American Art and Architecture Commons^™

Across The West And Toward The North: Norwegian And American Landscape Photography, Shannon Egan, Marthe Tolnes Fjellestad

Schmucker Art Catalogs

Across the West and Toward the North: Norwegian and American Landscape Photography examines images from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a historical moment when once remote wildernesses were first surveyed, catalogued, photographed, and developed on both sides of the Atlantic. The exhibition demonstrates how photographers in the two countries provided new ways of seeing the effects of mapping and exploration: infrastructure changes, the exploitation of natural resources, and the influx of tourism. As tourists and immigrants entered “new” lands—seemingly unsettled areas that had long been inhabited and utilized by Indigenous people in both countries—they “discovered” beautifully remote landscapes …

Painting Outside Of The Lines: How Race Assignment Can Be Rethought Through Art, Giovanni Mella-Velazquez

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

For centuries art has been used to make us think about our own human experiences. Unfortunately, works usually reflect the era which they were painted in; this has led to various artists showing, maintaining, and therefore reinforcing racist thoughts in our cultures. Art can be used to create a new narrative for our race assignments and their meanings. The idea of loving one's roots has been prevalent in many cultures, but in art form a disconnect between history and the everyday experience can arise which could miss the mark in helping us redefine our own race. Therefore, artwork which empowers …

Illusions Of Grandeurs: Washingtonian Architecture As Seen By White And Black People Of The Early Nineteenth Century, Lillian D. Shea

Student Publications

In the early nineteenth century, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson built a classically inspired capital designed to legitimize American republican ideals. White interpretations of the architecture gradually aligned more with the founders’ intentions, especially following its reconstruction after the 1814 conflagration. Enslaved and free black observers recognized their exclusion from the message of freedom and equality. Rather than finding their identity through federal buildings, they established their communities within churches, houses, and businesses owned by black people. The varied reactions to Washington’s and Jefferson’s designs demonstrated how the aesthetic idealization of republicanism revealed incongruities in the new capital.

The City: Art And The Urban Environment, Angelique J. Acevedo, Sidney N. Caccioppoli, Abigail A. Coakley, Chris J. Condon, Alyssa Dimaria, Carolyn Hauk, Lucas Kiesel, Noa Leibson, Erin E. O'Brien, Elise A. Quick, Sara E. Rinehart, Emily N. Roush, Shannon Egan

Schmucker Art Catalogs

The City: Art and the Urban Environment is the fifth annual exhibition curated by students enrolled in the Art History Methods class. This exhibition draws on the students’ newly developed expertise in art-historical methodologies and provides an opportunity for sustained research and an engaged curatorial experience. Working with a selection of paintings, prints, and photographs, students Angelique Acevedo ’19, Sidney Caccioppoli ’21, Abigail Coakley ’20, Chris Condon ’18, Alyssa DiMaria ’19, Carolyn Hauk ’21, Lucas Kiesel ’20, Noa Leibson ’20, Erin O’Brien ’19, Elise Quick ’21, Sara Rinehart ’19, and Emily Roush ’21 carefully consider depictions of the urban environment …

Fusing Both Arts To An Inseparable Unity: Frank O'Hara As A Visual Artist, Daniella M. Snyder

Student Publications

Frank O’Hara, a curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and a published poet in the 1950s and 60s, was an exemplary yet enigmatic figure in both the literary and art worlds. While he published poetry, wrote art criticism, and curated exhibitions—on Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, and Jackson Pollock—he also collaborated on numerous projects with visual artists, including Larry Rivers, Michael Goldberg, Grace Hartigan, Joe Brainard, Jane Freilicher, and Norman Bluhm. Scholars who study O’Hara fail to recognize his work with the aforementioned visual artists, only considering him a “Painterly Poet” or a “Poet Among Painters,” but …

Visual Culture Project: Confederate War Etchings: Searching For Arms By Adalbert Johann Volck, Lynn B. Hatcher

Student Publications

Adalbert Johann Volck’s 1861 sketch of Union soldiers, “Searching for Arms,” represents a substantial contribution to the narrative about gender relations during the American Civil War. This simple, small sketch offers the observer a window into the past. It is a collision of symbols and meaning—from gender to war to the household—all wrapped up in one image. This is a portrait sketch of a woman being invaded in her domestic, private sphere, revealing so much about gender relations during the time. The mistress herself seemed to embody a vast range of sentiments such as anger, fear, frailty, and strength, proving …

Bodies In Conflict: From Gettysburg To Iraq, Laura E. Bergin

Schmucker Art Catalogs

The exhibition Bodies in Conflict: From Gettysburg to Iraq not only conveys an ambitious geographic and historical range, but also reflects the sensitivity, ambition, and thoughtfulness of its curator, Laura Bergin ’17. In examining how the human figure is represented in prints and photographs of modern war and political conflict, Laura considers how journalistic photographs, artistic interpretations, and other visual documentation of conflict and its aftermath compare between wars and across historical periods. Specific objects include a print and photographs from the Civil War, propaganda posters from World Wars I and II, photographs and a protest poster from the Vietnam …

Art, Artifact, Archive: African American Experiences In The Nineteenth Century, Shannon Egan, Lauren H. Roedner, Diane Brennan, Maura B. Conley, Abigail B. Conner, Nicole A. Conte, Victoria Perez-Zetune, Savannah Rose, Kaylyn L. Sawyer, Caroline M. Wood, Zoe C. Yeoh

Schmucker Art Catalogs

Angelo Scarlato’s extraordinary and vast collection of art and artifacts related to the Civil War, and specifically to the Battle of Gettysburg, the United States Colored Troops, slavery and the African American struggle for emancipation, citizenship and freedom has proved to be an extraordinary resource for Gettysburg College students. The 2012-14 exhibition in Musselman Library’s Special Collections, curated by Lauren Roedner ’13, entitled Slaves, Soldiers, Citizens: African American Artifacts of the Civil War Era and its corresponding catalogue provided a powerful and comprehensive historical narrative of the period.

This fall, students in my course at Gettysburg College “Art and Public …

Ejecta, Anthony Cervino, Shannon Egan

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Co-authored with artist Anthony Cervino, this book was produced on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name at CulturalDC's Flashpoint Gallery in Washington, DC. The book is comprised of several curatorial essays as well as fictional and personal reflections, and an in-depth interview to examine issues of parenthood, professional successes, personal tragedies, and larger art-historical contexts.

Method And Meaning: Selections From The Gettysburg College Collection, Yan Sun, Shannon Callahan, Ashlie M. Cantele, Maura E. D'Amico, Xiyang Duan, Devin N. Garnick, Allison J. Gross, Emily A. Zbehlik

Schmucker Art Catalogs

What is art historical study and how it should be carried out are fundamental questions the exhibition Method and Meaning: Selections from the Gettysburg College Collection intends to answer. This student-curated exhibition is an exciting academic endeavor of seven students of art history majors and minors in the Art History Methods course. The seven student curators are Shannon Callahan, Ashlie Cantele, Maura D’Amico, Xiyang Duan, Devin Garnick, Allison Gross and Emily Zbehlik. As part of the class assignment, this exhibition allows the students to explore various art history methods on individual case studies. The selection of the works in the …

Notation And Memorandum: Special Artists And Their Portrayal Of The American Civil War, Bryan G. Caswell

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

As the first war to see the extensive use of photography, the American Civil War was brought home to civilians in hundreds of photographs portraying camp life or the aftermath of battles. Due to the nature of nineteenth century photography as well as safety concerns, however, photographers were not able to capture scenes of actual combat for their viewers. This task fell instead to men known as Special Artists or “Specials,” hired by the illustrated periodicals of the day to travel with the armies and sketch all manner of events associated with the military, including battles as they progressed. [ …

Satirizing Strife: Currier And Ives Political Cartoons, Megan A. Sutter

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Currier and Ives’ prints were a large part of the media during the Civil War era. Not only were Romantic prints sold and hung in people’s parlors, but cartoons were also very popular. It is important to remember that Currier and Ives’ goal was not to produce fine art, but to make a product that was attractive to middle-class consumers. Thus, political and social cartoons became a way to attract customers. They tried to stay away from controversial topics; however, their Darktown series was one of their best-selling series of the day. Today, the Darktown series is rarely displayed and …

A Living Image: Newspaper Sketches In The American Civil War, Bryan G. Caswell

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Photography: the ability to capture a moment in time exactly as it appeared, to then preserve it for posterity, even mass produce it for a wide viewership. A relatively new concept by the beginning of the American Civil War, photography quickly came into its own in the hands of such legends as Matthew Bray and Alexander Gardner as they sought to document the furious storm which had swept over the land. Photographs of the Civil War are prolific, and for many the memory of the conflict is intertwined with black-and-white photographs of unsmiling men and corpses bloating in the sun. …

For Those At Home: The Romantic Nature Of Civil War Lithography, Megan A. Sutter

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Lithography, the art of drawing on stone, was an important part of American Victorian culture during the Civil War. Not only did lithography provide news in pictorial form, but it also was widely displayed in the home. With the economic move from home to factory during the early 19th century, the home became more of a “sanctuary” in which women could decorate and display. [excerpt]

Judy Chicago: Visions For Feminist Art, Francesca Debiaso

Student Publications

Controversy, awe, and revelation distinguish Judy Chicago's now 40 year career in the art world. Chicago's large body of work is inseparable from her ideologies pertaining to women's crippling exclusion from male dominated disciplines within art, history, and society overall. Her work is characterized by a desire to establish feminine iconography ("central-core imagery") and create a feminist lexicon applicable to the arts as to validate and celebrate women's experience. Viewing her artwork as a tool for social change and dialogue, Chicago has incorporated collaboration and consciousness-raising into her art making process. Thus, her collaborators gain not only the participation of …

Adams County History 2011-2012

Adams County History

No abstract provided.

Shedding New Light On A Pennsylvania Painter: Finding "R. Fibich" And His Graveyard, Judith S. Pyle

Adams County History

The painting that would become known as the “York Springs Graveyard” (see cover illustration) was sold to Connecticut folk-art collectors Jean and Howard Lipman in about 1939 by Joe Kindig, an antiques dealer from York, PA. The 18” x 24” oil painting on canvas, of mid-nineteenth-century people and carriages at a cemetery, with cattle in the middle distance, is signed “R. Fibich.” The New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, NY, subsequently acquired the painting from the Lipmans. It was cleaned, documented, studied, and then exhibited at various venues including the Primitives Gallery of Harry Stone (1942); the Union College of …

Art+Politics, Shannon Egan, Jenna L. Birkenshock, Hillary B. Goodall, Tessa M. Sheridan, Josiah B. Adlon, Megan E. Hilands, Emily A. Francisco, Molly E. Reynolds, Shelby P. Glass, Colleen L. Parrish, Francesca S. Debiaso

Schmucker Art Catalogs

For the exhibition Art + Politics, students worked closely with the holdings of Gettysburg College's Special Collections and College Archives to curate an exhibition in Schmucker Art Gallery that engages with issues of public policy, activism, war, propaganda, and other critical socio-political themes. Each of the students worked diligently to contextualize the objects historically, politically, and art-historically. The art and artifacts presented in this exhibition reveal how various political events and social issues have been interpreted through various visual and printed materials, including posters, pins, illustrations, song sheets, as well as a Chinese shoe for bound feet. The students' …

George Croll Baum: Building A Greater Gettysburg, Abraham M. Apfel

Hidden in Plain Sight Projects

On November 16th, 1926 George Croll Baum died. In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania the local newspaper covered his death. The Gettysburgian, the paper for Gettysburg College reported that Henry W.A. Hanson, the college president, was “deeply distressed and further noted that Baum's death 'touched the hearts of all that knew him with deep regret.'" Within a month Dr. Hanson had already ordered three memorial plaques to be placed on the campus. Baum's family tried to help pay for them. Hanson refused the money. In a correspondence with Baum‟s brother about the plaques, Hanson told him, “What I did for your brother …

'Yet In A Primitive Condition': Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian, Shannon Egan

Art and Art History Faculty Publications

From 1907 to 1930, Edward S. Curtis created The North American Indian, a forty-volume edition of photographs and writings that he hoped would cover “every phase of Indian life of all tribes yet in a primitive condition.” All evidence indicates that he set out to make a singular and unified work of art. However, a comparative analysis of photographs made at different moments in this ambitious project reveals that The North American Indian ultimately is characterized not by stylistic and thematic unity but by significant shifts in aesthetic and political orientation. [excerpt]

Silent Doorway To The Past: “Vigil” Painting In Weidensall Hall, Elizabeth A. Appenzeller

Hidden in Plain Sight Projects

Every object has a story waiting to be told. There is one such artifact that hangs boldly on the mantle of the fireplace in Weidensall Hall its presence large and demanding. The plaque reads “‘The Vigil’ Presented in honor of Mrs. H.W.A. Hanson by the Altoona League.” The artist’s signature is absent from the painting. The painting acts as a window into the history of Gettysburg College. One cannot understand the history of “The Vigil” without knowing the story of the Woman’s League of Gettysburg College, or of Robert Weidensall and the Young Men’s Christian Association. “The Vigil” that hangs …

Gargoyles On Glatfelter Hall, Katherine D. Anthony

Hidden in Plain Sight Projects

When one walks around the campus of Gettysburg College, Glatfelter Hall towers above them, as one of the College’s most commanding edifices. One takes notice of the arched doorways, sunken windows, and the giant bell tower whose occupant chimes on the hour. What one may not notice are the eyes watching from the brownstone; faces and creatures at home in the stone, surveying your every move. Grotesques and gargoyles sit in the moldings, on the window sills and at the junction where roof and wall meet, hidden from the eye that does not have the compulsion to look. These architectural …

Adams County History 1995

Adams County History

No abstract provided.

Anatomy Of A Log House In Adams County, Pennsylvania And Its Unspoken Language, Elwood W. Christ

Adams County History

Sixteen years after the end of the Revolution, and on the eve of the formation of Adams county, the United States became embroiled in a "quasi-war" with France (1797-1801) which strained the federal treasury. As a result of the diplomatic disagreement, Congress approved several bills to fund America's military build-up. One of these, the U.S. Evaluation Tax of July 9, 1798, was signed into law to raise two million dollars in revenues. The direct or "window tax" was levied based on landholdings, buildings and the number of glass lights, and slaves-in essence, a federal property tax.

Although the "window tax" …