History

        Nurses have been at the forefront of public health crises throughout history and collecting their stories is a mission of the Eleanor Crowder Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry at the University of Virginia‘s School of Nursing. Beth Hundt, clinical assistant professor and Bjoring Center associate; Maura Singleton, Bjoring Center program manager; […]

Land ownership was important to Thomas Jefferson’s ideal of “equal citizenship,” and he looked westward for new frontiers. John Ragosta, a historian at the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello and lead faculty of the Virtual Summer Jefferson Symposium 2020 presented by the University of Virginia‘s Lifetime Learning, looks at how […]

Mildred Wigfall Robinson has been a faculty member of the University of Virginia‘s School of Law since 1985 and is retiring in May. She shares her story of the impact of the 1954 landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education, throughout her lifetime. Robinson and School of Law colleague, Richard J. Bonnie, have published a […]

Beware the Ides of March! In this second part of Dylan Rogers’ article about the influence of Roman architecture on Jefferson’s designs for the University, he takes us on a walk down the Lawn from the Rotunda to Pavilion X. Rogers is a lecturer in Roman Art & Archaeology at the McIntire Department of Art […]

Beware the Ides of March! Just as March 15th was a turning point in Roman history, so too was exposure to Roman architecture a turning point for Thomas Jefferson. Dylan Rogers, Lecturer in Roman Art & Archaeology, describes how Jefferson’s first-hand observations of Roman sites influenced his design of the University of Virginia as well […]

James Madison was a key friend and advisor to Thomas Jefferson as plans for the University of Virginia were developed, and he remained involved in the project after Jefferson’s death. Jim Todd, Assistant Professor in UVA’s Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, gives us an interesting […]

With the Oscar-nominated film, 1917, out in theaters, World War I is a hot topic of conversation among history buffs. C. Brian Kelly remembers Edouard Izac, WWI’s last surviving Medal of Honor recipient and one-time resident of Gordonsville, Virginia–near Charlottesville–who died thirty years ago on January 17. Mr. Kelly is Assistant Professor, Department of English […]

January 16 is Religious Freedom Day and John Ragosta discusses how Thomas Jefferson offered guidance for today’s difficult questions about religion and the law. Mr. Ragosta is the lead faculty for Lifetime Learning‘s Summer Jefferson Symposium and a historian at the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello. The following article by […]

November 30 marks 145 years since Winston Churchill, British military leader and statesman, was born. C. Brian Kelly, Assistant Professor,  Department of English in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia, presents the daring, youthful side of Churchill in his article. Mr. Kelly teaches news writing at UVA […]

‘Tis almost the season for lounging in a comfy armchair with a book in your lap–a big book. Andrew Kaufman, Lecturer, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia, makes a case for choosing Tolstoy’s War and Peace as your holiday reading […]

Fangs, a black cape, the classic widow’s peak—from where did Count Dracula get his distinguished features? Stanley Stepanic, Assistant Professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia, is a Dracula expert. In his article, he gives a history behind the image […]

From the 18th through 20th centuries, the birthing process saw a shift from the hands of female midwives to the instruments of male obstetricians. Lara Musser describes this shift in “Assistants to Nature: Midwives, Obstetrics, and the Medical Turn,” a current exhibit in UVA’s Claude Moore Health Sciences Library. Ms. Musser is a lecturer in […]

  A conference celebrating the bicentennial of the founding of the University of Virginia was sponsored in May 2018 by the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello in cooperation with the American Philosophical Society. The resulting book of essays, The Founding of Thomas Jefferson’s University (ed. by John A. Ragosta, Peter S. Onuf, Andrew […]

Authors Nancy Takahashi and Garth Anderson discuss in detail the University of Virginia‘s historical dependency on resources from “Parcel 1B,” a lesser-known tract of land in the Academical Village. Ms. Takahashi is a Distinguished Lecturer and Director of UVA’s Graduate Landscape Architecture Program in the School of Architecture. Mr. Anderson is the Facilities Historian in […]

“Parcels 1A and 1B” may not have a familiar ring, yet the contributions of this land throughout the University of Virginia’s history are significant. In this article, authors Nancy Takahashi and Garth Anderson explain the long-standing relationship between two tracts of land in the life story of UVA. Nancy Takahashi is a Distinguished Lecturer and […]

Revolutions strain diplomatic relations, and Andrew O’Shaughnessy describes how the American Revolution was no exception. Mr. O’Shaughnessy is a professor in the Corcoran Department of History in the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia and serves as Vice President of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation and Saunders Director of […]