From civil war relics to the two world wars, and from JFK to the king of rock, the Gettysburg Museum of History has it all. Owner Erik Dorr opened the museum six years ago. “We cover all eras of American history and like I always say I never wanted to be a Gettysburg history museum. I wanted to be a history museum in the town of Gettysburg.” His love of history and his collection began many years before, when his grandparents found a box of civil war relics in their basement. “Different people connect to history in different ways. The way I connected was through the objects that the soldiers actually touched and used. So I became a collector.” Among those items a Confederate pistol left on his great grandfather’s kitchen table when Dorr’s relatives fled the fighting in July of 1863. “It was just such an object of fascination for me. If I could say one item ignited my passion for the civil war it`s that gun.”
Dorr’s passion and knowledge captured the attention of a production company with the History Channel. He was invited to be part of the television show ‘American Pickers’ for civil war week. Dorr gave pickers Frank Fritz and Mike Wolf an obtainable list of civil war items for his museum. “So I asked for like a carbine rifle and a hat and just a few items that I knew were good items but they are out there.” Those items are now proudly displayed in the museum including a civil war frock coat. “It has some initials and information. Through my research I was able to find out who wore that coat so it turned out to be much better piece than we initially thought.” That successful appearance led to a call from the producers of the History Channel show ‘Pawn Stars’. “So I`m one of two or three reoccurring sellers. I`m a character on the show. I`m an established character and I go out and sell items, and we do sell items here. We are a private museum so I do sell items once in a while to buy something else.”
The appearances have given him and his museum tremendous national exposure. “You know I`ve done many shows. I mean I`ve done 19 shows. And really Pawn Stars and the American Pickers have helped me out the most. Pawn Stars is shown constantly. With those few episodes that I`ve done, I`m probably on TV once a week.” At a time when museums are closing doors, Dorr has figured out a way to stay open and stay relevant through buying and selling artifacts on his website, through EBay auctions, and with the constant attention he gets from his national TV appearances. “I’ve found this way, this business model of keeping it free and having the gift shop and doing the donations and using television to promote myself so I don`t have to spend a lot of money on advertising and it seems so far to be working.”
For more on the museum click here
Check out the museum’s Facebook page
