Museums and Exhibits
University Museums
The Museums at Washington and Lee University serve as an interdisciplinary teaching resource through the preservation, study, interpretation and exhibition of its collections. The Museums at WLU are composed of: The Lee Chapel & Museum; the Reeves Collection; and the Art Collection. The museums have regular open hours and are available for viewing by the public.
Our Museums
The Lee Chapel and Museum
The Lee Chapel and Museum sits at the heart of W&L where Robert E. Lee served as its 11th president. The building is used primarily as it was in Lee's day for lectures, concerts and university events. The chapel features a statue chamber which houses The Recumbent Lee by Edward Valentine, and a Lee family crypt. Lee's office remains open for view, and a museum features an exhibition tracing the history and heritage of Washington and Lee University, as well as a temporary exhibition gallery and expanded museum shop. The museum is open daily to the public.
The Reeves Collection
Washington and Lee's ceramics collection spans over 4,000 years of human history and includes ceramics from Asia, Europe and America. It is especially rich in Chinese export porcelain made for the American and European markets between 1600 and 1900. The collection is displayed in the Reeves Museum of Ceramics, an 1842 house that also houses the paintings of Louise Herreshoff Eaton Reeves (1876-1967).
The Art Collection
W&L's Art Collection originated in the late 19th century, the result of three significant gifts by Dr. W. Newton Mercer of New Orleans (1874); Vincent Bradford, Esq. of Philadelphia (1884); and George Washington Custis Lee, 12th president of Washington and Lee University (1897). From this foundation, the collection has expanded for more than a century through gifts and bequests. The paintings, prints and sculpture that make up the collection are used as teaching tools by various academic departments, and many works of art are on display in public spaces throughout campus.
Art on Campus
Developing appreciation.
Students Cataloguing Work in Reeves Collection
Erich Uffelman, Cincinnati Professor of Chemistry, and his summer research students Lindsay Burns, Victoria Andrews and Sam Florescu, all ’15, taking spectrographic readings of a painting by Louise Herreshoff in the Reeves Center.
Professor of Chemistry Erich Uffelman (left) and Jennifer Mass, senior scientist at the Winterthur Museum (center), led an Art History 288 class on analysis for Ron Fuchs, Reeves Center curator (right).