Gettysburg College

By Michael J. Birkner and David Crumplar

Gettysburg College is the oldest Lutheran affiliated college in the United States. At its founding in 1832 a time of social ferment and advancing democracy college leaders emphasized a liberal arts mission. Pennsylvania College, as it was known until 1919, numbers among its graduates many clergy, lawyers, and physicians, as well as politicians, social gospel advocates, scientists, business executives, and university presidents. Although the college has grown considerably since World War II, its mission has remained consistent: devotion to the pursuit of truth and active citizenship. Through historic photographs, Gettysburg College documents significant themes in the college s history: an expanding campus, the emergence and influence of intercollegiate athletic teams and social fraternities, curricular change, and key national events that affected the college, none of the latter more important than the Battle of Gettysburg and two world wars. Always respected for its academic program, Gettysburg College has in the past generation diversified its faculty and student body, expanded its interdisciplinary programs, and gained in reputation as a leading national liberal arts college.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Aug 30, 2006
• ISBN: 9781439617861

Michael J. Birkner

Michael J. Birkner is professor of history at Gettysburg College and author of a young adult biography of Dwight D. Eisenhower, among other works. Carol A. Hegeman is the retired supervisory historian at the Eisenhower National Historic Site and editor of the book Eisenhower National Historic Site Museum Collections. Kevin Lavery is a 2016 graduate of Gettysburg College.

Book preview

all.

INTRODUCTION

Founded in 1832—a time of social ferment and advancing democracy—Gettysburg College is the oldest Lutheran-affiliated college in the United States. The man most responsible for its founding, Samuel Simon Schmucker (1799–1873), was something of a prodigy. Born in Hagerstown, Maryland, the son of a Lutheran pastor, Samuel was educated at the University of Pennsylvania and the Princeton Theological Seminary. As a young man his announced objectives included translating German theological work into English, founding a Lutheran theological seminary (there were none in the nation at the time he attended seminary), and establishing a college under Lutheran auspices. Schmucker accomplished all three goals by the age of 33.

The college Schmucker founded was Lutheran in its complexion, and for nearly a century Lutherans dominated its faculty and student body. Gettysburg presidents nonetheless emphasized the non-sectarian character of Pennsylvania College (its name did not formally change until 1921) and the college’s liberal arts mission.

In late June 1863, with news of an approaching Confederate force led by Gen. Robert E. Lee, Pennsylvania College students abandoned their studies and volunteered for duty in the Union Army. The college’s main building, Pennsylvania Hall, served as a field hospital during the battle and for several weeks thereafter wounded soldiers recuperated or died there. On November 19, 1863, Gettysburg students joined Pres. Henry L. Baugher at the new national cemetery and heard Pres. Abraham Lincoln’s immortal address.

After the war the campus and student body grew fairly steadily, and by the late 1880s, the first women students were matriculating. Important new buildings, most notably Recitation Hall (1889), Brua Chapel (1890), and McKnight Hall (1898) lent grace to the campus. Collegiate culture expanded beyond the long-lived literary societies to include organized athletics, a Greek system, and student government, among numerous other extracurricular activities. Students had little difficulty finding informal ways to enjoy themselves and, when possible, discomfort the faculty and administration.

Throughout a 175 year history, alumni have made useful and in some instances important contributions in many walks of life, from theology and science to law, medicine, politics and the military. Numbered among them are a governor of Pennsylvania, the director of Lutheran World Relief, MacArthur (Genius) Award recipients, the head of the Peace Corps and UNICEF, numerous bishops, congressmen, generals, and college presidents, a Newbery Prize winner, an Oscar nominee for cinematography, the chief executive officer of the NAACP, and a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Well into the 20th century the student population at Gettysburg College remained below 600, although it enjoyed a growth spurt in the 1920s, under Pres. Henry W. A. Hanson. During the prosperity decade Hanson oversaw the construction of new buildings and impressive campus gardens. Buffeted by the Depression and World War II, the college did not regain its momentum until the postwar boom in higher education led to a major influx of students, most of whom were not Lutheran.

A 200-plus acre campus is today home to more than 2,500 students and nearly 200 full-time faculty. Interdisciplinary programs have prospered since their introduction in the mid-1980s. Early in the 21st century, among other initiatives, Gettysburg College established the Christian Johnson Center for Creative Teaching and the Sunderman Conservatory of Music. The college has commenced refashioning its affiliate, the Eisenhower World Affairs Institute (based on campus and in Washington, D.C.), as a significant center for the study of public policy. Its Center for Public Service has been repeatedly recognized since 1990 for innovative, high-quality programs connecting Gettysburg students to local, state, national, and international service.

Gettysburg’s mission, as expressed in 1832, remains recognizable in today’s larger, substantially more diverse, and outward-looking institution. By looking back at the college’s founding and the changes its has experienced since 1832, we hope readers will find interesting continuities as well as contrasts between the good old days and today.

One

A SALUTARY INFLUENCE 1832–1865

Gettysburg College owes its founding to a visionary Maryland native, Samuel Simon Schmucker (1799–1873). A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Princeton Theological Seminary, Schmucker felt keenly that Lutherans needed their own institutions of higher education. Other denominations had already established colleges in the Mid-Atlantic region. In the course of six years, Schmucker helped launch both a theological seminary (1826) and a college (1832) in Gettysburg, each of which has since operated continuously.

Although Pennsylvania College was Lutheran in orientation, Schmucker—partly to win local support for the venture—emphasized that the college would be unsectarian in its instructions. Supported by prominent members of the Maryland Synod, notably Benjamin Kurtz and John G. Morris, and Adams County community leaders (of whom the most outstanding was a young legislator named Thaddeus Stevens), Schmucker made good on his goal of training liberally educated young men.

During its first decades, Pennsylvania College relocated from its original building on the corner of High and Washington Streets to a handsome campus just north of town. A Doric edifice constructed with state funds in 1837 was the first major building on the new campus, followed by a science building (Linnaean Hall) built in part with student labor in 1847, and a presidential manse, constructed in 1860. The college was soon turning out graduates who would become leaders in the church, business, law, and medicine. No one could anticipate that national events would, by 1863, identify Gettysburg indelibly with a great Civil War and—with Abraham Lincoln’s two-minute address—the redefinition of American democracy.

A leading physician, political activist, and educator in the early republic, Benjamin Rush (1745–1813) played