About
Our Mission
The Museums at W&L advance learning through direct engagement with the collections and facilitate an interdisciplinary appreciation of art, history, and culture.
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The Museums at W&L are comprised of two distinct entities: the Art Museum & Galleries and the Institutional History Museum & Chapel Galleries. Together, they manage two primary collections: the Art and History collections. Guided by a mission to advance learning through direct engagement with these collections, the Museums facilitate an interdisciplinary appreciation of art, history, and culture.
The Art Museum & Galleries encompass three locations: the Reeves Museum of Ceramics, Watson Galleries, and the McCarthy Gallery.
The Institutional History Museum & Galleries oversees the University Chapel & Chapel Galleries, Washington Galleries, and the forthcoming Institutional History Museum.
The Art Collection originated in 1875 with a bequest of six portraits and comprises approximately 15,000 objects. Over the last 150 years, it has expanded to include 16th to 21st-century European and American paintings. The collection houses a significant array of early American portraits related to the Washington, Custis, and Lee families of Virginia, works on paper from the 18th to 21st centuries, and a small collection of American photographs and sculptures. Notably, it encompasses a substantial number of 19th and 20th-century East Asian prints, scrolls, paintings, and decorative arts, alongside contemporary works by traditionally underrepresented artists. Featured artists include Elizabeth Catlett, Fernando Botero, William Christenberry, Sam Gilliam, George Inness, Sally Mann, Charles Willson Peale, Gilbert Stuart, Rufino Tamayo, and Andy Warhol. The collection also includes works by American artist Louise Herreshoff Eaton, a classically trained painter inspired by French and American Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Fauvism.
In 1967, Louise Herreshoff Eaton Reeves and her second husband, Euchlin Reeves, W&L Law Class of 1927, generously gifted the University 2,000 ceramics, including 200 paintings by Herreshoff. This collection, known as the Reeves Collection, has grown significantly through subsequent gifts, bequests, and purchases. Spanning from 4,000-year-old Chinese pots to contemporary bowls for the Japanese tea ceremony, the Reeves Collection comprises 6,000 objects, including earthenware, stonewares, and porcelain. The collection is renowned for its Chinese Export porcelain and features British, Continental European, American, and Japanese Export ceramics created between 1500 and 1900. The collection is evolving to include contemporary ceramics, including Roberto Lugo, Sharon Norwood, Beth Lo, Tanaka Yu, and Kathleen Wall.
The History Collection, consisting of approximately 2,000 objects, focuses on W&L’s institutional history. The Institutional History Museum team stewards the collection, which encompasses academic portraits, material culture, and a legacy collection related to the university’s 11th president, Robert E. Lee, and his family.
Museums at W&L
The Reeves Museum of Ceramics showcases one of the country’s finest collections of Chinese and Japanese export ceramics. The collection includes European, Asian, and American ceramics spanning some 4,000 years. The collection tells stories of history, design, technology, trade, patriotism, and protest. Inside the Reeves Museum is the Elisabeth S. Gottwald Gallery, a changing gallery that showcase rotating selections from the art collection.
View the Reeves Museum of Ceramics on the campus map.
A National Historic Landmark, the Chapel opened in 1868 during Robert E. Lees’s tenure as 11th president of then Washington College. Non-denominational and unconsecrated, the Chapel housed an auditorium, administrative offices, a YMCA, and a library. In 1928, a museum was installed in the basement. Today, that museum is now comprised of several gallery spaces with exhibitions on the history of the university. Visitors also see Edward Valentines Recumbent Lee statue.
View the University Chapel & Chapel Galleries on the campus map.
The Watson contains two changing exhibit galleries that showcase rotating selections from the fine arts and ceramics collections. Watson Galleries house the Senshinan (or Clearing-the-Mind Abode), an authentic Japanese tea room that is open for viewing and public tea demonstrations throughout the year. To learn more about the tea room, visit the Senshinan website. To schedule a tea ceremony demonstration, contact Professor Janet Ikeda.
View the Watson Galleries on the campus map.
University Chapel Visitation Policies
The university’s stated Facilities Use Policy has said, and continues to say, that individuals or groups not affiliated with the university may not use our campus as a platform for their own personal or political displays or statements. This includes, but is not limited to, historical or replica uniforms.
Visitors will be asked to open large bags or purses for inspection by the Public Safety Officer on duty. Additionally, all visitors to campus must comply with the University weapons policy, which prohibits the use, possession and storage of all firearms, dangerous weapons, explosives or other dangerous articles on all properties owned, leased or otherwise controlled by Washington and Lee University. Law enforcement officers duly authorized to carry such instruments are accepted.
The University Chapel staff wants to ensure that you enjoy your visit to the Chapel and are able to share the experience. In order to make it a pleasant experience for all our visitors and to protect the parts of our collection that are under copyright, our photography policy must be observed.
Arts