After enjoying the grounds and artworks at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, take some time to explore nearby Woodstock/Albert Bierstadt painting of the Tetons via NPS

The next you find yourself in Vermont to visit Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, be sure to spend a little time checking out Woodstock. And to help you on your exploration of the town, pick up the 32-page New Birth of Freedom: A Walk Through the Civil War Home Front in Woodstock, Vermont, at the park.

The historical park itself is a great place to gain a better understanding of the United States' conservation movement. 

"There is a mandate to invent an entirely new kind of park. It must be one where the human stories and the natural history are intertwined; where the relatively small acreage serves as an educational resource for the entire National Park Service and a seedbed for American environmental thought; and where the legacy of American conservation and its future enter into dialogue, generating a new environmental paradigm for our day." -- Author and professor John Elder at the opening of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, June 5, 1998.

After you've learned a bit about George Perkins Marsh, author of Man and Nature, Frederick Billings, who built on the "land-management principles" espoused by Marsh, and the role Laurance and Mary Rockefeller had in the national parks movement, head into downtown Woodstock with the booklet that will guide you on a walking tour through the town's Civil War connections.

Woodstock was home to the state's chief military administrative officer, the adjutant general, making it the center of Vermont's war effort. Woodstock was also home to several other important figures during the war '“ Senator Jacob Collamer, one of President Lincoln's key allies in the senate; George Perkins Marsh, the minister to Italy during the war, who helped keep European nations from supporting the Confederate cause; Frederick Billings, who raised impressive sums of money for the Sanitary Commission to improve the lives of soldiers; and eleven African American soldiers who fought with the famed Massachusetts 54th Regiment. The impact of the Civil War on the concept of public lands and conservation is also explored.

The booklet is the recipient of the National Association for Interpreters 2014 Media Award in the book category. It was designed by Wood Ronsaville Harlan, Inc. and written by Jill Jasuta, was completed through a project agreement with Harpers Ferry Center, and previously, won the first place Blue Pencil 2014 award for a soft or hardcover book from the National Association of Government Communicators.