 |
From
top: 1915 photograph of artist Georgia
O’Keeffe, who taught summer school at U.Va. from 1913
to 1916. With the advent of coeducation in the fall of 1970,
undergraduate women showed up for move-in day. Elizabeth N.
Tompkins, the first woman to graduate from the School of Law,
finished near the top of her class in 1923. A "certificate
of proficiency" was given to Caroline Preston Davis in
lieu of a degree in 1892. |
From Georgia O’Keeffe to majority
status
Library exhibits history of women at U.Va.
“A plan of female education has never been a subject
of systematic contemplation with me.”
—
Thomas Jefferson, 1818
By
Charlotte Morford Scott
The
history of women at the University of Virginia is usually told
as a recent one, beginning with the admission of undergraduate
women in 1970.
A
new exhibition at U.Va’s Alderman
Library shows how the long, rich history of women at U.Va.
actually began in the 1800s, long before the milestone of coeducation.
“Breaking
and Making Tradition: Women at the University of Virginia”
presents rare letters, photographs and other documents that tell
the stories of female faculty, staff and students at the “traditionally
male” University. And it makes clear how women of earlier
generations carved their own paths at the male-dominated institution.
The
exhibition draws on historic materials from the University archives
and artifacts borrowed from around the University, including the
Alumni Association, the Nursing School and the Law School. Some
of the rare items on view are:
•
The “non-diploma” awarded U.Va.’s first female
graduate, Caroline Preston Davis, who in 1892 met the requirements
for a mathematics B.A. but received a “certificate of proficiency”
(a U.Va. diploma with word “graduate” scratched out)
instead.
•
A 1915 photograph of a young eorgia O’Keeffe, who taught
at U.Va.’s summer school from 1913 to 1916.
•
A 1922 letter from Elizabeth Tompkins, the School of Law’s
first female graduate (and also the first woman admitted to the
Virginia State Bar), to her father, in which she describes her
dismay over the “mob of men” at the school who are “more
repulsive than snakes that crawl in the grass.”
 |
| Photographed
with other members of the Board of Visitors in 1933, Mary
Cooke-Branch Munford served on the board for 12 years and
was a tireless advocate for women and their inclusion in the
University. Alice Jackson was denied admission to the University
in 1935 because she was African American, a decision that
drew national attention to U.Va.’s discriminatory practices.
1909 photograph of summer school students. |
•
The 1935 correspondence between Alice Jackson, the first African
American to apply to the University, and the Board of Visitors.
The rejection of Jackson’s application on the basis of race
paved the way for a state policy of providing African-American
students with scholarships to attend out-of-state schools.
“Most
people think that the history of women at U.Va. began with full
coeducation in 1970,” says Mercy Quintos, the library’s
exhibitions coordinator. ‘Breaking and Making Tradition’
shows that women have always been a force here, and in some creative
and surprising ways.”
The
exhibition is open in Alderman’s McGregor Room Monday through
Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For directions or information,
call Special Collections at 924-3025.
Excerpts
from the exhibition are also online at http://www.lib.virginia.edu/
exhibits/women.
Timeline
of Women at U.Va.
|
