The Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College is a non-profit organization created to promote the study of the American Civil War Era. The Institute was founded in 1982 by historian and Gettysburg College professor Gabor Boritt, an Abraham Lincoln and American Civil War scholar. The current director is Peter S. Carmichael. The Institute helps coordinate a number of Civil War-related events, including the Lincoln Prize, the Michael Shaara Prize, the Robert Fortenbaugh Memorial Lecture, annual programming designed to commemorate Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, as well as a week-long summer conference that hosts 300 participants annually. In 2007, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell named the Civil War Institute the administrative head of the Pennsylvania Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commi