If You Did It, Show It: A Confessory Manuscript for Deaf People

This post, by Ellen Welch, Manuscript and Archives Processor, is about the recent acquisition: Illustrated Manuscript Confessory for Deaf People (MSS 16803). This leather-bound manuscript serves as a confessional aid, containing illustrations depicting a variety of sins from which a … Continue reading

Beyond Making the Grade: Student and Life success at UVA (in 1854 and 2022)

As students approach their final exams for the Fall of 2022, Manuscript and Archives processor Ellen Welch is pleased to share an original letter from a new acquisition of the Bennett Taylor Papers (MSS 9221), written in 1854 from a … Continue reading

Special Collections Catalogs and Catalogers

This post was contributed by Seonyoo Min, Rare Book Cataloging Intern at the Small Special Collections Library. The Guanhailou Collection is a collection of East Asian rare books formed by Soren Edgren, Editorial Director of the Chinese Rare Book Project … Continue reading

Othello Tillo Freeman and the Otis Mead Chalmers Family Papers

Small Special Collections Library Manuscript and Archives Processor Ellen Welch is back with another story from her work to process the papers of Anna Maria Hickman Otis Mead Chalmers (1809-1891):    It has been very exciting to process this collection and … Continue reading

Juneteenth 2022: The Nansemond County Training School 1924-1970

Juneteenth was originally established to commemorate June 19, 1865, when enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas heard the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation and learned that they were free. However, Juneteenth is not the only freedom celebration in the United … Continue reading

A Curator’s Wunderkammer: A Decade of Collecting for UVA

On the occasion of his retirement—after a decade of curatorial work at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library—David R. Whitesell departs the University of Virginia Library having made significant contributions to the collection. Upon his arrival in 2012, … Continue reading

Picketing and Petitioning: Desegregation at the University of Virginia and Charlottesville Virginia in the 1960’s

This post, in celebration of Black History Month, is contributed by Archives and Manuscripts Processor Ellen Welch in the Small Special Collections Library: While processing a new collection—the Papers of Dr. Allison Burnett (MSS 16656), a biology professor and civil … Continue reading

Keeping Score: The 1981-1982 Virginia Cavaliers Men’s Basketball Team

We are very excited to share some photographs of the 1981-1982 Virginia Cavaliers Men’s basketball team transferred from the University’s Athletic department and now housed in our Small Special Collections Library. This blog post was contributed by Ellen Welch (Manuscripts … Continue reading

Tales from Under Grounds III: Drinking and Gambling

This is the final in a series of three posts, spotlighting the mini-exhibitions of students from USEM 1580: Researching History, Fall 2015. *** Matthew Parker, First-Year Student Alcohol and Parties at the University of Virginia Drinking has been a part … Continue reading

Tales from Under Grounds III: Biblical Art and The Architecture of Monticello

This is the second in a series of three posts, spotlighting the mini-exhibitions of students from USEM 1580: Researching History, Fall 2015. *** Carolyn Ours, Second-Year Student “He has made everything beautiful in its time”: Biblical Art and Typography Through … Continue reading