A squirrel in the foreground, a family enjoying a picnic, and a photographer looking directly at the viewer are among the details in a new 1,000-square-foot mural that tells the story of Adams County across thousands of years.
Created by Gettysburg artist Sarah Jacobs, the 25-foot-tall, 40-foot-wide exterior mural on the south wall of Gettysburg’s Beyond the Battle Museum supports and enhances the museum’s mission, focusing on the region’s natural landscape, its people, and its history in a sweeping panorama that moves from prehistoric times toward an imagined future.
The work is titled “Unfinished Ballad,” a reference to the continuing story of the county and the generations that have shaped it. “If you think about a ballad, it’s like a story in a song,” Jacobs said. “And this is supposed to be the story of Adams County from prehistory into the future.”
The mural, created as part of the America250PA commemoration, will be officially dedicated on Saturday, October 24 at 3 p.m. The dedication is open to the public.
One of the mural’s most distinctive figures is William Tipton, the Gettysburg photographer who documented residents and visitors during the Victorian era. Unlike the other figures, who represent historical periods rather than particular individuals, Tipton looks outward toward the viewer.
Jacobs said she deliberately positioned him that way to suggest that the photographer is still observing Adams County, just as he did through his camera more than a century ago. “He photographed Adams County and its people, ” she said. “I wanted him to continue to look out onto the county and see what happens moving forward.”
Other elements in the sprawling landscape include the Pennsylvania Memorial, figures representing early European settlers, Native Americans, Civil War soldiers, and a contemporary family picnicking in the center of the composition. The family serves as the mural’s principal focal point. Jacobs said she chose clothing that would not quickly become dated, allowing the figures to remain recognizable to visitors for years to come.
A Littlestown native, Jacobs grew up traveling through the orchards and horse farms of Adams County. Although she has visited landscapes around the world, she considers the Adams County countryside among the most beautiful places she has seen. “This is one of the great beautiful landscapes of the world, I think,” she said.
In “Unfinished Ballad,” the sun rises in an expansive sky behind dark mountains, creating a contrast between shadowed hillsides and brightly illuminated fields. The brilliant green grassland behind the contemporary family is intended to draw viewers’ attention toward the center of the mural.
Jacobs said the lighting follows the imagined direction of the sunlight, but also serves a compositional purpose. “The main focal point, I think, is the contemporary family, because those would represent us, or they would represent a visitor to the museum,” she said.
Before beginning the painting, Jacobs participated in three community engagement events, gathering suggestions about what people wanted to see. She kept a tally of frequently mentioned subjects and used the responses to refine the design.
“The kids all wanted animals, and I was all about that because animals are so fun to paint,” she said. The completed mural includes two birds, a deer, and a squirrel positioned prominently in the foreground.
Jacobs began work in April after completing the community engagement process, which started around March. Creating the enormous painting required an unusual combination of studio work, specialized materials and outdoor installation.
Rather than painting directly onto the exterior wall, Jacobs used a material called Polytab, a durable fabric that can be primed and painted indoors, and then attached to a building. The material initially resembles heavy cheesecloth. Once primed, it develops a surface similar to wallpaper, allowing the artist to create detailed images without spending months working outdoors.
Jacobs said the process offers considerable advantages over traditional exterior painting. Working indoors allowed her to achieve the fine detail and painterly effects she prefers, while reducing the time required for expensive equipment such as boom lifts. “I try to make my murals look like paintings, almost like oil paintings,” she said.
For the Gettysburg project, Jacobs worked with two principal assistants: her mother, Robyn Jacobs, and Gettysburg College student Diptiman Das. Das helped transfer the preliminary drawing onto the fabric, while Robyn assisted with the background underpainting. The team worked on the floor because the painting was too large to accommodate vertically in the available space. The museum provided space in a storage building behind the main facility to prepare and paint the mural.
Initially, Jacobs planned to install the mural in five-foot-square sections. But windy conditions at the installation site made the large pieces difficult to handle. The team decided to cut the sections into smaller squares measuring approximately 2½ feet on each side. That meant assembling the mural on the building much like an enormous jigsaw puzzle.
“It was a little scary,” Jacobs said of the last-minute adjustment. Working from a boom lift, the installers attached and coated the painted sections with a specialized adhesive called Nova Gel, designed to form a durable, flexible acrylic bond.
The Gettysburg mural is the latest in a series of public art projects Jacobs has completed since beginning her mural career in Erie, PA. Locally, Jacobs has painted murals at the Littlestown Middle School and the Adams County Arts Council. She also guided Gettysburg Community Theatre participants in creating a mural on the side of their building.
Jacobs credited the museum, the Adams County Arts Council, her assistants, as well as donors and other community members who contributed to the project.
Featured Image Caption: Jacobs in front of “Unfinished Ballad” [Courtesy of Sarah Jacobs]
