The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia

The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

is a research library that specializes in American history and literature, history of Virginia and the southeastern United States, the history of the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, and the history and arts of the book. The library is named after Albert and Shirley Small, who donated substantially to the construction of the library's current building. Albert Small, an alumnus of the University of Virginia, also donated his large personal collection of "autograph documents and rare, early printings of the Declaration of Independence." This collection includes a rare printing of the

Dunlap broadside The physical history of the United States Declaration of Independence spans from its original drafting in 1776 into the discovery of historical documents in modern time. This includes a number of drafts, handwritten copies, and published broadsid ...

of the Declaration of Independence. Joining the library's existing Dunlap in the Tracy W. McGregor Collection of American History, Small's copy made U.Va. the only American institution with two examples of this, the earliest printing of the nation's founding document. It also includes the only letter written on July 4, 1776, by a signer of the Declaration,

Caesar Rodney Caesar Rodney (October 7, 1728 – June 26, 1784) was an American Founding Father, lawyer, and politician from St. Jones Neck in Dover Hundred, Kent County, Delaware. He was an officer of the Delaware militia during the French and Indian War a ...

. The Albert H. Small Declaration of Independence Collection boasts an interactive digital display which allows visitors to view the historical documents electronically, providing access to children and an opportunity for visitors to manipulate the electronic copies without risk of damage to the original work. Though the collections cover a range of fields, the library is best known for the Tracy W. McGregor Library of American History, the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, the

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most of ...

collections,

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...

Collections, the Sadleir-Black Collection of

Gothic Fiction Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ea ...

, extensive book, manuscript, and photography holdings in Virginia history, and original documents of the works, life, and legacy of

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

. Additional strengths include historical papers of

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...

Dolly Madison Dolly Madison is an American bakery brand owned by Hostess Brands, selling packaged baked snack foods. It is best known for its long marketing association with the ''Peanuts'' animated TV specials. History In 1937, Ralph Leroy Nafziger started ...

and

James Monroe James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Monroe was ...

typography Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), and ...

and other book arts, trade catalogues,

slave narratives The slave narrative is a type of literary genre involving the (written) autobiographical accounts of enslaved Africans, particularly in the Americas. Over six thousand such narratives are estimated to exist; about 150 narratives were published as s ...

equestrianism Equestrianism (from Latin , , , 'horseman', 'horse'), commonly known as horse riding (Commonwealth English) or horseback riding (American English), includes the disciplines of riding, Driving (horse), driving, and Equestrian vaulting, vaulting ...

and other forms of traditional

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

, documents, correspondence and oral records of the Southern

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

, political and public affairs papers of major Virginia political figures, and one of the world's largest collections of

miniature books A miniature book is a very small book. Standards for what may be termed a miniature rather than just a small book have changed through time. Today, most collectors consider a book to be miniature only if it is 3 inches or smaller in height, wid ...

History

situated a library, rather than a chapel, at the center of the University of Virginia's campus, unlike existing American colleges. He also composed the first list of books to be included in the collection and placed newspaper appeals for library gifts to fill the new library,Michael Plunkett,"History of Special Collections," unpublished memoir of previous Director of Special Collections, 2008. which was housed in The Rotunda.

, who was the second rector of the university after Jefferson, established the first endowment fund for acquisitions, through a bequest made in his will in 1836.''Special Collections at the University of Virginia'' University of Virginia, 1995. After the Rotunda burned in 1895, only twenty percent of the original books survived; they are the longest held volumes in the Small Special Collections Library today, and librarians have for many years been acquiring replacements for burnt volumes. The University Archives and the earliest manuscript gift to the university—the papers of

Richard Henry Lee Richard Henry Lee (January 20, 1732June 19, 1794) was an American statesman and Founding Father from Virginia, best known for the June 1776 Lee Resolution, the motion in the Second Continental Congress calling for the colonies' independence from ...

, acquired before 1832—also survived. In the early decades of the twentieth century, many rare and unique items were added to the library's collections, both books and manuscripts. Purchases were also made as well, including the John Henry Ingram collection of Edgar Allan Poe. In 1930 a "Virginia Collection" was established in one wing of the library and the first archivist was hired. Following the construction of the new Alderman Library in 1938, the Division of Rare Books and Manuscripts was organized to house and administer the principal historical materials in the library's collection. Over time, these units became separated, so that by 1962 there were two divisions: the Rare Books Division and the Manuscripts and University Archives Division. These departments merged in 1987 to form the Special Collections Department. In 2004, the current building opened.

Collections

Foundational collections

In 1938, the library accepted as a donation the library of Tracy W. McGregor, the Detroit philanthropist and book collector; McGregor had bequeathed his collection to the administrators of the McGregor Fund, who selected the University of Virginia as its final home. The fund also supported the construction of the McGregor Library, a large room in the new Alderman Library that housed the Rare Books reading room for several decades. McGregor's collection of rare books, maps, and manuscripts comprised three areas of study: American exploration and history, British literature, and

Cotton Mather Cotton Mather (; February 12, 1663 – February 13, 1728) was a New England Puritan clergyman and a prolific writer. Educated at Harvard College, in 1685 he joined his father Increase as minister of the Congregationalist Old North Meeting H ...

and other members of the Mather family. The collection immediately established the University of Virginia as a center for the study of American history and culture. In 1960, the library received a deposit that established it as a major site for the study of American Literature, when Clifton Waller Barrett placed in the library his major collection of books and manuscripts of major and minor American writers through 1940. The library has continued to collect in the tradition of Barrett since the collection arrived; Barrett's donation was finalized in the early 1990s. The Barrett book collection contains first and other significant editions of virtually every major work of American literature from the nation's founding to 1950, as well as many minor works, since Barrett's collecting interests stretched well beyond the canon. Of particular interest are deep holdings in little known writers, and an extensive collectionof editions and other printed materials related to Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel

Uncle Tom's Cabin ''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U. ...

. Some of the significant manuscript materials held within the Barrett Collection include more than a hundred letters of the early American novelist

Charles Brockden Brown Charles Brockden Brown (January 17, 1771 – February 22, 1810) was an American novelist, historian, and editor of the Early National period. He is generally regarded by scholars as the most important American novelist before James Fenimore C ...

, manuscripts of several major works of

Washington Irving Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...

and

James Fenimore Cooper James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonist and Indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought h ...

, hundreds of manuscript fragments for the significantly enlarged second edition of Walt Whitman's

Leaves of Grass ''Leaves of Grass'' is a poetry collection by American poet Walt Whitman. Though it was first published in 1855, Whitman spent most of his professional life writing and rewriting ''Leaves of Grass'', revising it multiple times until his death. Th ...

, a large collection of the papers of

Louisa May Alcott Louisa May Alcott (; November 29, 1832March 6, 1888) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known as the author of the novel ''Little Women'' (1868) and its sequels ''Little Men'' (1871) and ''Jo's Boys'' (1886). Raised in ...

and the Alcott family, significant manuscripts and correspondence of

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

, the papers of

Stephen Crane Stephen Crane (November 1, 1871 – June 5, 1900) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism an ...

, including a manuscript of

The Red Badge of Courage ''The Red Badge of Courage'' is a war novel by American author Stephen Crane (1871–1900). Taking place during the American Civil War, the story is about a young private of the Union Army, Henry Fleming, who flees from the field of battle. Ove ...

, over 650 letters of

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

, significant holdings in the manuscripts, personal papers, and correspondence of

Lafcadio Hearn , born Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (; el, Πατρίκιος Λευκάδιος Χέρν, Patríkios Lefkádios Chérn, Irish language, Irish: Pádraig Lafcadio O'hEarain), was an Irish people, Irish-Greeks, Greek-Japanese people, Japanese writer, t ...

Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloq ...

(including a recently discovered unpublished poem), and

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...

, and the papers of novelists

John Dos Passos John Roderigo Dos Passos (; January 14, 1896 – September 28, 1970) was an American novelist, most notable for his ''U.S.A.'' trilogy. Born in Chicago, Dos Passos graduated from Harvard College in 1916. He traveled widely as a young man, visit ...

and

Ellen Glasgow Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (April 22, 1873 – November 21, 1945) was an American novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1942 for her novel ''In This Our Life''. She published 20 novels, as well as short stories, to critical ac ...

and poets

Vachel Lindsay Nicholas Vachel Lindsay (; November 10, 1879 – December 5, 1931) was an American poet. He is considered a founder of modern ''singing poetry,'' as he referred to it, in which verses are meant to be sung or chanted. Early years Lindsay was born ...

and

Sara Teasdale Sara Teasdale (August 8, 1884January 29, 1933) was an American lyric poet. She was born Sarah Trevor Teasdale in St. Louis, Missouri, and used the name Sara Teasdale Filsinger after her marriage in 1914. In 1918 she won a Pulitzer Prize for her ...

Thomas Jefferson

The university has long been the home to many original documents relating to Thomas Jefferson and his family. Holdings include hundreds of letters to and from Jefferson, his architectural drawings, family documents, numerous books from Jefferson's library, an extensive research collection of works about Jefferson, and artifacts such as one of his

polygraphs A polygraph, often incorrectly referred to as a lie detector test, is a device or procedure that measures and records several physiological indicators such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while a person is asked an ...

and the telescope with which Jefferson watched the construction of the university from his hilltop home nearby,

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary plantation of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, who began designing Monticello after inheriting land from his father at age 26. Located just outside Charlottesville, V ...

University of Virginia archives and faculty papers

The library documents the history of the university all the way back to its founding; holdings include the original minute book of the Board of Visitors, written mostly in the hand of the first secretary, Thomas Jefferson, as well as the first matriculation book, which documents every student who entered the university in its early decades, including notables such as

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...

. Early ledgers of the university document the building of the university's structures, the renting of enslaved laborers to build and maintain the campus, and the development of a curriculum. Documents from the late nineteenth- through the twentieth century document the development of the university's modern infrastructure, student organizations, expansion of the campus and operations, and debates over the university's refusal to admit women and black students. Papers of many of the university's most prominent faculty are held in Special Collections, including civil rights activist

Julian Bond Horace Julian Bond (January 14, 1940 – August 15, 2015) was an American social activist, leader of the civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the e ...

, physicist

Jesse Beams Jesse Wakefield Beams (December 25, 1898 in Belle Plaine, Kansas – July 23, 1977) was an American physicist at the University of Virginia. Biography Beams completed his undergraduate B.A. in physics at Fairmount College in 1921 and his mas ...

, poet Charles Wright, and novelists

Ann Beattie Ann Beattie (born September 8, 1947) is an American novelist and short story writer. She has received an award for excellence from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and the PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in the short story f ...

and John Casey.

William Faulkner

U.Va. holds the largest collection of printed and manuscript materials related to

. His association with the library began when he came to the university as a visiting faculty member, first in the 1930s and then in the late 1950s. The

William Faulkner Foundation The William Faulkner Foundation (1960-1970) was a charitable organization founded by the novelist William Faulkner in 1960 to support various charitable causes, all educational or literary in nature. The foundation The foundation programs include ...

, which Faulkner founded, was created in part as a mechanism by which to secure the continued deposit of his papers in the university's Manuscripts Collection after his death, which occurred in 1962. This collection, converted from a deposit to a gift in 1962, comprises the bulk of the manuscripts and typescripts of the writer's novels and short stories, along with extensive correspondence and other related materials. In 1960, scholar and bibliographer Linton Massey had donated his massive collection of Faulkner editions, periodicals, and secondary works. Faulkner's daughter, Jill, deposited many further manuscripts and over 300 books from Faulkner's library over the course of many years, and additional Faulkner collections, such as the papers of U.Va. professor and Faulkner biographer Joseph Blotner, have been added. The collection is the basis for
major online archive of Faulkner audio recordings

Virginiana

The collections are an important source for research on the history of Virginia, with particular strength in

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Cha ...

and Central Virginia. Collections of many significant Virginia families, plantations, and businesses are at the core of historical materials documenting Virginia from its earliest days to the present. Plantation and early family papers contain rare information about enslaved persons, including a significant collection of letters written by previously enslaved Virginians who moved to Liberia. The collections are notable in their representation of regional debates over race, including the archives of influential eugenicists and civil rights activists. Also notable are the records of the Charlottesville School Board, which document the era of

desegregation Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups, usually referring to races. Desegregation is typically measured by the index of dissimilarity, allowing researchers to determine whether desegregation efforts are having impact o ...

and

massive resistance Massive resistance was a strategy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd Sr. of Virginia and his brother-in-law James M. Thomson, who represented Alexandria in the Virginia General Assembly, to get the state's white politicians to pass laws and p ...

. Papers of Charlottesville and Albemarle County political figures are wide-ranging.

Political cartoons and caricature

The collections are rich in the genre of political or editorial cartoons, and include the archives of Richmond editorial cartoonist Ed Seibel, UVA alumnus Bob Gorrell, and Art Wood. The Gerald Meeks Collection is a comprehensive collection of examples of American cartoon artists; among its treasures are a large collection of

Oscar Cesare Oscar Edward Cesare (October 7, 1883 – July 25, 1948) was a Swedish-born American caricaturist, painter, draftsman and editorial cartoonist. Biography Cesare was born on 7 October 1883 in Linköping, Sweden. At eighteen he moved to Paris ...

originals. The papers of

Edward Stettinius Jr. Edward Reilly Stettinius Jr. (October 22, 1900 – October 31, 1949) was an American businessman who served as United States Secretary of State under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman from 1944 to 1945, and as U.S. Ambassador ...

include a large number of original editorial cartoons about the founding of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

. A complete set of

Vanity Fair (UK magazine) ''Vanity Fair'' was a British weekly magazine that was published from 1868 to 1914. Founded by Thomas Gibson Bowles in London, the magazine included articles on fashion, theatre, current events as well as word games and serial fiction. The crea ...

caricatures also resides in the library. In 2018 the library acquired the papers and original art of editorial cartoonist and fine artist

Pat Oliphant Patrick Bruce "Pat" Oliphant (born 24 July 1935) is an Australian-born American artist whose career spanned more than sixty years. His body of work as a whole focuses mostly on American and global politics, culture, and corruption; he is particu ...

Gordon Collection

The Gordon Collection (also known as the Douglas H. Gordon Collection) comprises some 1200 volumes of French books dating from the sixteenth through the 19th century. Over 600 were printed before 1600, and many retain their original bindings.

Research and outreach

Special Collections is visited by a wide range of audiences, and its collections likewise have been featured in significant publications worldwide. Major cross-institutional

digital humanities Digital humanities (DH) is an area of scholarly activity at the intersection of computing or Information technology, digital technologies and the disciplines of the humanities. It includes the systematic use of digital resources in the humanitie ...

projects featuring the collections include the ''Walt Whitman Archive'', the Edgar Allan Poe Society's collected e-texts website, the ''Rossetti Archive'', ''Mark Twain in his Times'', and ''Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture''. Among several large digital collections produced in-house are the Jackson Davis Collection, a significant resource for the study of African American educational history and the photo archive of the studio of Rufus Holsinger, who documented life in Charlottesville, Virginia; this was the first University of Virginia collection to join the Digital Public Library of America project and one of the DPLA's founding collections. The library's collections play a prominent role in many courses taught in the

Rare Book School Rare Book School (RBS) is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based at the University of Virginia. It supports the study of the history of books, manuscripts, and related objects. Each year, RBS offers about 30 five-day courses on t ...

, which serves hundreds of scholars, librarians, and book dealers each summer. Of particular interest are the extensive publishers bindings, early printed works, and a working

Hinman Collator The Hinman collator, an early optical collator, was an opto-mechanical device for comparing pairs of documents for differences in the text. Documents that appeared similar were said to “collate”. The collator resulted in rapid advances in the ...

. In 2012, the Special Collections played a significant role in documenting the ouster and reinstatement of the university's president,

Teresa Sullivan Teresa Ann "Terry" Sullivan (born July 9, 1949) is an American sociology professor and university administrator. She was the Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs of Michigan State University from October 2019 to June ...

. Along with collecting physical documentation of the public and press reaction to the events, the library made news for collecting

born digital ''Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives'' is a book by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser exploring the consequences of the wide availability of internet connectivity to the first generation of people born to it, whom Palfr ...

materials and accepting materials collected for the library by members of the public.Ted Strong, "City Woman Wants UVa Board Meetings on the Record,and has the Stenographer to Prove It." ''The Daily Progress'' (August 14, 2012)
/ref>

References

External links

Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library website''Notes from Under Grounds'', the library's blog, which reports on new acquisitions, outreach, and little known collection items
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20130706121435/http://uvamagazine.org/short_course/article/born_digital#.Ua8wctg0_Uh "Born Digital," in the University of Virginia Magazine (Summer 2013) {{Authority control Literary archives in the United States Libraries in Virginia Buildings of the University of Virginia University and college academic libraries in the United States Library buildings completed in 2004 2004 establishments in Virginia Rare book libraries in the United States Special collections libraries in the United States Tourist attractions in Charlottesville, Virginia