Post by Cliff Krainik on Nov 11, 2004 17:01:08 GMT -5
"New U-Va. Collections Library Showcases the Documents of 1776
By Tara Bahrampour
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 11, 2004; Page B04
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Nov. 10 -- In a brand-new climate-controlled room with scalloped cherry-wood paneling sits a 228-year-old letter written the day America was born.
"I arrived in Congress (tho detained by Thunder and Rain) time Enough to give my Voice in the matter of Independence," wrote Caesar Rodney, a 48-year-old Delaware representative to the colonial legislature who left home at midnight and rode all night to Philadelphia to cast his vote for the Declaration of Independence on July 2, 1776. He wrote about it to his brother two days later.
The letter, whose flowery script has faded to burnt umber, is part of a collection of Declaration-related documents that opened Wednesday at the University of Virginia's new Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. The bi-level, 58,000-square-foot underground facility, which will house the university's collections of rare archival material, will open in phases over the next month.
The library is co-named for Albert H. Small, a Maryland real estate developer and University of Virginia alumnus who has been collecting Declaration-related material since the 1950s. He donated his 235-piece collection to the university five years ago, but it has not had a permanent exhibition space until now.
Although the library is below ground, it feels lofty and airy, with a grand spiral staircase and skylights that cast bars of sunlight across the ceiling. It boasts 12 miles of shelving, and digital cameras for photographing fragile documents. Above it, a new, two-story structure, the Mary and David Harrison Institute for American History, Literature and Culture, will provide space for related events. The project cost $10 million in state funds and $16 million in private donations.
The university's special collections include 300,000 rare books, 14 million manuscripts, 4,000 maps, and other artifacts, including Jorge Luis Borges' drawings and Walt Whitman's original manuscript of "Leaves of Grass."
But the center of attention Wednesday was the Declaration of Independence. At a ceremony attended by Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) and Gov. Mark R. Warner (D), a beaming Small described tense auctions in which he wrangled with other bidders to amass his collection.
"It's the thrill of the chase," he said. "It's in your blood."
Besides the famous "Thunder and Rain" letter, the exhibit includes a copy of the Declaration that might have belonged to George Washington, who was camped outside New York City that summer and is said to have ordered the Declaration read to his troops.
There is also a proclamation by Massachusetts's royal governor, Thomas Gage, written a few months before Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration, that offers amnesty to anyone involved in the rebellion against the British crown -- except Samuel Adams and John Hancock, whose activities Gage considered unforgivable.
The crown jewel of the collection is a rare first printing of the Declaration by John Dunlap on the evening of July 4, 1776, one of 25 known to survive.
Small said he preferred to donate his collection to the university, where the public could see it easily, rather than to the Library of Congress, where it would be "just in file drawers." "These 56 signers put their necks on the chopping block," he said. "After the Declaration was signed, the British went after them. They were hunted. Their houses were burned."
Young people especially do not realize the drama of the Declaration, he said. "
Cliff Krainik
By Tara Bahrampour
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 11, 2004; Page B04
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Nov. 10 -- In a brand-new climate-controlled room with scalloped cherry-wood paneling sits a 228-year-old letter written the day America was born.
"I arrived in Congress (tho detained by Thunder and Rain) time Enough to give my Voice in the matter of Independence," wrote Caesar Rodney, a 48-year-old Delaware representative to the colonial legislature who left home at midnight and rode all night to Philadelphia to cast his vote for the Declaration of Independence on July 2, 1776. He wrote about it to his brother two days later.
The letter, whose flowery script has faded to burnt umber, is part of a collection of Declaration-related documents that opened Wednesday at the University of Virginia's new Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. The bi-level, 58,000-square-foot underground facility, which will house the university's collections of rare archival material, will open in phases over the next month.
The library is co-named for Albert H. Small, a Maryland real estate developer and University of Virginia alumnus who has been collecting Declaration-related material since the 1950s. He donated his 235-piece collection to the university five years ago, but it has not had a permanent exhibition space until now.
Although the library is below ground, it feels lofty and airy, with a grand spiral staircase and skylights that cast bars of sunlight across the ceiling. It boasts 12 miles of shelving, and digital cameras for photographing fragile documents. Above it, a new, two-story structure, the Mary and David Harrison Institute for American History, Literature and Culture, will provide space for related events. The project cost $10 million in state funds and $16 million in private donations.
The university's special collections include 300,000 rare books, 14 million manuscripts, 4,000 maps, and other artifacts, including Jorge Luis Borges' drawings and Walt Whitman's original manuscript of "Leaves of Grass."
But the center of attention Wednesday was the Declaration of Independence. At a ceremony attended by Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) and Gov. Mark R. Warner (D), a beaming Small described tense auctions in which he wrangled with other bidders to amass his collection.
"It's the thrill of the chase," he said. "It's in your blood."
Besides the famous "Thunder and Rain" letter, the exhibit includes a copy of the Declaration that might have belonged to George Washington, who was camped outside New York City that summer and is said to have ordered the Declaration read to his troops.
There is also a proclamation by Massachusetts's royal governor, Thomas Gage, written a few months before Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration, that offers amnesty to anyone involved in the rebellion against the British crown -- except Samuel Adams and John Hancock, whose activities Gage considered unforgivable.
The crown jewel of the collection is a rare first printing of the Declaration by John Dunlap on the evening of July 4, 1776, one of 25 known to survive.
Small said he preferred to donate his collection to the university, where the public could see it easily, rather than to the Library of Congress, where it would be "just in file drawers." "These 56 signers put their necks on the chopping block," he said. "After the Declaration was signed, the British went after them. They were hunted. Their houses were burned."
Young people especially do not realize the drama of the Declaration, he said. "
Cliff Krainik