Sullivan Museum & History Center at Norwich University - (802) 485-2183

The Sullivan Museum & History Center welcomes visitors to explore Norwich University's rich 200-year history in a 21st-century, state-of-the-art facility.

Admission to the museum is free.

The Sullivan Museum and History Center is a 16,000-square-foot facility that features permanent and changing exhibitions, learning stations, a visible-object conservation lab, spaces for exhibit preparation and object storage, a fully equipped electronic classroom and conference space, and a reference room for researchers and scholars.

The building’s lighting, heating and cooling systems are designed to provide maximum protection for Norwich University’s collection of artwork and artifacts. The exterior features natural materials—granite, warm cherry wood and copper—connecting the building visually to both Kreitzberg Library and the rich architectural traditions of the area.

Norwich Trustee Col. J.N. Pritzker, a generous supporter of the museum project and founder of the Pritzker Military Library in Chicago, noted, “The greatest intangible asset of the University is its history and traditions … It is essential to have a place where the physical artifacts of that history can be properly stored, cataloged and displayed.”

The Sullivan Museum and History Center offers dynamic opportunities for visitors, students, faculty and alumni to, in the words of Norwich University Pres. Richard Schneider, “immerse themselves in the heritage of this great institution.”

Permanent exhibitions:

The Sullivan Museum and History Center features a historical timeline that traces the development of Norwich University from its founding in 1819 up to the present day, and introduces notable Norwich alumni.

Displays tell the story of Norwich founder Capt. Alden Partridge (1785 -1854), and feature his uniform, swords and surveying equipment. Exhibition space is also devoted to the career of Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan (Class of 1959), former chief of staff of the Army and namesake of the museum. Exhibit cases throughout the museum present Norwich objects related to military history, academics, music and sports.

Changing exhibitions:

These displays allow us to rotate artifacts that are on display, helping to preserve fragile collection items. Changing exhibitions remain on view for about six months and present fresh and engaging exhibitions on a variety of themes. Please see the section on Current Exhibits to explore what’s up at the museum now. An archive of our previous temporary shows is available under Past Exhibits.

Current Exhibits:

1864: Some Suffer So Much
Jan. 13-Dec. 19, 2014
The exhibition examines the role of Norwich University alumni as military surgeons who treated the wounded soldiers on the battlefields and in hospitals and traces the history of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from the Civil War to the present, along with other themes.

Buildboard Buildings: Collage and Mixed Media byArthur Schaller:
Continues through December 19 2014
NORTHFIELD, Vt. – Norwich University’s Sullivan Museum and History Center presents “Billboard Buildings: Collage and Mixed Media by Norwich University Architecture Professor Arthur Schaller,” a new exhibit of original works.

The exhibit, which is the museum’s first solo exhibit by a Norwich professor, includes 24 two-dimensional works and three-dimensional constructs, which will be on view in the gallery until December 19, 2014.

Schaller is an architect and working artist who has been teaching architectural design and related courses for over forty years; at Ball State University, the University of Texas at Austin, the Architectural Association of London and, for the past 16 years, the School of Architecture and Art at Norwich University where he served as dean from 2005 to 2010.

The original works are created in collage, consisting of collected and assembled printed matter glued on board. The surfaces are cut or ripped from printed publications, sorted by color, texture, or image fragments. Much of the work is created in a series format. With each series, a guiding theme or concept is explored and exhausted thus making room for a new influence. A bricoleur at heart, he has been obsessively exploring collage environments assembled from printed surfaces and found materials. Billboard Buildings are variations on frontal views of rambling- but ordered- long thin buildings perched on legs and located in rich color and textural space; a modernist Baba Yaga’s hut of sorts. He is currently translating some of these implied propositions into three -dimensional constructs. They strive for a balance between abstract formal two- dimensional composition and speculative spatial realism.

Tags: History Museum,Art Museum