The Legacy, Lee Chapel & Museum, Winter 2019-2020, Edition 22

The Legacy

Winter 2019-20: Edition 22

Lee Chapel & Museum

Letter from the Director Dear Friends, This will be my last letter to you as I retired as Director on January 2, 2020. Where did the last seven years go? We formed the Friends of Lee Chapel membership group the first year I came to Washington and Lee in 2013. The generosity of our members continues to astound me. Over the course of the last six years you have raised $149,445 to help further our educational mission. You have helped keep the Chapel up to date with the purchase of software and better lighting for the museum shop, the foyer and the brick steps. You have helped us preserve our artifacts by paying for the conservation of the Lee suit and Lee’s trunk. You have contributed to educational programming for children and adults, provided for display and exhibition materials, honoraria for speakers and much, much more. Thank you for your commitment, your outstanding generosity and your love of history. It has been a pleasure to share it all with you.

As our department continues to change and grow under our Director of Institutional History, your support will be much needed in the future. Your investment will keep the memory of the University’s past achievements alive. I wish you all the very best as we continue to create a new legacy at Washington and Lee by teaching new generations of students the lessons of the past. Non Incautus Futuri.

Sincerely,

Lucy Wilkins Lucy Wilkins

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New & Notable Exhibit Extension New Accession

Extension of “Breaking the Chains” “Breaking the Chains: Ceramics and the Abolition Movement” has been on display at the Watson Pavilion at W&L as a temporary exhibition since March 2018 and drawn hundreds of visitors from around the country. The Museums at WLU are happy to announce that this exhibition has been once again extended through July 2020 for public viewing. Admission is free and open from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM on Monday through Saturday outside of holidays and special closings, which can be found on the website at https:// wlu.edu/museums-at-wlu.

Afraid you’ll miss seeing this exhibition? You can view the online exhibition, complete with high-resolution images and accompanying resources, at https://exhibits-ucah.omeka.wlu.edu/.

New Accession Jar Made in Puebla, Mexico about 1700 Made of Tin-Glazed Earthenware Gift of E&H Manners

Though only a fragment of its former self, this jar is a rare example of the exchange of technology and design between Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

It is an example of talavera poblana, which is tin-glazed earthenware made in Puebla, Mexico. From the mid1600s, Spanish potters working with indigenous Mexicans used European techniques and local materials to make pottery that one civic booster described in 1698 as being “finer than that of Talavera [a Spanish city famed for its pottery], and can compete with that of China in its fineness.”

Potters in Puebla combined the Chinese blue and white palette with motifs drawn from Chinese, Middle Eastern, Spanish, and American design to create something new and uniquely Mexican. This jar is a typical example; its shape comes from a Chinese guan, a bulbous covered jar, and painted on the side is a long-tailed quetzal, a Mexican bird that was important in Aztec mythology.

The jar was most likely a chocolatero, a vessel used to store cacao beans which were often fitted lockable, iron lids.

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Notes from the Curator By Patricia Hobbs, Curator of Art and History 

It’s been busy during the Fall Term and now it really is winter, because as I write these notes snow is blanketing the ground.

Early in December, we welcomed back to campus W&L’s portrait by Charles Willson Peale of Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette.

The painting has been on loan for several years to Mount Vernon where it hung in the Lafayette Bedchamber. It was commissioned in 1779 by George Washington to hang in his mansion along with a portrait of himself, also by Peale. A celebrated hero of the American Revolution, Lafayette was a beloved friend of Washington, who considered him a son. We are grateful to the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, who have been excellent stewards and partners in both the care and interpretation of the painting.

After Washington’s death, the portrait was inherited by Martha Washington, who bequeathed the paintings at Mount Vernon to her grandson George Washington Parke Custis. The portraits descended in the Washington, Custis and Lee families until George Washington Custis Lee, 12th president of Washington and Lee University, gave two portraits to the University upon his retirement in 1897. Lee presented to the institution both this portrait of Lafayette and Charles Willson Peale’s 1772 portrait of George Washington as Colonel in the Virginia Regiment, which is currently on loan to Mount Vernon. A copy of that portrait is on view in the changing exhibition gallery of the Lee Chapel Museum in “Undercover: Hidden Elements in Two Iconic Portraits.”

You can see Peale’s portrait of Lafayette along with portraits of Martha Washington and her Custis connections in the South Gallery of the Watson Galleries, open 9 to 4 Monday through Saturday.

Another bit of exciting news I’d like to share with you is the University’s decision to conserve the 1865 Stieff piano that was a gift to Robert E. Lee from Charles M. Stieff after he became president of Washington College. It arrived in November 1865, just before the Lee family moved into the “old” president’s house (now the Simpson House). Lou Dolive, piano conservator and restorer located in Staunton, will begin the work sometime after graduation 2020. It will take about 6 months, maybe more. For a recent article that I wrote for The Columns, see “When History Strikes a Chord” at: https://columns.wlu.edu/whenhistory-strikes-a-chord/.

Finally, I have been diligently researching information about Louise Herreshoff Eaton (Reeves) for two upcoming exhibitions that will open in late April. Her work is well-known to those who have visited the Reeves Museum over the years and have read Jim Whitehead’s book A Fragile Union. When Mr. Whitehead was alive, we would talk with me about Louise as an artist because of my background as both an art historian and artist. He would tell me that he was “no expert!” and that I needed to look into Louise’s work in more depth. With this exhibition, I have taken up the gauntlet that Mr. Whitehead threw to me. The two exhibitions in the Staniar and Gottwald Galleries combined will be the largest exhibition of her work since the 1976 exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC. There will also be an exhibition catalog to accompany the Staniar exhibition of Herreshoff watercolors that I am co-curating with Tracy Bernabo of Try-me Gallery in Richmond. We shall keep you posted on these exciting events.

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Upcoming Events Museums at Washington and Lee University

Marshall Legacy Series Lecture: “George Washington and George Marshall: Indispensable Men” The George C. Marshall Foundation and Office of Institutional History at Washington and Lee University present a Marshall Legacy Series panel discussion on the character of George Washington and George C. Marshall with authors David Roll and Henry Weineck, moderated by President of the George C. Marshall Foundation Dr. Paul Levengood.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 5:30 P.M. on Thursday, February 20 at Lee Chapel & Museum on the campus of Washington and Lee University.

Seating will begin at 5:00 PM and parking is available in the Lee Chapel Visitor Lot at 100 N. Jefferson Street as well as in 2-hour spots along Jefferson Street and in several three-hour parking lots within walking distance in downtown Lexington.

Lee Chapel Spring Lecture Ryan Cole will be giving a talk on the subject of Light-Horse Harry Lee on Monday, March 23, 2020 at 12:00 PM at Lee Chapel & Museum. Cole is the author of Light-Horse Harry Lee: The Rise and Fall of a Revolutionary Hero, published in 2019. He is a former assistant to Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and speechwriter at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and holds degrees in history and journalism from Indiana University. Parking is available in the Lee Chapel Visitor Lot at 100 N. Jefferson Street, as well as in 2-hour spots along Jefferson Street and in several three-hour parking lots within walking distance in downtown Lexington.

You can view upcoming Lee Chapel events, including information regarding Ryan Cole’s lecture by following the Lee Chapel Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/wluleechapel/.

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Past Events

Lee Chapel Fall Lecture Lexington Museum Week Fall Lecture: Dr. Lynn Rainville The annual Lee Chapel Fall Lecture took place on October 14, 2019 featuring Dr. Lynn Rainville, the first Director of Institutional History at Washington and Lee University. Dr. Rainville gave a talk titled “At Home with the Presidents: An Ethno-Historic Study of Everyday Life at the Lee House” which drew over 100 people from within and without the W&L and Lexington community. The talk, which included a slideshow of historic photographs, addressed the design and construction of the house (located on the W&L campus) as well as the five years spent in the home by the Robert E. Lee family and their servants, subsequent presidents and architectural modifications in the years to follow, and even earlier communities that called the site their home.

If you were unable to attend the Lee Chapel Fall Lecture, the archived video recording of Dr. Lynn Rainville's talk is still available to view and share online at https://livestream.com/wlu/leechapel-fall-2019-rainville.

Lexington Museum Week 2019 We hope that everyone who participated in Lexington Museum Week from December 1-7, 2019 this year had a wonderful time touring all of the fascinating sites that Lexington has to offer! We had dozens of visitors stop in from both out of town and right here in the Rockbridge County area to visit at least one of our art and/ or history museums, as well as participate in the grand prize competition using their free adventure cards. The Lexington Visitor Center allowed the museums to utilize the display window facing Washington Street for the entire month of November leading up to the event to showcase the grand prize and outline the locations of each museum involved: the Stonewall Jackson House, Lee Chapel & Museum, the Reeves Museum of Ceramics and Watson Galleries, the Rockbridge Historical Society, George C. Marshall Museum, VMI Museum, and Miller’s House Museum. The winner of this year's drawing was Paula Meador of Roanoke, VA, who received a collection of items from each participating museum shop. Congratulations to our winner, and we hope that all who participated in Lexington Museum Week this year enjoyed taking advantage of museum shop discounts and all of the fantastic opportunities for discovery and learning!

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At the Shop New Merchandise and Online Features 

The Lee Chapel Museum shop is now online! Visit and shop at http://leechapelshop.wlu.edu/home.

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