History

  Written by: Abby Palko, Director of the Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center at UVA   Here at the Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center, we celebrate International Women’s Month, which grew out of International Women’s Day. Because International Women’s Day always falls during Spring Break, we feel it’s important to offer programming throughout the month […]

  Written by Barbara A. Perry, White Burkett Miller Center Professor of Ethics and Institutions and Presidential Studies Director at UVA’s Miller Center.  She is the author of Jacqueline Kennedy: First Lady of the New Frontier and numerous publications on the Kennedy presidency and family.  You can follow her on Twitter @BarbaraPerryUVA.   This week […]

Written by Corinne Field, University of Virginia Assistant Professor of Women, Gender and Sexuality In the past few years, black girls around the globe have proved their power as political activists, creative artists, and community builders.  From #SayHerName and #BlackGirlMagic in the US to student protests in France and South Africa, black girls have led […]

  Written by: Barbara A. Perry, White Burkett Miller Professor of Ethics and Institutions; Director, Presidential Studies; Co-Chair, Presidential Oral History Program, Miller Center Valentine’s Day 1962 established First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy as a modern TV star when she hosted A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy, which was broadcast on […]

Written by Barbara A. Perry, White Burkett Miller Professor of Ethics and Institutions at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, where she is Director of Presidential Studies and Co-Chair of the Presidential Oral History Program Gerald Ford observed in his memoir that “few appointments a president makes can have as much impact on the future […]

  Written by Richard Guy Wilson, Commonweath Professor’s Chair in Architectural History, University of Virginia     The years 1784-1789 Thomas Jefferson spent in Paris and in Europe. They proved to be extremely important in the development of his appreciation of architecture, landscape and garden design, painting and sculpture, decorative and other arts. He loved the […]

Written by: John Ragosta, Summer Jefferson Symposium Lead Faculty; Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, Fellow Teaching history has changed a great deal in my lifetime. Of course, the fixation on dates, names, battles, and speeches went out many years ago – although it lingers in too  many places like old leftovers in the fridge. And […]

We at the University of Virginia’s Alumni & Parent Engagement grieve with you as we remember the Civil Rights Legend, Julian Bond, in light of his passing on August 15, 2015. We remember Julian Bond as a passionate teacher and leader here at the University of Virginia, always willing to give back by sharing his […]

By: Corinne Field, Lecturer, Corcoran Department of History and Women, Gender & Sexuality Program For historians who focus on the lives of African American women, late winter is a busy time.  First come invitations to celebrate Black History Month in February, then requests to honor Women’s History Month in March. As this year’s celebrations wind […]

By: Kirt von Daacke, Associate Professor of History and Assistant Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences and Co-Chair, President’s Commission on Slavery and the University As the spring 2015 semester begins at the University of Virginia, we are now only two years away from the beginnings of what will surely be several years of bicentennial […]

By Kevin Edds “No jokes, no flattery, no sympathy. This is a serious business.” These were the words spoken by U.Va. President Edwin Alderman to a crowd of supporters at a “football mass meeting”—or pep rally—in 1924.  The scene was the precursor to the U.Va.-UNC football game, a rivalry that was born in 1892.  That […]

By John Ragosta Earlier this week, Althea Brooks from Lifetime Learning in Alumni and Parent Engagement sent me an article concerning Morven, the 3,000 acre property which John W. Kluge donated to the University of Virginia, most of which had in its time been purchased by Thomas Jefferson for his secretary, William Short. Those that had […]

By Andrew Burstein Source: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/02/thomas-jefferson-france-lafayette-monticello-103303.html#.UvoWw7RDVCM In the final years of Thomas’s Jefferson’s life, America’s best friend in Europe was also the last surviving commander of Continental Army forces. The Marquis de Lafayette was a fatherless French aristocrat, inspired by the Declaration of Independence, who outfitted a vessel and sailed the Atlantic to commit to the […]

Barbara A. Perry Senior Fellow UVA’s Miller Center Presidential Oral History Program You could almost narrate a century of United States history through Rose Kennedy’s captivating biography.  Her nearly 104 years in the political limelight spanned almost half of the American republic’s own life. Eulogized by Life magazine as “part nun, part enchantress, part ward […]

COMMENTARY by Andrew O’Shaughnessy (Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello) This is a commentary on the following book entry:   “American War of Independence (1775-1783)” by Stephen Conway (UCL) Stephen Conway is a leading British historian of the American Revolution. He is an appropriate successor to his former supervisor I.R. Christie at […]

By John Ragosta Faculty Director, Summer Jefferson Symposium I just received a very nice electronic wish for a happy and healthy Thanksgiving season from UVA’s Lifetime Learning. I always appreciate such cards, electronic and otherwise, bringing my thoughts back, if only briefly, to people, places, and times that are very fond memories. I was also asked […]