The Library’s Entryway Exhibit: Revisited

The Special Collections team is excited to announce the completed renovation of the Law Library’s Entryway Exhibit, which originally premiered in March 2014. The initial iteration as well as the current exhibit were designed by Gropen.

Since the exhibit’s opening, Special Collections has expanded its rare materials, research goals, and understanding of the Law School’s complex history, particularly as it relates to issues of slavery, discrimination, and diversity. The result is a new timeline (or “reader rail”), additional hanging images mounted on the wall, and a redesigned introduction panel which matches the University’s updated brand.

Color photograph of introductory panel to the entryway exhibit

The exhibit is divided between the themes “The Landscape” and “The Law,” inviting patrons to consider significant moments in the Law School’s past within the framework of its physical spaces. Classes were originally taught in the law professor’s residence on the Lawn. The school then moved several times before relocating to North Grounds in 1974. In addition, the exhibit covers Virginia Law’s evolving curriculum and major shifts in student life and culture.

Related Special Collections projects informed the bulk of the exhibit’s revisions, including ongoing research into how professors taught the laws of slavery during the antebellum period, explorations into the historical landscape of North Grounds, and the Law School curricular history book project headed by Postdoctoral Fellow Meggan Cashwell.

While the entryway guides the Law School’s students, faculty, and staff into the library and its resources, we encourage patrons to pause and explore the updated exhibit, and with it, UVA Law’s 200-year history.

Written by

Addie Patrick

Addie Patrick

Addie Patrick is the Library Coordinator with the UVA Law Library. She assists with Special Collections' many projects and with Circulation.

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The Historical Landscape of North Grounds: Video Walking Tour

The Law School moved from Clark Hall to North Grounds in 1974, eleven years after UVA purchased the property to construct its JAG, Law, and Business schools.

But have you ever wondered what was here before the North Grounds complex? Law Special Collections has begun to research this question, and we are excited to announce the launch of our video walking tour which shares our research so far. Explore the website and watch the video here.

Color photograph of brick chimney in ruins.
Albemarle County’s first poor house (1806-1870) was located just behind today’s Law School. Ruins of the poor house superintendent’s house still stand alongside the Rivanna Trail.

Originally slated to be an in-person walking tour during Alumni Reunion, The Historical Landscape of North Grounds presents the multi-layered histories which make up the North Grounds landscape. To name a few, the property was once the site of Albemarle County’s first poor house, the home of the Duke Family and their enslaved laborers, and the location of Charlottesville’s first barbecue grounds.

Today, physical remnants of this landscape are made accessible by the Rivanna Trail. Archival material, archaeological research, and GIS mapping technologies provide greater insight into these histories as well as into the lives of the people who lived and labored here.

This project exemplifies Law Special Collections’ ongoing commitment to preserve and share the institutional history of the Law School, which includes the history of the landscape where the Law School now resides. This summer, we are eager to welcome to the project Jack MacLeod, UVA rising fourth year, who will continue this research as an intern with UVA’s Institute for Public History.

Written by

Addie Patrick

Addie Patrick

Addie Patrick is the Library Coordinator with the UVA Law Library. She assists with Special Collections' many projects and with Circulation.

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