Today we look at another FAQ and consider the question, “How did you end up here?” (For our previous FAQ on what inspired us to make our cats, click here.)

When we began making our Civil War cats in 1995, they were just toys. We would have them fight our other toys and even wrote stories based off of the elaborate battles, campaigns, and adventures that “our guys” had. Then, in 1998, we began setting them up in scenes which, in time, developed into dioramas.

In high school, we taught lessons on the Civil War to other homeschooled students. The children really enjoyed seeing the dioramas that we used as visual aids. We also began working at a local retirement community. While the details are lost to time, somehow we arranged to bring our dioramas in to display for the residents for an afternoon. It became a yearly event, and the residents loved seeing our dioramas. Every year, one resident in particular, Helen, suggested, “You should take these into schools!” We would just laugh and joke, “You want to be our agent and contact the schools?”

In 2012, we decided to seriously consider Helen’s idea. As it turned out, that was also the year that Rebecca dropped one of the six sections of “The Fate of Gettysburg” in the truck while unloading it, and many of the cats, along with their fallen hats and guns, rolled off! By that year, we also had Fort Sumter (which is very heavy) and knew that the planned Little Round Top would be a massive eleven feet long. So, we concluded that not only is transportation hard on the cats, but, quite frankly, the dioramas wouldn’t fit in a classroom! Not to mention that it took us a couple hours to set up the display and a couple more to break it down. So we thought, “Maybe the kids should come to the dioramas instead.” Shortly afterward, Rebecca began poking around real estate listings, just to see what was in Gettysburg. Why Gettysburg when we were in the Philadelphia area? Well, it’s a no-brainer location for a Civil War museum and, conveniently, it is Rebecca’s favorite battlefield. In April of 2013, our Civil War cats made the 100-mile trek down the PA Turnpike to their new home.

Civil War Tails would not be possible without the support of our parents over the years—from encouraging our imaginations as kids to supporting us in our crazy idea to move out here to open a cat diorama museum! And for (still) chipping in their time, resources, and skills when we need help with the dioramas and museum.

This also would not have come about if not for the enthusiasm of the students and residents who absolutely loved seeing our little clay cat dioramas. Their reactions showed us that people would enjoy seeing our work and helped us to believe that the museum would be a success. From our early days of making cats, we labeled their storage boxes with “Clay Civil War Cat Museum.” But could such a thing really happen? Could we own a museum? Nah! Well, Helen’s persistent comment each and every year prompted us to… start a museum!

A big thank you to all of you who have come to Civil War Tails or have followed us on social media, confirming that the students and residents were right. We are looking forward to 2025, when we will celebrate 30 years of Civil War cats and 10 years of Civil War Tails! We have been encouraged and touched by the interactions with and reactions of thousands of you, our visitors. And we have enjoyed inspiring many of you and your children to learn more or create more.

Yes, our eleven-year-old selves had no idea what we were starting with those first few clay cats!