Lebanon Valley College Arnold Gallery Gifted 45 Nineteenth-Century Paintings
Vesell family, longtime Gallery supporters, donate landscape paintings to establish The Vesell Family Collection
Annville, PA (08/03/2020) — The Suzanne H. Arnold Art Gallery at Lebanon Valley College recently received a major donation of 45 nineteenth-century American landscape paintings from Hilary Peery Vesell, of Hershey. The paintings were donated in honor of her father, Dr. Elliot Vesell, who along with his wife, Kristen, was a generous patron of the Gallery for many years and had loaned work for several Gallery exhibitions including William Trost Richards Land and Sea (2009) and Visions of Nature: Nineteenth-Century Women Landscape Artists (2011).
Dr. Elliot Vesell served for 32 years as the founding chair of pharmacology at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and 22 years as assistant dean of graduate studies at the Penn State College of Medicine. An Evan Pugh Professor, and later professor emeritus, he published more than 350 articles on pharmacogenomics and received many awards and honorary degrees, including an honorary degree from Penn State.
Dr. Vesell edited several books and was a scholar of American art. His first publication on American art was written the summer between graduating from Harvard and starting Harvard Medical School. He wrote the introduction to the "Life and Works of Thomas Cole" (Harvard University Press).
"We are honored to add these paintings, now designated The Vesell Family Collection, from the Hudson River School to the collection of fine art at Lebanon Valley College," said Dr. Barbara McNulty, director of the Suzanne H. Arnold Art Gallery. "The collection includes works by such noted artists as Julie Hart Beers, John William Casilear, Susie M. Barstow, and Charles Baum. "We are excited that Gallery visitors will be able to experience these historically significant paintings, and that the paintings will become part of the immersive experience the Gallery provides to the College's students. Creative arts majors and minors will be able to conserve, research, and curate these works while learning museum standard professional practices."
The Suzanne H. Arnold Art Gallery receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Visit here to learn more about the Gallery's upcoming and past exhibitions, and ways to support the arts in Central Pennsylvania.
About Lebanon Valley College
Lebanon Valley College offers bachelor's degrees in the arts and humanities, business and communications, education, health professions, social sciences and psychology, and science, technology, engineering, and math. Advanced health professions degrees include master of athletic training, master of clinical mental health counseling, master of science in exercise science (three tracks), master of speech-language pathology, and a doctor of physical therapy.
Online and graduate programs include an MBA with six concentrations and a general option offered on-campus or partially or fully online, a Master of STEM Education, an Integrative STEM Education Certificate, a Master in Music Education, and a Modern Band Certificate. In 2018, 2019, and 2020 the College was listed as #1 in Pennsylvania (and #5 overall, respectively) for graduate job placement by the career guidance site Zippia.com, using federal data.
Media Attachments
