Installations in Skillman Library and Williams Center Gallery will run throughout the Bicentennial
By Bryan Hay
The stories, people, and images that have animated Lafayette College since its very beginnings come alive in a series of four campus exhibitions assembled to honor its Bicentennial.
Three exhibits in Skillman Library and one in the Williams Center Gallery, curated by students, faculty, staff, and friends of the College, will run throughout the Bicentennial and offer a meaningful, historical experience to those visiting campus for the Bicentennial Kickoff and Fall Weekend Sept. 26-28.
“The Bicentennial offers the perfect opportunity to display the rich historical collections preserved in the College Archives with the wider Lafayette community,” says Elaine Stomber ’89, P’17’21, co-director of Special Collections and College Archives and College Archivist.
“Our unique resources and artifacts, usually shared with students through faculty collaborations and researchers in our reading room, are now on view for all visitors to enjoy and reflect upon as Lafayette College celebrates its first 200 years,” she says.
Here’s an overview of some of the many items and artifacts that celebrate Lafayette College from 1826 to today:
Facing Lafayette: Man, Image, Myth
Location: Williams Center Gallery
Dates: Now–Dec. 5, 2025
Hours: Wednesday through Sunday, noon-5 p.m.
Curated by Peter Godziela ’25 and Lillian Sampson ’27 as part of the College’s Bicentennial celebration, this exhibition showcasing General Marquis de Lafayette features his likeness in various forms, highlighting ideals that reflect the College’s mission. Visitors can explore paintings, sculptures, and prints. The student curators present a fresh narrative that reexamines Lafayette’s story and the myths surrounding him.
Lillian Sampson ’27, co-curator of Facing Lafayette: Man, Image, Myth exhibition, and Rico Reyes, director of art galleries and curator of art collections. Photo by JaQuan Alston
The exhibit offers a chronological tour of Lafayette’s adult life, starting with a 1775 oil-and-canvas painting depicting his time serving as captain of the Noailles Dragoons, named for the influential family of noblewoman Adrienne de Noailles, who married Lafayette in 1774.
A teenage Lafayette serving as a captain of the Noailles Dragoons in France. | Photo by JaQuan Alston
From there, oil paintings show Lafayette during his service with the Continental Army in the American Revolution; his life after his service in America, including the poignant scene of his family visiting him in prison at Olmütz prison in Moravia where he was held by Austrian authorities during the French Revolution; and his final years. Lafayette is depicted standing in a red-trimmed black cloak and holding a top hat in an 1826 oil portrait by Thomas Scully. It was commissioned by the City of Philadelphia to commemorate Lafayette’s visit to Independence Hall in 1824 during his Farewell Tour of the U.S.
We’ll Gather by the Twilight’s Glow: 200 Years of Community at Lafayette College
Location: Reference Area, Skillman Library
Dates: Now–Dec. 18, 2026
Hours: Skillman Library
This exhibit offers a rich array of photographs and images that tell the story of growth of the Lafayette College community from its early years to the present, showing student, faculty, staff, alumni, and trustees as they gather in Convocation, Commencement, Reunion, and athletic and club photographs over 200 years.
Panels highlighting the original choral and instrumental parts to Lafayette’s alma mater guide visitors through the exhibit. Be sure to see the panoramic photograph showing students, faculty, staff, trustees, and alumni—bedecked in tweed, straw hats, bow ties, and flowing gowns—gathered on the Quad for Commencement and Reunion weekend in 1907. Burr McIntosh, Class of 1884, a photographer, film studio owner, silent film actor, and author, took the sweeping photograph.
Panoramic photograph showing students, faculty, staff, trustees, and alumni gathered on the Quad for Commencement and Reunion weekend in 1907. | Photo by JaQuan Alston
Also look for a collection of oval photos showing the faculty in 1882-83 and an image of the black-tie dinner of the Alumni Association at the St. Regis Hotel in midtown Manhattan in 1906, with bunting and a Lafayette banner draping over an elegant tablescape.
Lafayette 200: A Bicentennial History of Lafayette College
Location: Simon Room, Skillman Library
Dates: Now–Dec. 18, 2026
Hours: Skillman Library
This exhibit is a time machine, offering a window into the earliest days of the College, evolution of our curriculum, birth of athletics and student organizations, Lafayette’s resilience in the face of wars and financial crises, impacts of the civil rights movement and coeducation, and more. Key documents, images, and artifacts from the Lafayette College Archives trace historic events that contributed to the development of one of the finest liberal arts colleges in the nation.
Some of the many treasures include the grave marker from Easton Cemetery for Aaron Hoff, a member of the first Class of 1836, first Black student; the original College seal created when the charter was granted in 1826; a report from a local newspaper announcing the establishment of Lafayette College; a photograph of Francis A. March, professor of English language and comparative philology (1855-1906), showing him sitting in his office, surrounded by stacks of books and papers. March is widely credited for introducing Shakespeare to American college classrooms and the first to hold the title Professor of English Language and Literature anywhere in the U.S. or Europe.
Reserved seat ticket to the Lafayette-Lehigh football game played on March Field Nov.10, 1910 and a press pass from 1922. | Photo by JaQuan Alston
Tucked into the exhibit, you can also find a reserved seat ticket, $1.50, to the Lafayette-Lehigh football game played on March Field Nov.10, 1910; a press pass from 1922 issued by the Department of Athletics; dedication programs, including the one for Kirby Hall of Civil Rights on May 29, 1930; the address given by American mining engineer, legal scholar, and author Rossiter Raymond at the Oct. 21, 1873, dedication of Pardee Hall, and even an original admission ticket to the ceremony; a copy of the Red Badge of Courage, the classic Civil War novel by Stephen Crane, Class of 1890. There’s so much more to discover in this exhibit.
This Incomparable Site: From College Edifice to College Hill
Location: Lass Gallery, near the front entrance Reference Desk, Skillman Library
Dates: Now–Dec. 18, 2026
Hours: Skillman Library
In the first volume of The Biography of a College, historian David Bishop Skillman characterizes College Hill as “…this incomparable site. No American college can boast a better one.” This exhibition features early engravings, maps, and photographs from the Lafayette College Archives and documents the evolution of the built environment on campus throughout the 19th century.
Earliest known painting of Lafayette College, circa 1858. | Photo by JaQuan Alston
Here you can encounter the property deed, finalized in 1834, for Lafayette College; the earliest recorded plan for the College grounds from the 1830s; the earliest known painting of the College, circa 1858, by C.E. Wygandt; and an 1865 photograph of Jenks Hall, the oldest academic building on campus.
A 1920 panoramic photograph of March Field documents the size of the crowds who gathered there to see the early Rivalry games between Lafayette and Lehigh. The exhibit transitions to a 1926 image showing the opening season at Fisher Field, where the first football game was played against Muhlenberg College.
