a part of this agency which, since its founding in 1916, has preserved and interpreted our public lands, ensuring they remain “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” Let’s keep it that way. 1182
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 11/08/2026On the anniversary of his death I’ll say it again: In a world of John C. Calhouns, be a Thaddeus Stevens. 0307
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 01/08/2026On World Ranger Day we recognize those who protect and interpret our natural, historical, and cultural resources around the globe for this and future generations. It’s been an honor to serve among so many talented and passionate colleagues and friends; I hope we get to do so for many years to come. 1328
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 30/07/2026On July 30, 1866 white police officers and ex-Confederates murdered at least 34 Black freedmen in New Orleans as they peacefully assembled in support of the Louisiana Constitutional Convention. www.nps.gov/articles/000... 192
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 17/07/2026The world is on fire, a baby tyrant is in office, and lettuce is giving us the shits… but the spirit of Mr. Rogers is still alive and well. 0110
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 17/07/2026A view of Pittsburgh from Coal Hill. Mark Twain had a similar perspective in 1884, noting “we sauntered about the mount, and looked down on the lake of fire and flame. It looked like a miniature hell with the lid off.“ 3187
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 14/07/2026The feeling of enrolling for my final semester at @gettysburgcollege.bsky.social & @gliamericanhistory.bsky.social. A master’s thesis is loading… 1181
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 11/07/2026Corporal Harry Curry, who guarded the colors of the 155th Pennsylvania Infantry as his regiment repelled Confederate attacks against Little Round Top on July 2, 1863. He returned home to Pittsburgh after the Civil War, where he became a business partner of Andrew Carnegie. 1211
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 09/07/2026When the park is running low on brochures and we’re waiting on additional funding… 190
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 04/07/2026As we continuously face adversity and opposition to sharing a complete national history, on this 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding, I’m continuously encouraged by voices of the past. 081
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 04/07/2026Me being designated acting supervisor on July 4 weekend: 2191
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 04/07/2026For the first time, likely since the dedication of his regiment’s monument, Lt. Isaac Sowers’s likeness returns to the battlefield of Gettysburg, where the 9th Pennsylvania Reserves huddled near a stone wall between July 2-3, 1863. 0120
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 04/07/2026It’s been a long day, and an especially long year, but connecting with a landscape such as this, and at such an important time, is a stark reminder that there is much work left to be done. 1142
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 02/07/2026Just casually videobombing Pennsylvania Cable Network’s annual Gettysburg Battlefield Walk program. 1121
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 30/06/2026I know swearing in the research room is frowned upon, but it’s not every day you get to handle a 163-year-old document signed by Abe Lincoln. 1304616353
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 28/06/2026On June 27, 2015, 10 days after a white supremacist murdered 9 Black members of Charleston’s Mother Emanuel AME Church, Bree Newsome scaled a flagpole in front of the South Carolina State House and removed a Confederate flag that had hung on the grounds since 1961. 🧵 1/4 23713
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 24/06/2026There’s a war on intellectualism and the idiots seem to be winning. 0152
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 13/05/2026Robert Smalls and 15 enslaved people emancipated themselves against impossible odds on May 12, 1862, escaping on a confiscated Confederate vessel under the cover of darkness in Charleston Harbor. On May 13 they lived their first day as freed people. 14310
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 09/05/2026“I had been an abolitionist too long, and had known and loved John Brown too well, not to feel a thrill of joy at last on finding myself in the position where he only wished to be.” -Colonel Thomas W. Higginson, who died on the 111th anniversary of his friend’s birthday 091
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 04/05/2026“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” -Mark Twain, 1869 0122
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 02/05/2026That’s a wrap on Spring 2026. My final full semester of the Gettysburg College/Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Master’s Program has come to an end, and a beer is in order. With my thesis slated for the autumn, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. 4291
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 01/05/2026Between May 1-3, 1866 a mob of white supremacists, led by local police, attacked the Black community surrounding Fort Pickering in Memphis, Tennessee. An estimated 46 Black residents were murdered while 4 churches, 12 schools, and 91 homes had been burned. 🧵 1/3 1168
Reposted by Rich CondonKevin M. Levin @civilwarmemory.bsky.social · 30/04/2026Jim Crow Didn't Die. It Went to Law School. #CivilWarMemory open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...open.substack.comJim Crow Didn't Die. It Went to Law School.The attempt to return Confederate monuments, the erasure of Black history, and today's Supreme Court ruling aren't coincidences. They're a coordinated campaign 171521467
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 30/04/2026Today marks eight years with the National Park Service, and it’s been the honor of my life. It feels like just yesterday I was donning my first flat hat as a seasonal park ranger at Flight 93 National Memorial. I’ve been sharing ranger points and historical anecdotes ever since. 0232
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 25/04/2026An evening battlefield stroll is good for the soul. 0170
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 23/04/2026The priority of entertainment over education during the NFL draft speaks volumes about the state of the nation. A250 is marked by bread and circus. 249115
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 13/04/2026On April 13, 1873 over 100 Black Americans were murdered by white supremacists near Colfax, Louisiana. The massacre was among the most devastating acts of race-driven terrorism during Reconstruction, though memory of what white Southerners called a “riot” has since been hotly contested. 253
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 12/04/2026On April 12, 1861 Confederates fired on the US garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston, sparking a long and bloody Civil War. On the 3rd anniversary of the attack Confederates massacred Black US Army soldiers at Fort Pillow, violently demonstrating the root cause of the conflict. 141
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 12/04/2026On April 13, 1862, two days after US troops captured Savannah’s Fort Pulaski, General David Hunter issued Orders No. 7 declaring all “persons of color lately held to involuntary service by enemies of the United States in Fort Pulaski…hereby confiscated and… free…” 072
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 09/04/2026Happy Appomattox Day to all who celebrate, and even those who don’t. 1378
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 09/04/2026Soon thousands of NFL Draft attendees will converge upon my hometown of Pittsburgh; most who are unfamiliar with our drivers and roadways. Let God sort ‘em out. 492
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 01/04/2026I pass this monument every day; each time considering the legacy of Thaddeus Stevens and those who fought to bring freedom and citizenship to millions of Americans. Their work is still enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. 1252
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 01/04/2026The stack is ever-growing. One month left of the Spring 2026 semester! 4170
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 29/03/2026Last week we scattered the remains of my father in a place that meant the world to him. It was a bittersweet and cathartic experience that was seven years in the making. 1160
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 27/03/2026I’d never thought to use primary sources for historical research. Very cool. 1171578108
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 17/03/2026Happy St. Patrick’s Day from Grandpa James W. Condon of County Limerick (bottom left). Like so many immigrants before and after him, James came to this country in 1848 searching for a better life. 🇮🇪 0141
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 16/03/2026Sure, Washington Irving is cool, but have you tried Carl Schurz? 2102
Rich Condon @richcondon.bsky.social · 14/03/2026If you want to know how the general population will react in the event of catastrophe and uncertainty, look no further than a National Park parking area on a semi-busy weekend.media.tenor.coma man wearing a pair of goggles looks at the camera with his mouth openALT: a man wearing a pair of goggles looks at the camera with his mouth open 070
