Skip to main content
A photo of the interior of the Schmucker Art Gallery with paintings on the walls.

Schmucker Art Gallery Exhibitions

An albumen silver print of Gettysburg Gatehouse, Gateway of Cemetery, Gettysburg, July 1863, from the Ron Perisho Collection, Special Collections and College Archives.

“A Great and Truthful Medium”: Photography at Gettysburg and Beyond, Selections from the Ron Perisho Collection at Gettysburg College

This exhibition celebrates Gettysburg College’s recent acquisition of nineteenth and early twentieth-century photographs of the battlefield and town of Gettysburg.

September 2 – December 5, 2026

 

 

 

 

Abraham Lincoln Cooper Union Engraving, 1859, carte de visite, on Loan from Ron Perisho.

"Uncle Abe": The Common Image of the Uncommon Man Curated by Devon Szczepkowicz ‘26

The exhibit “Uncle Abe”: The Common Image of the Uncommon Man explores the popular visual culture associated with Lincoln throughout, and beyond, his life.

September 2 - November 22, 2026

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Untitled painting, c. 1940s, acrylic on board, Historical Society of Woodstock

Making Her Mark: Fifty Women Artists of the Historic Woodstock Art Colony (Main Gallery)

Making Her Mark: Fifty Women Artists of the Historic Woodstock Art Colony Curated by Independent Scholar Bruce Weber Student researchers Adrianna Ashcraft ’26 and Audrey Blaszak ‘27.

January 28– April 11, 2026

 

 

 

 

Lithograph poster by Jon Whitcomb (American, 1906-1988), Be a Cadet Nurse, 1944, Special Collections and College Archives​, Gettysburg College.

Images of Women in Art: Identity, Female Gaze, and Power (Project Space)

Images of Women in Art: Identity, Female Gaze, and Power Curated by Gettysburg College students under the direction of Prof. Yan Sun December 3, 2025 – April 11, 2026

December 3, 2025 – April 11, 2026

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Offset lithograph by Li Hongyuan, Training the body for the revolution, March 1975.

The World Turned Upside Down: Posters from the Chinese Cultural Revolution (Project Space) Curated by Ava Prickman ‘28

Curated by Ava Prickman ‘28, the Spring 2025 Susan ’77 and Joseph Biernat ‘75 Intern, this exhibition features Chinese Cultural Revolution propaganda posters from Gettysburg College Special Collections.

September 3 - November 15, 2025

 

 

Exhibitions List

“A Great and Truthful Medium”: Photography at Gettysburg and Beyond, Selections from the Ron Perisho Collection at Gettysburg College

Exhibition details

An albumen silver print of Gettysburg Gatehouse, Gateway of Cemetery, Gettysburg, July 1863, from the Ron Perisho Collection, Special Collections and College Archives.
Timothy O’Sullivan (American, born Ireland, 1840-1882), negative, and Alexander Gardner (American, born Scotland, 1821-1882), positive, Gettysburg Gatehouse, Gateway of Cemetery, Gettysburg, July 1863, albumen silver print, Ron Perisho Collection, Special Collections and College Archives

This exhibition celebrates Gettysburg College’s recent acquisition of nineteenth and early twentieth-century photographs of the battlefield and town of Gettysburg.

September 2 – December 5, 2026

Location

Main Gallery

Reception

Gallery Talks, September 2, 2026, 4pm

 

Lecture

Multi-speaker symposium, October 24, 10am-3pm, Mara Hall, followed by a reception at the gallery until 4:30pm

 

Works on display

Included in this collection are the iconic images of the battle’s aftermath by Alexander Gardner, Timothy O’Sullivan, and James Gibson. Also included are less well-known images by photographers such as William H. Tipton, Charles and Isaac Tyson, Samuel Corlies, and Peter S. Weaver. The collection ranges in medium, encompassing albumen silver prints, tintypes, stereographs, and lantern slides. Accompanied by research from Gettysburg College students, this show explores the role of photography in documenting and circulating imagery of the battlefield both during and after the Civil War, and of how technology aids and shapes memory and memorialization.

 

"Uncle Abe": The Common Image of the Uncommon Man Curated by Devon Szczepkowicz ‘26

Exhibition details

Abraham Lincoln Cooper Union Engraving, 1859, carte de visite, on Loan from Ron Perisho.
Walter Greenoak Patterson (Scottish, active mid 19th century), after a carte de visite by Mathew Brady (American, 1823-1896), Abraham Lincoln Cooper Union Engraving, 1859, carte de visite, on Loan from Ron Perisho

The exhibit “Uncle Abe”: The Common Image of the Uncommon Man explores the popular visual culture associated with Lincoln throughout, and beyond, his life.

September 2 - November 22, 2026

Location

Project Space

Reception

September 2, 2026, 4-6pm

 

Lecture

Gallery Talk by Devon Szczepkowicz ‘26, the spring 2026 Susan ’77 and Joseph Biernat ‘75 Intern, September 2, 2026, 4pm
 

Works on display

The image of Abraham Lincoln evolved to be an iconic emblem of the nation’s commitment to the ideals of equality, progress, and liberty. The exhibit “Uncle Abe”: The Common Image of the Uncommon Man explores the popular visual culture associated with Lincoln throughout, and beyond, his life. This show considers how these representations have helped to shape the memory and mythology of Lincoln in the American consciousness. Lincoln forms a key component of the nation’s collective memory, and a close examination of his enduring image offers a reflection on how we think of our own identities as Americans.

Making Her Mark: Fifty Women Artists of the Historic Woodstock Art Colony (Main Gallery)

Exhibition details

Untitled painting, c. 1940s, acrylic on board, Historical Society of Woodstock
Image: Doris Lee (American, 1905-1983), Untitled, c. 1940s, acrylic on board, Historical Society of Woodstock

Making Her Mark: Fifty Women Artists of the Historic Woodstock Art Colony Curated by Independent Scholar Bruce Weber Student researchers Adrianna Ashcraft ’26 and Audrey Blaszak ‘27

January 28– April 11, 2026

Location

Main Gallery

Reception

January 28, 2026

 

Lecture

Gallery Talk by Curator Bruce Weber
January 28, 2026
Panel discussion, March 18, 4pm
followed by a reception until 6pm
 

Works on display

This exhibition celebrates the work of 50 women artists who were active in the historic Woodstock art colony. The paintings, drawings and prints are drawn from the permanent collection of the Historical Society of Woodstock, curated by independent scholar Bruce Weber. The display ranges from women who arrived during the first decades of the 20th century as students at the Art Student League’s Woodstock School of Landscape Painting to those who came in the wake of the end of the second World War through the 1970s, with subjects ranging from portraiture, landscapes, and still lifes to abstraction. The exhibition explores the American art colony movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century as an alternative space for women who desired a life outside of the mainstream.

Images of Women in Art: Identity, Female Gaze, and Power (Project Space)

Lithograph poster by Jon Whitcomb (American, 1906-1988), Be a Cadet Nurse, 1944, Special Collections and College Archives​, Gettysburg College.
Image: Jon Whitcomb (American, 1906-1988), Be a Cadet Nurse, 1944, lithograph poster, Special Collections and College Archives​, Gettysburg College

Exhibition details

Images of Women in Art: Identity, Female Gaze, and Power Curated by Gettysburg College students under the direction of Prof. Yan Sun December 3, 2025 – April 11, 2026

December 3, 2025 – April 11, 2026

Location

Project Space
 

Reception

Reception and Gallery Talks: December 3, 2025, 4-6pm

 

Works on display

Under the direction of Professor Yan Sun, student curators examine works by women artists in the East and West. The exhibition features prints, paintings, carvings, and photography.

The World Turned Upside Down: Posters from the Chinese Cultural Revolution (Project Space) Curated by Ava Prickman ‘28

Exhibition details

Offset lithograph by Li Hongyuan, Training the body for the revolution, March 1975.
Image: Li Hongyuan, Training the body for the revolution, March 1975, Offset lithograph

Curated by Ava Prickman ‘28, the Spring 2025 Susan ’77 and Joseph Biernat ‘75 Intern, this exhibition features Chinese Cultural Revolution propaganda posters from Gettysburg College Special Collections.

September 3 - November 15, 2025

Location

Project Space

Reception

September 3, 2025, 4-6pm

 

Lecture

Gallery Talk by Ava Prickman ‘28, the spring 2025 Susan ’77 and Joseph Biernat ‘75 Intern, September 3, 2025, 4pm

 

Footprints Across the Ocean: The Art of Gan Yu Student researchers Westley Rathbun ’27 and Md Nafisul Hasan Sami ‘27

Exhibition details

Image of The Dow Moments, Ink painting on hand-torn color mat boards, Jan – Aug 2025
Image: Gan Yu, The Dow Moments, Ink painting on hand-torn color mat boards, Jan – Aug 2025

This exhibition spans 45 years of the work of Chinese-American artist Gan Yu. In the artist’s words, the works reflect not only a distinctive artistic style and personal response to social changes, but also offer visual impressions of the world economy across its various cycles. Since 2007, Yu has devoted 18 years to exploring the stock market as a subject through 10 different series, exhibiting them across the globe. He sees the stock market as a visual distillation of contemporary politics, economics, technology, and culture. The U.S. stock market, in particular, serves as a barometer for the world economy. Yu believes global financial markets represent the largest piece of collective action art in human history. From New York to London, and from Hong Kong to Shanghai, markets operate in a continuous relay—day and night—never ceasing. This persistent activity electronically generates ever-evolving patterns on stock charts, creating a living visual record of the uneven trajectory of modern economic and social developments.

September 3 – December 6, 2025

Location

Main Gallery

Reception

September 3, 4-6pm

 

Lecture

Gallery Talks by Artist and Student Researcher, September 3, 2025, 4pm 
Panel discussion, October 29, 4pm, followed by a reception until 6pm

Visualizing the Civil War

Exhibition details

A painting of a Civil War battle.

Drawn primarily from Gettysburg College Special Collections and College Archives, this show features Civil War related visual culture from the 1860s through the 1938 75th reunion at Gettysburg. Curated by Students Danielle Russell ’25 and Jake Neff ’27.

May 30 – July 19, 2025 
NOTE SUMMER HOURS: Thursday through Saturday, 10am-4pm
Closed Friday, July 4

Location

Main Gallery

Source and Resource: Contemporary Artists Engage with History

Exhibition details

A painting by Kara Walker.

In this exhibition, works by contemporary artists will be paired with historical images that inspired their production. Pulled primarily from the Gettysburg College Art Collection with the addition of some significant loans, these pairings question how artists working in the 20th and 21st centuries interpret and reconfigure historical imagery to raise meaningful questions around shifting perceptions of race, gender and identity. Artists in the exhibition include Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, Carl Beam, Carrie Mae Weems, and Michael Scoggins, among others.

January 29 – April 12 2025

Location

Main Gallery

Reception

March 19, 2025, 4-6pm

Lecture

EVENT: Panel Discussion: “Questioning Representation, Past and Present”

March 19 at 4pm, with a reception to follow until 6pm. 

CAPSTONE 2025

Exhibition details

Senior studio art majors present their independent capstone work in a variety of media under the direction of Professor Tina Gebhart.

April 30 – May 17, 2025

Location

Main Gallery

Reception

April 30, 2025, 4-6pm

Lecture

EVENT: Gallery Talks and Opening Reception

April 30, 4pm with reception to follow until 6pm

The Art of Travel

Exhibition details

An oil on linen painting by Stephen Etnier.
Image: Stephen Etnier, The 8:14, 1953, oil on linen, Gettysburg College Art Collection

This exhibition, directed by Professor Yan Sun, explores the theme of travel through Eastern and Western art, featuring prints, paintings, carvings, and photography.

December 4, 2024 – April 12, 2025

Location

Project Space

Reception

December 4, 2024, 4-6pm

Lecture

 

Gallery Talks by Student Curators, December 4, 2024, 4pm

A Portrait of the Artist, 1525-1825: Prints from the Collection of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation

Exhibition details

Jean-Jacques de Boisseau, Self-Portrait, 1796
Image: Jean-Jacques de Boisseau, Self-Portrait, 1796, Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston

This exhibition was curated by Cyndy Basil, ’25, under the direction of Gallery Director Sarah Kate Gillespie, and Kolbe Summer Scholar Isobel Debenham, ’25, under the direction of Professor Felicia Else, Art History.
The show received support from the Provost’s Office, the Department of English, the Department of French, and the Program in Public History, Gettysburg College.

Click to Explore Prints from the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation

September 4 – December 14, 2024

Location

Main Gallery

Reception

September 4, 2024, 4-6pm

Lecture

Gallery Talks by Student Curators, September 4. 2024, 4pm 
“‘Extravagant genius’? A Portrait of the Artist,” by James Clifton, Director of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, September 18, 4pm, followed by a reception until 6pm

Works on display

Consisting of fifty-one prints on loan from the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, this exhibition examines how artists depicted themselves and their profession from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. The show includes artists such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Salvator Rosa, William Hogarth, Claude Lorrian, and Francisco Goya, among others. Created during a period when the social status of artists was in flux, the prints represent both artists’ lives and work, and the roles that both artists and the arts held in society. Full of allegory and rich in satire, the works include self-portraits, representations of artists at work, and exhibition and academy spaces.

Violet Oakley: A Message to the World from Pennsylvania

Exhibition details

Lincoln at Gettysburg, 1922, silkscreen print by Violet Oakley.

This exhibition features Violet Oakley's 1922 silkscreens depicting Pennsylvania's history and American unity.

September 4 – November 9, 2024

Location

Project Space

Reception

September 4, 2024, 4-6pm

Lecture

Gallery Talk by Sarah Louise Huebschen ’26, the spring 2024 Susan ’77 and Joseph Biernat ‘75 Intern, September 4. 2024, 4pm
 

Works on display

Curated by Sarah Louise Huebschen ’26, the spring 2024 Susan ’77 and Joseph Biernat ‘75 Intern, this exhibition features twelve prints by Pennsylvania artist Violet Oakley (1874-1961). Created in 1922, the silkscreens represent two cycles of her earlier murals located at the Pennsylvania State Capitol. The series for the Governor’s reception room depicts the history of the state, celebrating the principles of nonviolence, equality, and liberty of conscience Oakley admired. The second series is after Oakley’s murals in the Senate Chamber, titled “The Creation and Preservation of the Union.” These prints show scenes from American history, including President Lincoln at Gettysburg, as well as allegorical depictions of unity.

SENIOR CAPSTONE 2024

Exhibition details

This exhibition showcases senior studio art majors’ independent capstone projects in various media, curated under Prof. Austin Stiegemeier’s direction.

May 1 – 18, 2024

Location

Main Gallery

Reception

May 1, 4pm - 6pm

Lecture

Gallery Talks: May 1, 4pm

Works on display

Senior studio art majors present their independent capstone work in a variety of media under the direction of Prof. Austin Stiegemeier.

Ansel Adams: Manzanar

Exhibition details

Ansel Adams, Entrance to Manzanar, 1944-45, Gelatin Silver Print
mage: Ansel Adams, Entrance to Manzanar, 1944-45, Gelatin Silver Print, Collection of Ron Perisho

This exhibition features 50 prints from Ansel Adams’s 1943 Manzanar portfolio, documenting Japanese-Americans interned during WWII with portraits, daily life scenes, and the camp’s surroundings.

January 31 – April 13 2024

Location

Main Gallery

Reception

January 31, 4pm with reception to follow until 6pm

Lecture

Eisenhower Institute Lunch and Learn: February 21, 12-1pm

Works on display

In 1943, Ansel Adams (1902-1984), one of America's most well-known photographers, documented the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California and the Japanese-Americans interned there during World War II. The exhibition features 50 prints from Adams's Manzanar portfolio, which includes portraits, scenes of families working, sports and leisure activities, and details of the architecture and everyday life of the internees. The Manzanar War Relocation Center was located in Inyo County, California, at the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada mountains approximately 200 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Although Adams included images of the rugged scenery surrounding the camp in the portfolio, this series was a departure, both politically and aesthetically, from Adams’s better-known landscape photography.

When Adams offered his original prints and photographic negatives from this series to the Library of Congress, he explained, "The purpose of my work was to show how these people, suffering under a great injustice, and loss of property, businesses and professions, had overcome the sense of defeat and despair by building for themselves a vital community in an arid (but magnificent) environment .... All in all, I think this Manzanar Collection is an important historical document, and I trust it can be put to good use."

From Mountains to City: East Asian Landscapes

Exhibition details

This exhibition, under Prof. Yan Sun’s direction, examines diverse landscape depictions from China and Japan, featuring paintings, carvings, and prints that explore nature and industrialization.

December 6, 2023 – April 13, 2024

Location

Project Space

Reception

December 6, 4-6pm

Lecture

Gallery Talks : December 6, 4-6pm

Works on display

Under the direction of Prof. Yan Sun, student curators examine diverse depictions of landscapes from China and Japan. The selected works, including paintings on silk, ornate carvings in lapis lazuli, and prints, among others, offer meditations on nature and industrialization. Students consider the historical, material, aesthetic, and environmental significance of the works on display.

Reading Mary Margaret Stewart

Exhibition details

Image: Samuel Buck and Nathaniel Buck, The Southwest Prospect of the City of Chichester
Image: Samuel Buck and Nathaniel Buck, The Southwest Prospect of the City of Chichester

This exhibition, curated by Miriam Glatfelter ’24, explores literary themes in Mary Margaret Stewart’s art collection, featuring prints of authors and story-inspired works.

September 6 - November 11, 2023

Location

Project Space

Lecture

Gallery Talk, at Penn Hall Lyceum: September 13, 5pm, with reception to follow until 7pm

Works on display

Curated by Miriam Glatfelter ’24, the inaugural Susan ’77 and Joseph Biernat ‘75 Intern, this exhibition examines the literary themes in works of art from the collection of Mary Margaret Stewart (1931-2021), a beloved Professor Emerita of English at Gettysburg College (1959-1996). Reading Mary Margaret Stewart features prints of notable authors, including Virginia Woolf and Edgar Alan Poe, as well as works that allude to stories, such as Mark Twain’s “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” Glatfelter not only considers these various references to fiction and poetry, but she also invites the viewer to read the works in the context of Stewart’s own scholarly pursuits and love of art.

Drawing on the Susquehanna

Exhibition details

Image: Thomas Doughty (American, 1793-1856), Valley of the Susquehanna, oil on canvas, c. 1830s
Image: Thomas Doughty (American, 1793-1856), Valley of the Susquehanna, oil on canvas, c. 1830s

Curated by Rob Evans, the exhibition Drawing on the Susquehanna features eighteenth- and nineteenth-century prints, paintings, books, and objects that examine the history and significance of the Susquehanna River on art and culture. While artists were interested in presenting the economic opportunities of the river and the surrounding environment for settlement and expansion, they also were drawn to the picturesque beauty of the landscape, with rolling hills and majestic trees cradling the bends and curves of the water.

September 6 – December 8, 2023

Works on display

Several works on display provide evidence of the larger commercial market for these images, as the landscapes appeared in maps, books, portfolios, journals, magazines, newspapers, and decorated china. The artists and publishers helped to “sell” the Susquehanna, making it one of the most well-known rivers worldwide along with its sister east coast river, the Hudson. While some of the images focus on seemingly “wild,” pristine landscapes, many of the depictions celebrate new infrastructure in the environment, such as bridges, ferries, and railroad tracks. Ultimately, the river inspired artists, writers, and poets, but the place also reflects a complicated history and more nuanced sense of place.

Additional interpretation of these works of art, particularly the history and perspectives of Indigenous peoples, is provided by Hannah Vaccaro ’24, Kolbe Summer Scholar, Gettysburg College, under the direction of Prof. Stephanie Sellers, English, Native American Studies, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Adams County Arts Council 19th Annual Juried Art Exhibition

Let’s Play! Sports and Games in Art and Culture

LANDMARK: Landscape Photography in the Arab World MANAL ABU-SHAHEEN and AISHA MERSHANI

Frederick Wright Jones: Pantheon

Juried Student Exhibition

CAPSTONE 2023 Senior Studio Art Majors Exhibition

Ready to Do Great Work?

Sock