Museum Scholars

Gilder Lehrman Institute Program

Mandie Middleton, a sophomore history major and museum studies minor, was accepted to the Gilder Lehrman Institute's History Scholars Program in 2011 as a One-Week Scholar. She was one of only 30 students chosen out a field of more than 250 applications representing 179 different institutions across the country.

The program focused on "The Outbreak of the Civil War" with lectures by eminent historians of the Nineteenth Century United States such as Eric Foner, Stephanie McCurry, and Steven Hahn, among others. Mandie's week in New York also involved visiting several archives as well as various sites around New York City, including Five Points (site of violent 1863 draft riots) and Cooper Union (where Lincoln gave an address to a gathering of Republicans on February 27, 1860).

Mandie is the 4th Lynchburg College student to be accepted to a Gilder Lehrman program in the last several years.

Student-Curated Museum Exhibit

Museum Studies students completed a semester-long project in the spring of 2011 with an exhibition that was an overview of the “Big Three” - Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill, who came together to end World War II.

Posters, newspapers, military weapons, home front items, and busts of the leaders by LC professor Richard Pumphrey illustrated the exhibit.

Through the research and preparation of the exhibit, students learned the rigorous - and often time-intensive - process involved in museum curatorial work.

Read the LC news story.