A gallery exhibition and catalog, both created by students, trace the development of Wheaton’s campus in the 19th and 20th centuries.

March 11, 2009

Wheaton College is known as the quintessential brick-and-ivy New England campus, but beyond the classic Georgian quad that surrounds the Dimple, Wheaton's built environment tells a different story.

That narrative unfolds in "Making It Modern: Wheaton College and the International Style," a student-curated exhibition on display in the Beard and Weil Galleries from March 18 to April 16. The exhibition and a companion book trace the development of the Wheaton campus from its founding in 1834 to the present, with particular emphasis on the shift from traditional architectural styles to the iconoclastic principles of Modernism.

The show was curated by the students of the seminar "Exhibition Design," taught by Leah Niederstadt, assistant professor of museum studies. Working closely with Niederstadt and College Archivist Zephorene Stickney, the students selected more than 200 objects for the show, most of them drawn from Wheaton's Archives and Special Collections. The exhibition comprises building plans and designs, architectural models, sketches, maps, portraits, photographs (including striking black-and-white images by Walker Evans), and original finials from Cole Memorial Chapel and Mary Lyon Hall.

The exhibition is part of a cross-campus collaboration focusing on Wheaton's architectural history and spearheaded by Niederstadt, Stickney and Professor of Art Tripp Evans. Last fall, Evans taught the seminar "Modernism at Wheaton," which resulted in a 64-page book with archival images and essays written by his students.

Working from those essays, Niederstadt's students wrote labels and other text for the show. They also created podcasts on subjects such as the Walker Evans photographs, women who shaped Wheaton's campus, and Wheaton myths and legends. An online version of the exhibition is in the works.

The book, to be released in time for the show's opening, was designed by Ross Culliton '09 and edited by Evans. In his introduction, Evans notes that the story of Wheaton's development in the last century "not only tells us a great deal about the institution's evolving character, but … also serves as a valuable case study of the changes that happened in twentieth-century campus design more generally."

Wheaton's campus, he says, represents a microcosm of the changes that took place in the last century on campuses throughout the country.

As seen in buildings such as the Student Alumnae Building (1940) and Meneely Hall (1959), Wheaton was on the forefront of progressive campus design in the mid-20th century. For the Modernists, "progressive" meant an "utter rejection of historical precedent and [an] attempt to create a kind of architectural Esperanto—a language of forms that could be applied in any place or typological context," Evans writes.

Although some observers now see Modernist buildings as stark and unattractive, these structures in their time represented a radical break from tradition. Over the years, additions and renovations have altered many of these campus buildings; the Student Alumnae Building was subsumed by the Balfour Hood student center, and Mars Arts and Humanities was added to Meneely.

As with any sweeping change, Wheaton's conversion to Modernism was not without drama. The exhibition and book tell the story of Esther Isabel Seaver, a young professor of art who "swept onto campus in 1930 with energy, unconventional ideas, and an almost evangelical devotion to Modernism," Stickney writes in her contribution to the publication.

Seaver took over the Art Department and pushed relentlessly for a shift to Modernism in campus architecture. In 1938, she convinced the college to sponsor a design competition for a new art center, which drew entries from such Modernist luminaries as Eero Saarinen, Walter Gropius, and Richard Neutra.

The art center project fizzled, but two years later the college built the Student Alumnae Building, which was the first Modernist building ever constructed on a traditional American college campus.

"Making It Modern" will be on display from Wednesday, March 18, through Friday, April 16. The opening reception will be at 7 p.m. on March 18. The Beard and Weil Galleries, located in Watson Fine Arts, are open from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday.