Musselman Library Exhibits

Main Level Window Bays

The posters in this series focus on parts of the Gettysburg College story that have been minimized or neglected altogether in previous histories – particularly with respect to underrepresented groups, issues, and activisms. Based on sometimes incomplete sources, they represent imperfect knowledge and are not comprehensive. They are a beginning, not an ending.

For that reason, we invite your feedback – corrections, additional information, people and events not pictured. We also invite contributions of relevant documents, photos, etc. to the College Archives, or via our digital repository, “What We Did Here: Activism at Gettysburg College.”

The story of change at Gettysburg is being written every day. You can help write it!

Additional resources:

• Gettysburg College: A Diversity Story: library-supported student project on the diversification of Gettysburg College
• This is Why We Fight: Student Activism at Gettysburg College: library-supported student project on student activism at Gettysburg College
• College and Community in Adams County: examines the evolution of service partnerships between Gettysburg College and the local community

Library Stair Tower Gallery

How do you move an academic library? With 1,350 campus volunteers “walking” the books!

On April 22, 1981, faculty, staff, students and even College President Charles Glassick carried the entire collection of 180,000 books from the old Schmucker Library across the campus to Musselman Library. This exhibit’s images tell the story.

Forty years later, Musselman Library’s collection has expanded to include formats never dreamed of in 1981, when desktop computers were new and ebooks and databases were the realm of science fiction.

Join Musselman Library in celebrating its 40^th anniversary. This exhibit is also available to view online.

What are elevator wraps?  Elevator wraps are graphic images that adhere to the outside (and sometimes the inside) of elevator doors.  They are also referred to as “elevator door skins.”  Sometimes the wraps are in the form of an advertisement.

Our new Musselman Library elevator wraps are custom made—all the images, from the lower level to the fourth level, are from our own Special Collections & College Archives.  Here is what you will see on each floor:

Fourth Level Elevator Wrap

Paradise Lost: a Poem, in Twelve Books by John Milton, 1808
Gift of Wilton C. Dinges

Third Level Elevator Wrap

"The Superb Lily," hand colored and color printed mezzotint plate from The Temple of Flora by Robert Thornton, 1799
Gift of Geoffrey Jackson, Class of 1991

Second Level Elevator Wrap

"The Great Wave off Kanagawa," woodblock print from the View of Mount Fuji series by Hokusai Katsushika, ca. 1829-1833
From the estate of Professor Frank Kramer, Class of 1914

Main Level Elevator Wrap

"The Carolina Parrot," chromolithographic print from Birds of America by John James Audubon, Bien edition, 1860
Gift of Geoffrey Jackson, Class of 1991

Lower Level Elevator Wrap

Pair of jade temple altar cranes from China, ca.1661-1722
Gift of Mildred Tabor Keally

Library Main Level

Humans have been gazing upon the stars since ancient times. Musselman Library’s Stargazing exhibit takes you from Mayan astronomers in 3114 BCE, to Gettysburg College’s first observatory and guest registry of 1874, to the present day selection of Special Collections “heavenly” rare books, many formerly in the collection of Laurence Marschall, Professor of Physics, Emeritus. The Stargazing exhibit, located in five display cases on the main level by the apse, will be available to view now through the end of the spring 2021 semester.

Library Apse, Main Level

This photography exhibit features a collection of images taken by Stephen Warner, Class of 1968, during the Vietnam War. The photographs and text on display are select reproductions from a collection of photographs, negatives, notebooks, diaries, and letters created by Warner. They were bequeathed to Gettysburg College by Warner, upon his death in Vietnam in 1971. View the exhibit photos and the entire Warner collection online in the Special Collections & College Archives Digital Collections.