A Monument to Culture and Achievement: The Samurai Suit of Armor and Katana at Gettysburg College

Of the many artifacts found in Gettysburg College’s Musselman library, perhaps the most unusual and seemingly out of place may be the centuries-old replica of a samurai suit and katana standing guard over visitors and students from an oversized glass case on the first floor. Though hard to miss, their connection with Gettysburg College is not so obvious. A plaque located below the suit reads, “Samurai Armor and Warrior Katana; Late 19th Century; Gift of Major General Charles A. Willoughby; Class of 1914.” These artifacts represent hundreds of years of the ancient Samurai tradition in Japan, a crucial element of traditional Japanese culture and history that experienced a resurgence even within the twentieth century. They also symbolize relations between the United States and Japan during and after World War II as narrated by Major General Charles A. Willoughby, Chief of Intelligence under Douglas MacArthur. How and why Major General Willoughby acquired such artifacts is unclear; however, a character study set against the backdrop of this period in history allows us to extrapolate potential theories. Documents within the Gettysburg Special Collections & College Archives offer insights into the man Willoughby was and posit deeper questions about the suit and katana’s journey to the college. This essay illuminates the connection between the college and an ancient culture half way around the globe as well as one of the murkiest mysteries at Gettysburg College

The McLean House: Symbol of Reunification or Surrender Grounds?

This post is part of a series featuring behind-the-scenes dispatches from our Pohanka Interns on the front lines of history this summer as interpreters, archivists, and preservationists. See here for the introduction to the series. While enjoying live music in a small coffee shop nestled in historic Appomattox, Virginia, a local asked me where I was from and what had brought me here this summer. Mine was a new face among the Friday night crowd and I expected some curious glances. However, when I explained that I was working at Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, I was surprised to hear in return, “Oh, the Surrender Grounds”. This reference to the park – and the McLean House in particular – revealed one of the long-standing interpretations of the town’s events that still lives on today. Here, on April 9th, 1865 met two of the most skilled generals that ever led men into battle – with lasting implications for the nation’s future. [excerpt

The Contradictions of Freedom: Depictions of Freedwomen in Illustrated Newspapers, 1865-1867

Between 1865 and 1867, artists working for Northern illustrated newspapers travelled throughout the South to document its transition from slavery to a wage labor society. Perceiving themselves as the rightful reporters of Southern Reconstruction, these illustrators observed communities of newly freed African American men and women defining their vision of freedom. Northern artists often viewed the lives of African Americans through the cultural lens of free labor ideology in their efforts to provide documentary coverage of the South as objective observers. This paper will examine how illustrations of Harper’s Weekly and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper reveal the contradictions between free labor ideology and the realities of Southern black women during early Reconstruction. Freedwomen’s efforts to define their emancipation were dually confronted with Southern vigilante violence, discrimination, and oppression as well as Northern pressures to pursue wage labor and construct respectable households. These illustrations only offered narrow glimpses into the lives of African American women as artists sketched narratives Northerners could use to gauge the success of their free labor experiment

Mexico and the People: Revolutionary Printmaking and the Taller De Gráfica Popular

During its most turbulent and formative years of the twentieth century, Mexico witnessed decades of political frustration, a major revolution, and two World Wars. By the late 1900s, it emerged as a modernized nation, thrust into an ever-growing global sphere. The revolutionary voices of Mexico’s people that echoed through time took root in the arts and emerged as a collective force to bring about a new self-awareness and change for their nation. Mexico’s most distinguished artists set out to challenge an overpowered government, propagate social-political advancement, and reimagine a stronger, unified national identity. Following in the footsteps of political printmaker José Guadalupe Posada and the work of the Stridentist Movement, artists Leopoldo Méndez and Pablo O’Higgins were among the founders who established two major art collectives in the 1930s: Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios (LEAR) and El Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP). In 1946, artists of the TGP created twelve lithographs published in an album entitled Mexican People for the Associated American Artists (AAA) gallery in New York City. After decades of social strife, this publication represents the continuation of the TGP’s political agenda in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution. As the collective’s work gained the recognition of foreign art circles, American art markets sought imagery of an idealized post-revolutionary Mexico. In between American ideas of its southern neighbor and the politics of the TGP, the album Mexican People presents a modernized Mexican identity represented by the labors of its workers. [excerpt]https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/artcatalogs/1035/thumbnail.jp

The City: Art and the Urban Environment

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 in relation to significant social, economic, artistic, and aesthetic developments. [excerpt]https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/artcatalogs/1029/thumbnail.jp

Gettysburg Cyclorama: A Digital Annotation

The massive Gettysburg Cyclorama painting, measuring 42 feet high and 377 feet in circumference, has immersed visitors in the fury of the battle since its completion in 1884. Painted by a team headed by French artist Paul Philippoteaux, the canvas depicts the bloody clash at the Angle, the culmination of the fighting at Gettysburg, through visual mechanisms that make the landscape appear to stretch on for miles, positioning the viewer at the center of the action. From this page, visitors are invited to explore the convoluted history of the painting, from years of sold-out crowds to neglect on a backlot to its current position as the centerpiece of the exhibit at the Gettysburg National Military Park and Visitor Center, and to visually trace the many stories embedded in the canvas. These digital explorations of the Cyclorama painting – using TimelineJS and StoryMapJS and embedded in Scalar – were created by students in Gettysburg College’s Fall 2018 HIST 301: Introduction to Public History course, taught by Prof. Jill Ogline Titus. These projects could never have been completed without the generous assistance and advice provided by painting historian Sue Boardman, Leadership Program Director for the Gettysburg Foundation and co-author of two books on the Cyclorama painting, the creative and technical guidance (and photography skills) of R.C. Miessler, Systems Librarian, Musselman Library, and the digital artistry of Julia Wall ’18. [excerpt

Outcomes in Newly Diagnosed Atrial Fibrillation and History of Acute Coronary Syndromes: Insights from GARFIELD-AF

BACKGROUND: Many patients with atrial fibrillation have concomitant coronary artery disease with or without acute coronary syndromes and are in need of additional antithrombotic therapy. There are few data on the long-term clinical outcome of atrial fibrillation patients with a history of acute coronary syndrome. This is a 2-year study of atrial fibrillation patients with or without a history of acute coronary syndromes

Analysis of Outcomes in Ischemic vs Nonischemic Cardiomyopathy in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation A Report From the GARFIELD-AF Registry

IMPORTANCE Congestive heart failure (CHF) is commonly associated with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (AF), and their combination may affect treatment strategies and outcomes