Medical aspects of Civil War to be discussed Tuesday

A presentation on “W.W. Keen’s Civil War” is scheduled at the February meeting of the Colonel Henry Ryerson Civil War Round Table at Sussex County Community College.

The meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21 in the Performing Arts Center’s second-floor Atrium Room, College Hill Road, Newton. An elevator is available.

Admission is free; donations appreciated.

Peter Miele, executive director of Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center in Gettysburg, Pa., will discuss the experiences of William Williams Keen, a young medical student when the Civil War erupted. Untested and untrained, he was thrown into treating suffering soldiers at the First Battle of Bull Run. Four years later, he emerged from the crucible of war as a pioneer in treating injuries of the nervous system.

In his lifetime, Keen worked with six American presidents.

Miele also is president of the Seminary Ridge Historic Preservation Foundation.

Born and raised in northern New Jersey, he received his bachelor’s degree in history and secondary education from Ramapo College in 2011. In 2013, he moved to Gettysburg and earned his master’s in applied history from Shippensburg University in 2014. In the fall of 2021, he began coursework for a doctorate in American studies at Pennsylvania State University, focusing on museum studies and 19th-century American history.

Miele began his career as an educator in the Northern Valley School District in Old Tappan and Demarest, N.J., teaching American History, World History and American Studies. He later moved into the field of public history, starting as a visitor services assistant at the Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center in 2013.

Since then, he has served as Visitor Services coordinator, director of education and museum operations and, most recently, chief operating officer and director of education.

During his tenure at Seminary Ridge Museum, he has served as the primary architect of the visitor experience, constructing an educational and interpretive program that has helped thousands of visitors gain a deeper understanding of the Civil War and its legacy.

He recently oversaw the transformation of the museum’s changing exhibit gallery into the Lydia Ziegler Clare Education Center, a 16-person flexible classroom space on the first floor of the museum with the capacity to engage digitally with individuals and groups all over the world.

In addition to museum work, Miele is vice president of the Civil War Roundtable of Gettysburg and treasurer of Main Street Gettysburg. In 2016 and 2018, he served as an adjunct instructor for Shippensburg University’s History/Philosophy Department.

A frequent lecturer, he has presented at national conferences of the Society of Civil War Historians, American Association of State and Local History, National Council for the Social Studies, and American Battlefield Trust. His essay, “Men, Morality, and Misbehavior: A Social Study of the World War I Camps at Gettysburg and the Town that Surrounded Them, 1917-1918” was included in “Duty Calls at Home: Central Pennsylvania Responds to the Great War” (Shippensburg University Center for Applied History, 2014).

He is working on a research project that situates the Gettysburg Campaign in the context of a humanitarian crisis.

Planned for upcoming meetings of the Colonel Henry Ryerson Civil War Round Table:

• March 21: Brad Gottfried, “The Antietam Paintings of James B. Hope.”

• April 18: Pete Zablocki, “The Cumberland Disaster.”

• May 6: Spring Tour, Eric Lindblade, licensed guide, “General James Longstreet at Gettysburg.”

• May 16: Patrick Falci, “The Making of the Movie Gettysburg” (dinner meeting).

The Colonel Henry Ryerson Civil War Round Table provides educational programs, tours and fellowship for individuals interested in the Civil War era. Meetings are free and open to the public. For information, please call Jennifer at 201-320-5989 during the day.