- Guest post by UVA Library Special Collections Conservator Sue Donovan
On September 12, 2020, the time capsule underneath the “At Ready”/“Johnny Reb” statue in front of the Albemarle County Courthouse came out of the ground after crews had carefully removed the tons of granite and bronze sitting over it. The time capsule, a copper box containing papers, books, and other artifacts, had been placed into a hole in the concrete foundation. The foundation had expanded over time, pressing in on the sides of the thin copper box, and causing the box lid to pop off. This meant that the time capsule had been soaking in groundwater since slightly after it was buried in 1909. Silt from the groundwater colored the water brown, coated the exterior of the contents, and effectively acted as an adhesive between the surfaces of once-distinct books and rosters. As the water level rose, the contents of the time capsule became bathed in a malignant microcosm perpetuated by a mixture of the inherent acidity of the paper, the metal of the box itself, and nature’s ultimate solvent: water.
The Library online resource "Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876" features publications from 22 islands, covering 150 years of Caribbean history (most of the 18th and 19th centuries) in more than 140 fully searchable titles. These documents provide valuable insights into the islands’ sugar cane plantocracies and the traffic in African lives that fueled the empires of colonizing countries England, Spain, France, and Denmark.
"Caribbean Newspapers" is an essential source for research in:
New! The Library offers full issues of Time and Life magazine online, cover to cover with all pictures and ads intact. Click “Research” at the top of the Library homepage. Look in the A–Z list of online resources to find the Time Magazine Archive or Life Magazine Archive. At the EBSCO search page, type search terms. All results will be from that publication.
Guest post by: Kennedy Castillo (UVA Linguistics MA, 2019), Lise Dobrin (UVA Associate Professor of Anthropology and Linguistics Program Director), Liam Donohue (UVA Anthropology and Environmental Science BA, 2019), Grace East (UVA Anthropology PhD Candidate), Edith Kachia (Visiting Fulbright Swahili TA, 2018-19), Jenny Lee (UVA English and American Studies BA, 2019), Dakota Marsh (UVA English BA, 2020), Jacob Nelson (UVA Linguistics BA, 2020), Will Norton (UVA Linguistics BA, 2020)
The renovated space includes flexible areas for individual and group study and research throughout the building, as well as new elevators, bathrooms, and stairwells, and all-new mechanical infrastructure.
Section perspective from west, looking east towards the Rotunda. HBRA Architects with Clark Nexsen, October 22, 2018.
Basement
Mechanical rooms and building storage will be located on the basement level, as will compact shelving and processing areas for Rare Books School and Library and Flowerdew Hundred closed collections.
As the spring semester continues, libraries across Grounds fill with students reviewing notes, finishing projects and writing papers late into the evening.
“We are facing a technology that is so disruptive … that I have never seen something like this disrupting education in my lifetime, calculators, internet and computers — I don't think any of them can compare to what is happening right now,” Library Dean Leo Lo said.
An estimated 2,000 people, from fourth graders to senior citizens, formed a line outside the Rotunda for a chance to view the “McGregor Dunlap broadside” copy of the declaration, one of two in the University Library’s Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. The copies are among just 26 originals known to still exist.
Hundreds of visitors lined up at the University of Virginia’s Rotunda on Monday, February 16 to view one of the nation’s earliest printed copies of the Declaration of Independence. The broadside on display is one of two copies UVA Library preserves.
