Transcripts For CSPAN2 Thomas Jeffersons University Of Virginia Papers 20170417

Up next we take you to checks lie library to learn more about the jefferson papers. Jefferson is the founder of uva. He worked for many, many years to develop a system of education in virginia. Uva was his he said it was his last great project, which he did after the left the white house. He designedded the building, the curriculum, he served as the first rector or chair of the board of visitors. He was intime natalie involved, as you will see in a lot of the details about billing the buildings. Is it calls an academic village and if you look at his manor university, at the time a lot of universities consisted of one big building where classes were held and jeffersons idea was to essentially make a village out of it, with the students living near the professors and classes being given in the professors homes and so there was all this constant interaction of student and faculty. Plus its in charlottesville in the 1820s, a small town, village, really, if you think about these amazing buildings that went up in the 1820s, sitting out in the middle of nowhere in virginia, it was part of his ideal of the United States is an Agrarian Society and the elite becoming leaders s of the country and that sort of thing. The University Archives are the official Historical Records of the university, and they go back to actually long before the university was chartered by the state. That was in 1819. And records good back to 1814, to the two institutions that preceded uva, the archives, as i said, are four million items. Its the records of the board of visitors and the records of the president this deans, provosts this library, every facet of the university. Its paper, its sound recordings, its video recordings, its digital material, its email, web sites. Anything that is a historic record of the university we try to capture. These are the early records. Some that go back to 1817. This is a letter that jefferson wrote in 1817 to william thornton, who was the man he assigned to work on the United States Capitol Building help he was president. So they were very good friends, and jefferson wrote to thornton about this ideas for the university, and youll see in the milled he included a little sketch of what he was thinking, sort of openended rectangle with pavilions and dormitory rooms and then an open area the says is grass and trees no more detail than that. And so thats one of his very fitz conceptions for the very first conceptions for the university. A basic part of the idea but a changed dramatically between the time he drew that sketch and the universitys actually completion. It was nine years after this sketch this was 1817 and the university was complete in 1826. Each of the ten pavilions were inhabited by a professor and they taught their classes there in the pavilion, and so they lived among the students and the students lived adjacent to the faculty and that was jeffersons idea that the proximity would result in all kinds of educational and intellectual exchange. So this is pavilion seven, the first building construct ted university. It is now the colon a colonnade club, faculty club, that was before the university what chartererred and this is a jefferson architectural drawing with an elevation and floor plans for each of the ten pavilions. You can see he didnt quite get his scale right, and had to glue on a small piece of paper to complete he chimney stack. Like that. Makes him a little more human issue think, that he could actually make mistake like that. And so this is an example. The ground floor of the pavilion here is two large rooms. The upstairs and the cellar. The upstairs is the living room for the family and the lower floor of the cellar is where the cooking happened and where some of the slaves who work for the professors would have lived. Obviously you can see its neoclassical and he was very much interested in classical architecture. One of his big source books was the four books of architecture in an edition in english that came out, i believe in 1721, and he used those to draw inoperation, especially for the pavilions, for the various pavilions. Each one is different. The wented the university be an openair classroom even in the building so you can see the classic arctic tour and architecture and different styles and features and thats what we handed to have happen. The University Got off the grounds officialfully 1819 when the General Assembly gave the university a charter, and gave the University Funding to continue building buildings. Very critical, as is always is. And this is a ledger that was maintained by the proctor, who was essentially the chief operating officer of the university. Its called the day book, and in 18th century, 19th century accounting. This where is wrote wrote down incoming and outgoing funds every day and you would eventually transfer them officially to a ledger, under the various funds you establish balances. The great thing about this is the proctor actually made notes to himself about what some of these expenses were for, and so it goes from things like a barrel of nails, to a 500pounds of flour, to x number of board feet of lumber, to hauling bricks and hauling earth, and most importantly, for uva, it shows you the source of the labor that was used to actually build the buildings, and here on this page the proctor has recorded payments that were made to individuals for the hire of slaves, and the slavers are actually named. You can see here is payment for his tom. Thats the name of a slave. And then barrett and george. So, we know who the individuals were and what the name of the slave was who was hired to work here at uva, and this goes on and on and on throughout the years of construction. Its been identified that probably overall there was somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 to 75 uniquely named slaves. Sometimes when were not sure if the same slave with the same name is the same person, and of course, not every slave was hired for the duration. It was common that a slave hire was opportunity for a year, and that on the new year, a new contract would be offer to the ownter and renegotiated. I aspect lot of this was done monthly or daily or weekly with the owner. If you finished moving earth for the terraces you dont need as much labor so you can send them back to their owner to work. On the other hand if you have someone who is skilled carpenter, perhaps, or skilled at making bricks you might need them for much longer. Of course this is the rotunda. The most iconic building of the university. Think its what everybody think about when they think of uva. Its baited baited on the model of the pantheon in rome and a model that jefferson adapted from the palat oui volumes. We. In the lower corn heir says its corner he says its the library which it was and its the library from 1826 to 1938 and were always very proud of that. It served as the library and a classroom building, Chemistry Lab in the basement, meeting rooms, the center of university life. Its changed dramatically in the 20th century, as i said it was the library until 1938, and then a new main library, alderman library, ajayce sent to this build ajason this build was build and then the rotunda was used for event space and offices and until world war ii until very recently there was not a lot of assigned activity to the rotunda. It was more of a ceremonial space, and students could actually go here there four years without ever having to go into the rotunda which didnt seem like quite the right thing, and so recently the rotunda has undergone two years worth of repair and renovation, and with an eye specifically to making it more accessible and more appealing to students to use, to study in the dome room to study in the other rooms and and have it open later at night, have spaced that more classes can meet. So, theyre trying really hard and i think its a great idea to bring it back to the center of academic life and not just the end of the law. Theres no question jefferson would be astonishinged about uva today. Surely from size alone. If you think about the size of the original buildings versus what exists now at uva, its immense. The student body is enormous. Before the civil war the highest enrollment that uva had was Something Like 800 students. Now were in the tens of thousands of students. Obviously other things that would astonishing him are the fact that women are being educated at uva and africanamericans are being educated at uva and students from all around to world are being educated at uv and yet theres still a great deal about his original vision that has survived, and i think that is probably as astonishing as anything. Treatment and. Up next, bill gertz examines how modern warfare has einvolved with the introduction of new technology and what the u. S. Has