Skip to main content

Holsinger Studio portrait on Rotunda steps

 Unprocessed Material — Flat_Box: Archival Oversized Box M 1, Oversize_Folder(Within_an_OSBox): 1
Identifier: ViU-2022-0144

Content Description

This collection features a single black-and-white photograph of young men and women formally dressed and posed on the University of Virginia Rotunda steps. The men are likely UVa students and faculty. The photograph is dated about 1896 and has a Holsinger, Charlottesville stamp on the left corner. The previous year, a fire destroyed much of the Rotunda and completely leveled the building's sizable annex that housed classroom space, lecture halls, laboratories, and faculty offices. Scaffolding is in the photograph's background, erected during the restoration efforts. The exposed fluted columns of the Rotunda's front facade lack plaster in this scene, a result of the intense heat of the fire. The University commissioned Cabell, Cocke, and Rouss Hall after the fire. These buildings were completed in 1898 and housed facilities once within the destroyed Rotunda annex. The Rotunda was restored to its original form as a library without an elongated annex, an effort completed shortly after the turn of the twentieth century.

Acquisition Type

Gift

Provenance

Transferred by The Valentine Museum; Richmond, Virginia, 03 October 2022.

Restrictions Apply

No

Dates

  • Creation: circa 1896

Creator

Extent

0.09 Cubic Feet (1 medium-sized oversized file folder)

Inventory

1 photograph