The history of the University of Virginia opens with its conception by Thomas Jefferson at the beginning of the early 19th century. The university was chartered in 1819, and classes commenced in 1825.
19th century Background
On January 18, 1800, Thomas Jefferson, then the Vice President of the United States, alluded to plans for a new college in a letter written to British scientist Joseph Priestley: "We wish to establish in the upper country of Virginia, and more centrally for the State, a University on a plan so broad and liberal and modern, as to be worth patronizing with the public support, and be a temptation to the youth of other States to come and drink of the cup of knowledge and fraternize with us."Noble E. Cunningham Jr., In Pursuit of Reason: The Life of Thomas Jefferson, p. 336.
In 1802, while serving as president of the United States, Jefferson wrote to artist Charles Willson Peale that his concept of the new university would be "on the most extensive and liberal scale that our circumstances would call for and our faculties meet".Alf J. Mapp Jr., Thomas Jefferson: Passionate Pilgrim, p. 19. Virginia was already home to The College of William & Mary, but Jefferson lost confidence in his alma mater, partly because of its religious stances and lack of courses in the sciences.Phillips Russell, Jefferson, Champion of the Free Mind, p. 335. Although Jefferson had flourished under the tutelage of College of William & Mary professors William Small and George Wythe, his concerns with the College became great enough by 1800 that he wrote: "We have in that State, a college just well enough endowed to draw out the miserable existence to which a miserable constitution has doomed it."Circular of Information, State Board of Education, United States Bureau of Education. Washington (State) Superintendent of Public Instruction. Published by State Board of Education, 1888. p. 48. Thus, he began planning a university more aligned with his educational ideals.John Seiler Brubacher, Willis Rudy. Higher Education in Transition: A History of American Colleges and Universities, Transaction Publishers, 1997, p. 148. Jefferson also pushed for the establishment of the planned university to prevent young Southern men from attending Northern colleges where they might be exposed to anti-slavery sentiment; the historian Leslie M. Harris describes the university as being founded partly as a "pro-slavery bulwark".
Founding The University of Virginia stands on a farm that had once been owned by American Revolutionary War veteran (and eventual fifth president of the United States), James Monroe. Research conducted for the Ash Lawn-Highland Museum and the Institute for Public History of the University of Virginia in 1998: in 1788-9 George Nicholas had sold the land to James Monroe (without a recorded deed); in 1810 Monroe's attorney sold it to George Divers to pay Monroe's creditors; in 1810 it was resold to John Nicholas; in 1814 resold again to John Perry; and in 1820 the Proctor of the University bought the land from its then-owner John Perry for the university. Guided by Jefferson, the school laid its first building's cornerstone in late 1817, and the Commonwealth of Virginia chartered the new college on January 25, 1819. John Hartwell Cocke led efforts with James Madison, Monroe, and Joseph Carrington Cabell to fulfill Jefferson's dream to establish the university. Cocke and Jefferson were appointed to the building committee to supervise the construction.
In the presence of James Madison, the Marquis de Lafayette toasted Jefferson as "father" of the University of Virginia at the school's inaugural banquet in 1824. The university's first classes met on March 7, 1825. Other universities of the day allowed only three choices of specialization: medicine, law, and religion. Under Jefferson's guidance, the University of Virginia became the first in the United States to allow specializations in such diverse fields as astronomy, architecture, botany, philosophy, and political science. Jefferson explained, "This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it."Dumas Malone, Jefferson and His Time: The Sage of Monticello, p. 417-418.
An even more controversial direction was taken for the new university based on a daring vision that higher education should be completely separated from religious doctrine. One of the largest construction projects in North America up to that time, the new Grounds were centered upon a library (then housed in the Rotunda) rather than a church – further distinguishing it from peer universities of the United States, most of which were still primarily functioning as seminaries for one particular religion or another.Joseph J. Ellis, American Sphinx, p. 283. Jefferson even went so far as to ban the teaching of theology altogether. In a letter to Thomas Cooper in October 1814, Jefferson stated, "a professorship of theology should have no place in our institution"“Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 7 October 1814,” Founders Online, National Archives and Records Administration, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-08-02-0007. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 8, 1 October 1814 to 31 August 1815, ed. J. Jefferson Looney. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011, pp. 12–13.] and, true to form, the university has never had a divinity school; it was established independent of any religious sect. Replacing the then-standard specialization in religion, the university undertook groundbreaking specializations in scientific subjects such as astronomy and botany. (However, today UVA does maintain a strong religious studies department. A non-denominational chapel, notably absent from Jefferson's original plans, was constructed in 1890.)
Early years Jefferson was intimately involved in the university, hosting Sunday dinners at his Monticello home for faculty and students until his death. So taken with the import of what he viewed the university's foundations and potential to be, and counting it amongst his greatest accomplishments, Jefferson insisted his grave mention only his status as the author of the Declaration of Independence and Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and father of the University of Virginia. Thus, he eschewed mention of his presidency and national accomplishments in favor of being remembered for the newly established university. Until the 1890s students were all male, and until 1950 all were white.
In 1826, the nation's fourth president, James Madison, became rector of the University of Virginia, at the same time America's fifth president, James Monroe, made his home on the grounds (at Monroe Hill) and was a member of the board of visitors. Both former presidents stayed at the university until their deaths in the 1830s.
The same year, 1826, poet Edgar Allan Poe enrolled at the university, where he excelled in Latin. The Raven Society, an organization named after Poe's most famous poem, continues to maintain 13 West Range, the room Poe inhabited during the single semester he attended the University (he left because of financial difficulties).
The School of Engineering and Applied Science opened in 1836, making it the first engineering school in the United States to be attached to a comprehensive university.
Initially, some of the students arriving at the university matched the then-common picture of college students; wealthy, spoiled aristocrats with a sense of privilege which often led to brawling, or worse. This was a source of frustration for Jefferson, who assembled the students during the school's first year, on October 3, 1825, to criticize such behavior; but was too overcome to speak. He later spoke of this moment as "the most painful event" of his life. The irresponsible behavior of the students culminated in the murder of Professor John A. G. Davis, Chairman of the Faculty, in 1840."Bad Boys", Virginia, Carlos Santos
According to a 96-page report published by the University in 2019, "slavery was “in every way imaginable...central to the project of designing, funding, building, and maintaining the school.” The university has erected a Memorial to Enslaved Laborers.
Support for the Confederacy At the onset of the American Civil War the University of Virginia was the largest in the Southern United States and second nationwide only to Harvard University in number of students and faculty.Encyclopædia Britannica, University of Virginia, retrieved December 5, 2020.
The university was a center of pro-slavery thought: "In the 1850s, many justified southern universities—and especially the University of Virginia—because they defended slavery as a core part of southern values." When Harriet Beecher Stowe's sister Catherine came to the campus in 1855, she was burned in effigy.
The university was a "hotbed of the Confederacy". Most of the students at the time supported secession, and some who opposed it believed that maintaining the Union was the best way to keep slavery intact. About 90% of the student body enrolled in Confederate military units.
In 1862, 18-year-old Confederate captain Gratz Cohen became the first known Jewish student. He was also elected president of the Jefferson Society. He was killed three years later at the Battle of Bentonville.
Unlike many other colleges in the South, the university was kept open throughout the conflict, although in 1863 and 1864 there were only about 50 students, most of them wounded Confederate soldiers. In March 1865, Union General George Armstrong Custer marched his troops into Charlottesville, bringing with them the Emancipation Proclamation and freeing all the enslaved. Faculty and community leaders convinced Custer to spare the university. Though Union troops camped on the Lawn and damaged many of the Pavilions, Custer's men left four days later without bloodshed and the university was able to return to its educational routines.
20th century
The university's first president Jefferson, ever the skeptic of central authority and bureaucracy, had originally decided that the University of Virginia would have no president. Rather, this power was to be shared by a rector and a board of visitors. As the 19th century waned, it became obvious this cumbersome arrangement was incapable of adequately handling the many administrative and fundraising tasks that had become necessary to support the growing University.Encyclopedia Virginia, "President Edwin Alderman": "By the turn of the 20th century the administrative affairs had grown to such an extent that the old form of government became too cumbersome. The appointment of Alderman brought a new era of progressivism to the university and service to Virginia." Retrieved 25 January 2012.
In 1904, Edwin Alderman resigned as president of Tulane University to take the same position at the University of Virginia. As the university's first president, he embarked on a number of reforms for both the university and the state of Virginia's public educational systems in general. A reform specific to the University of Virginia was one of the first school-sponsored financial aid programs in all of higher learning and, though primitive by today's standards, it included a loan provision for needy men who were unable to pay. Initially controversial and opposed by many at what had become a very traditional school, Alderman's progressive ideas stood the test of time. He remains the longest-tenured president in the university's history, having served for twenty-six years until his death in 1931. Alderman Library was named in his honor, though it was later renamed to Shannon Library due to Alderman's associations with eugenics.
World War II