By Kiltie Tompkins
In a $1-million project, Washington & Lee University's historic Lee Chapel museum will undergo an exhibit reinstallation that will keep it closed through the end of May.
The museum, located in the basement of Lee Chapel, contains Robert E. Lee's office, as furnished it was during his college presidency from 1865 to 1870, as well as two exhibit rooms with mostly W&L-owned paintings and artifacts, and a museum gift store.
The original 2007 plan for the museum was to make changes to Lee's office, which lacks wall panels describing its contents and does not provide adequate standing space for viewing.
But the project has expanded to include changes throughout the museum's exhibits, prompted in part by Lee's 200th birthday on Jan. 19, said Lee Chapel and museum Director Pat Hobbs. The Virginia Historical Society, the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar, and Mount Vernon are among the museums that have requested loans from the Lee museum for their own Lee exhibits. Replacing these collection items is not easy, so reorganization is necessary to keep the flow of the 1997 exhibit design, Hobbs said.
The museum was last renovated from 1997 to 1998 under the direction of former director of W&L's Reeves Center, Tom Litzenberg. At that time, the school installed new lighting with state of the art fiber optics, temperature controls, a new security system, and new case work. History professors Holt Merchant and Taylor Sanders designed the 1997 exhibit to be a storyline weaving together the Washington, Custis and Lee families. The new exhibit will build on that design, Hobbs said.
"We decided to take the excellent work done in 1997 and expand it one step further to illustrate the educational contributions of George Washington and Robert E. Lee not only to this university, but to the nation at large."
The foundation of the journalism department in 1925 was to honor Lee's effort to educate printers 55 years earlier, the first such program in history. Lee also introduced business classes that led to the creation of the commerce school. He helped then-Washington College acquire the orrery that had been on display at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1867. A three-dimensional model of the sun and planets that dates between 1845 and 1867, the planetarium was immediately put to use in the college's new class in astronomy. It was used for W&L science classes until the 1990s, when it was put into storage. The orrery will be placed at the center of the new exhibit.
"It illustrates the science and technology of the period," Hobbs said. "It [is] a primary example of the practical or 'useful' education that Lee and his faculty espoused - which was a shift away from the classical education that was taught at Washington College prior to the Civil War."
The museum currently attracts about 55,000 visitors per year, but Hobbs said she expects that number to increase after the reinstallation is completed. Part of this increase will come from more interest from the elementary school community, Hobbs said.
The museum's reinstallation is not the only thing that will reach out to schools. The $1 million used for the exhibit is part of a $6-million campaign designed to create an endowment for the preservation of the Museum and Chapel. W&L Director of Special Events Ronni Gardner said the money will help bring in speakers, create programs for public education, and possibly allow for the hiring of a curator to teach school children about the exhibits.
For the fundraising effort, Gardner said the school has turned to alumni with a particular interest in Lee, but has also looked beyond the W&L family to Lee scholars who travel to Lexington often.
"Broadening the donor base makes this fundraising effort different from others," Gardner said.
Gardner said the school has raised half of the $1 million for the museum, and that the class of 1982 has decided to make that portion of the campaign their class gift to W&L. The class of 1957 has chosen to contribute to the $5 million endowment as their class gift.
The fact that the W&L community is reaching out to help with the campaign comes as no surprise to Gardner, as Lee's legacy of honor and virtue is something that many students take with them when they graduate.
"Fundraising is a way to perpetuate the bonds of tradition that are formed amongst W&L alums," she said.
The $1 million renovation project includes:
- Improving the standing space for visitors in Robert E. Lee's office
- Creating informative wall panels to describe the contents of Lee's office
- Expanding the design of the current exhibits to illustrate George Washington and Robert E. Lee's contributions to the nation
- Adding a model planetarium, acquired by Lee in 1867, to the exhibit
The renovations are part of a $6 million campaign for the preservation of the Museum and Chapel.
Produced by Washington and Lee journalism students.
Lead supervisor: Prof. Claudette Artwick
Reporting supervisors:
Technical supervisor: Michael Todd