What is the A.L.B.G.?
A few days after the armies left the smoldering
battlefield of Gettysburg in July, 1863, local residents began to guide
curiosity seekers and grieving family members through the sites
associated with the recent conflict. Over the last decades of
the
19th century many individuals took up guiding as veterans and visitors
from around the world arrived at what was fast developing as the
premier battlefield park commemorating the American Civil War.
Shortly
after the Federal Government instituted a testing process to regulate the quality of the existing battlefield
guides in the summer
of 1915, these newly licensed guides met to establish an organization
providing a common voice in promoting guide services and improving the
quality of the visitor's experience. The A.L.B.G. is now incorporated
in the State of Pennsylvania as a 501 (C)
(6)
non-profit organization with the mission of improving the quality of
the battlefield guide and promoting the benefits of a
licensed guided tour of this and other battlefields of the American
Civil War.
Today, more than one hundred Association
guides conduct thousands of visitors around Gettysburg and other
battlefields of the Civil War each year.
There
are many other internet based, self-proclaimed "battlefield guides" out
there
with more popping up every year. If your guide of the Gettysburg
battlefield does not wear the official uniform or does not wear the
official guide badge depicted on every page of this website then he/she
is NOT a sanctioned
battlefield guide.
Choose
the oldest, most
experienced and the ONLY guides tested, licensed by the federal
government AND legally
authorized to conduct tours of the Gettysburg National Military
Park!!
Code
of Federal Regulations Title 36, Chapter 1, Part 25, Section 25.2,
Subsection (a): "No person shall be permitted to offer his services or
to act as a guide unless licensed for that purpose by the
superintendent..."
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