Mellon Summer Scholarship brings art history passion into the 21st century
Daniella Snyder ‘18
By Ari Snaevarsson, Features Editor
As part of the Mellon Summer Scholarship offered by the school through the Mellon Foundation, ten students were selected this summer to do independent research projects within the humanities. There was also a digital component to this scholarship, keeping it technologically up-to-date. Many of these students focused on research that was found in Special Collections and College Archives in the Musselman Library.
Junior Daniella Snyder, an English and Art History major, chose to do her research on a rare map in Special Collections. Her research can be found here: www.daniellasnyder.sites.gettysburg.edu/maps_as_art.
She described how all of the Mellon Scholars lived together in the same apartment and shared progress on their research. It was presented to the campus community this past summer, and it will also be presented at Celebration this year.
She ultimately ended up doing original art history research with Professor Else in the Art History department, since she focused her research on the art historical perspective of cartography. She will be presenting her research in April at an undergraduate art history symposium in Lebanon Valley College.
Daniella says this was a great resource for undergraduate students to explore their passions in the humanities while still maintaining relevance to the 21st century, via the digital component. It gave her the opportunity to gain innumerable talents and a great deal of confidence regarding her abilities as a budding art historian.
