The University of Virginia

The University of Virginia PDF

Author: Susan Tyler Hitchcock

Publisher: University of Virginia Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 0813919029

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The definitive treatment of Mr. Jefferson's favorite institution, with an updated section on entering the twenty-first century. In the nearly two centuries since the first building's completion in Thomas Jefferson's academical village, programs and facilities at the University of Virginia have been continually expanded and updated. The four years since the first publication of The University of Virginia: A Pictorial History have been no exception to that tradition: science and technology, athletics, public service, international programs, business, and the arts are just a few of the current growth areas at Mr. Jefferson's university. When the Board of Visitors approved a new master plan for growth and development in 1999--and the capital campaign of 2000 supported its ambitious outline with a $1.4 billion purse--they set in motion massive upgrades at the university. A South Lawn complex and "groundswalk" to reconnect the sprawling areas of the university, a new special collections library, expanded.

The Law School at the University of Virginia

The Law School at the University of Virginia PDF

Author: Philip Mills Herrington

Publisher: University of Virginia Press

Published: 2017-04-21

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 0813939461

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As a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a masterwork of Thomas Jefferson, the "Academical Village" at the heart of the University of Virginia has long attracted the attention of visitors and scholars alike. Yet today Jefferson’s original structures make up only a small fraction of a campus comprising over 1,600 acres. The Law School at the University of Virginia traces the history of one of the eight original schools of the University to study the development of the University Grounds over nearly two hundred years. In this book, Philip Mills Herrington relates the remarkable story of how the Law School and the University have used architecture to reconcile a desire for progress with a veneration for the past. In addition to providing a fascinating history of one of the oldest and most influential law schools in the United States, Herrington offers a valuable case study of the ways in which American universities have constructed, altered, and enhanced the built environment in response to the ever-changing demands of higher education and campus life.

God on the Grounds

God on the Grounds PDF

Author: Harry Y. Gamble

Publisher: University of Virginia Press

Published: 2020-05-21

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 0813944066

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Free-thinking Thomas Jefferson established the University of Virginia as a secular institution and stipulated that the University should not provide any instruction in religion. Yet over the course of the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth, religion came to have a prominent place in the University, which today maintains the largest department of religious studies of any public university in America. Given his intentions, how did Jefferson's university undergo such remarkable transformations? In God on the Grounds, esteemed religious studies scholar Harry Gamble offers the first history of religion’s remarkably large role—both in practice and in study—at UVA. Jefferson’s own reputation as a religious skeptic and infidel was a heavy liability to the University, which was widely regarded as injurious to the faith and morals of its students. Consequently, the faculty and Board of Visitors were eager throughout the nineteenth century to make the University more religious. Gamble narrates the early, rapid, and ongoing introduction of religion into the University’s life through the piety of professors, the creation of the chaplaincy, the growth of the YMCA, the multiplication of religious services and meetings, the building of a chapel, and the establishment of a Bible lectureship and a School of Biblical History and Literature. He then looks at how—only in the mid-twentieth century—the University began to retreat from its religious entanglements and reclaim its secular character as a public institution. A vital contribution to the institutional history of UVA, God on the Grounds sheds light on the history of higher education in the United States, American religious history, and the development of religious studies as an academic discipline.

Rot, Riot, and Rebellion

Rot, Riot, and Rebellion PDF

Author: Rex Bowman

Publisher: University of Virginia Press

Published: 2013-08-13

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 0813934710

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Thomas Jefferson had a radical dream for higher education. Designed to become the first modern public university, the University of Virginia was envisioned as a liberal campus with no religious affiliation, with elective courses and student self-government. Nearly two centuries after the university’s creation, its success now seems preordained—its founder, after all, was a great American genius. Yet what many don’t know is that Jefferson’s university almost failed. In Rot, Riot, and Rebellion, award-winning journalists Rex Bowman and Carlos Santos offer a dramatic re-creation of the university’s early struggles. Political enemies, powerful religious leaders, and fundamentalist Christians fought Jefferson and worked to thwart his dream. Rich students, many from southern plantations, held a sense of honor and entitlement that compelled them to resist even minor rules and regulations. They fought professors, townsfolk, and each other with guns, knives, and fists. In response, professors armed themselves—often with good reason: one was horsewhipped, others were attacked in their classrooms, and one was twice the target of a bomb. The university was often broke, and Jefferson’s enemies, crouched and ready to pounce, looked constantly for reasons to close its doors. Yet from its tumultuous, early days, Jefferson’s university—a cauldron of unrest and educational daring—blossomed into the first real American university. Here, Bowman and Santos bring us into the life of the University of Virginia at its founding to reveal how this once shaky institution grew into a novel, American-style university on which myriad other U.S. universities were modeled.

The Key to the Door

The Key to the Door PDF

Author: Maurice Apprey

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780813939865

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The Key to the Door frames and highlights the stories of some of the first black students at the University of Virginia. This inspiring account of resilience and transformation offers a diversity of experiences and perspectives through first-person narratives of black students during the University of Virginia's era of incremental desegregation. The authors relate what life was like before enrolling, during their time at the University, and after graduation. In addition to these personal accounts, the volume includes a historical overview of African Americans at the University--from its earliest slaves and free black employees, through its first black applicant, student admission, graduate, and faculty appointments, on to its progress and challenges in the twenty-first century. Including essays from graduates of the schools of law, medicine, engineering, and education, The Key to the Door a candid and long-overdue account of African American experiences at the University' of Virginia.

Mr. Jefferson's Telescope

Mr. Jefferson's Telescope PDF

Author: Brendan Wolfe

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780813940106

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Thomas Jefferson considered the University of Virginia to be among his finest achievements--a living monument to his artistic and intellectual ambitions. Now, on the occasion of the University's bicentennial, Brendan Wolfe has assembled one hundred objects that, brought together in one fascinating book, offer a new, sometimes surprising history of Jefferson's favorite project. Mr. Jefferson's Telescope begins with the years leading up to the University's 1819 founding and continues to the triumphs and challenges of the present day, each entry joining a full-color image with an engaging description that both stands alone and contributes to an engrossing larger narrative about how the school has evolved over time. Considering an orange and blue silk handkerchief, Wolfe reveals that the University's school colors were originally cardinal red and gray--calling to mind a Confederate soldier's blood-stained uniform but ultimately deemed not bright enough to stand out on muddy football fields. The record of an overdue book checked out by a young Edgar Allan Poe speaks to a long literary tradition. On the subject of a key to the Rotunda's doors, Wolfe introduces us to its keeper, the Monticello-born ex-slave who rang the hourly bells on Grounds into the early twentieth century. Beautifully illustrated with over one hundred new and archival images, this book brings to life a remarkable array of significant objects while offering to the reader the best introduction available to the history of Jefferson's great institution.