Photo by Katherine Kayser

Left to right: U.Va. President John T. Casteen III, Sen. George F. Allen, Shirley Small, Albert Small, Gov. Mark Warner and University Librarian Karin Wittenborg at the ribbon-cutting of the new Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library

November 16, 2004

By Matt Kelly

An exhibit based on Mr. Jefferson’s words is now on display at Mr. Jefferson’s University.

The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, formally dedicated Nov. 10, is the permanent home for the Smalls’ Declaration of Independence Collection, considered the most comprehensive in the world.

Albert and Shirley Small donated a sizeable gift towards the construction of the new library. Mr. Small, a former Board of Visitors member and a real-estate developer in Bethesda, Md., and his wife had also pledged their Declaration of Independence collection to the University. The exhibit, which features rare copies and letters, opened Wednesday afternoon following the dedication ceremony.

Gov. Mark R. Warner, Sen. George F. Allen (R-Va.), University President John T. Casteen III and University Librarian Karin Wittenborg were among the speakers at the ceremony. They joined the Smalls for the ribbon cutting, using gold scissors.

After collecting Americana for more than 50 years, the Smalls were pleased their Declaration of Independence collection would reside with the University, whose founder also was the author of the document’s first draft.

The permanent exhibit — “The Declaration of Independence: Creating and Re-Creating America’s Document” —sheds light on the writing and signing of the Declaration, and also on its first printing, distribution across the colonies and future impact on American history.

The exhibit’s centerpiece is an extremely rare first printing of the Declaration created by John Dunlap on the evening of July 4, 1776. Today, only 25 of these first copies are known to exist. Also included are early newspaper printings that describe how news of independence spread from Philadelphia throughout the colonies. The exhibit continues with rare early printings from after the Revolutionary War, including one that was owned by the Marquis de Lafayette.

Another treasure in the Small Collection is a set of autographed letters from all 56 of the Declaration’s signers, most dating from 1776. Highlights of these letters also are on display.

To give visual context to the written materials, the exhibit features reproductions of period illustrations drawn from U.Va.’s Special Collections and other libraries. A 12-minute documentary film also brings the dramatic events of the nation’s founding to life.

“This collection offers a unique resource for studying the Declaration and its impact on our development as a country,” Wittenborg said. “It also illustrates the passion and bravery of the individual signers and gives us their personal stories. Mr. and Mrs. Small’s wonderful generosity means that we can share this important resource — not only with U.Va. students and faculty — but with all visitors to the University.”

The Smalls want the display to make the Declaration of Independence accessible.

“We placed this collection here because we knew it would be available to the people — not just scholars, not just students and faculty, but to the thousands of visitors who come to the University each year,” Mr. Small said.

After the Declaration was signed, copies were made by local printers to be posted or read by town criers.

“It’s a story of how news traveled when there was no CNN, no C-SPAN, no New York Times, no Worldwide Web,” Small said.

Small, a 1946 graduate of U.Va.’s Engineering School, was instrumental in siting the library. When first discussed, it was to be located on Rugby Road, at the far end of Mad Bowl, but Small objected, saying it should not be so far from central grounds and the other libraries.

“My idea was to make this building a new focal point of the University — a new place where people could see and learn,” Small said. “People will feel welcome here. They can take a look at what we have, learn some things they didn’t know and walk away feeling they have had a really great experience.”

This experience, he said, may make them think differently about history and their country and make them better citizens who are more appreciative of their responsibility to uphold democracy.

Small declared his wife to be his partner and “my greatest supporter in many years of collecting.”

“Shirley and I are very proud of our … Declaration of Independence [collection], and we are very proud and very pleased to give it to the University of Virginia and its Special Collections Library,” Small said. “It’s in a good home.”

Small and his wife received a standing ovation at the dedication ceremony, which was followed by Allen and Warner’s words. Allen said one of his best decisions as governor was to reappoint Small to the Board of Visitors. He praised him for his love of the Declaration of Independence and related documents and for inspiring people with his passion.

Warner called the Declaration of Independence collection “a remarkable act of preservation,” and lauded the Smalls’ generosity in making it available to the public. Warner noted the importance of education, citing Jefferson’s observation that an ignorant society will not stay free.

Keynote speaker Walter Isaacson, president and chief executive officer of the Aspen Institute and author of a biography of Benjamin Franklin, compared Jefferson and Franklin. Jefferson wrote the draft of the Declaration, Isaacson said, and Franklin and John Adams were the chief editors. The final document reflects all three men. Franklin, who viewed himself as Jefferson’s mentor, and Jefferson liked one another, while they both disliked John Adams, Isaacson said, adding that he believed Franklin also would have liked Albert Small, with whom he shared a love of engineering and a sense of humor.

The Declaration collection is only one of the national treasures in the new $26 million Mary and David Harrison Institute for American History, Literature and Culture/the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library.

Special Collections is a controlled-access archive with rare books, manuscripts, maps, letters and films. Its strong points are American history, American literature and Virginiana, said Hoke Perkins, director of the Harrison Institute. The foundation of the special collection is the Tracy W. McGregor Library of American History, which contains Captain John Smith’s “True Relation,” the first printed account of the Virginia colony; Ralph Hamor’s “True Discourse of the Present Estate of Virginia”; the only known copy of More News from Virginia; and Jefferson’s own annotated copy of his only published book “Notes on the State of Virginia.” The Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, another pillar on which the collection is built, has the only complete manuscript of Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass ” among its works.

The Physical Structure

The new building, which has been under construction since 2002, is about 72,000 square feet, 80 percent of which is underground. It is made up of two entities, the Harrison Institute and the Small Library.

The Small Library will house about 300,000 rare books, 15 million manuscripts, 4,000 maps, the University archives and other treasures on 12 miles of compact shelving in a state-of-the-art, climate-controlled, fireproof facility. The library is designed to handle expansions of the collections during the next 30 years.

The Harrison Institute, the above-ground portion of the building, which will have its own dedication on Dec. 8, contains two exhibit galleries: a permanent display on Flowerdew Hundred, with archaeological artifacts from the Harrisons’ plantation on the James River; and a rotating display in the main-floor gallery drawn from special collections. The current exhibit, up until June 2005, features “American Journeys, from Columbus to Kerouac.”

Perkins said the new library will become a major attraction for scholars and tourists. Some visitors have been so impressed with the new facility that they have made inquiries about donating items.

“This is a national resource,” Perkins said. “Some people give to the Special Collections so scholars can come to one place. With the staff and the physical library, we hope it will attract a continuing bounty.”

A large amount of natural light makes the new library inviting, Perkins said. Skylights over the circulation desk and the reading room, as well as over two staff work spaces, bring light into the underground building. Light also flows from a two-story window by the curving central staircase, light that is directed into the main Special Collections room by windows over the doorway.

“It’s brighter underground [in the new library] than it was on the second floor of Alderman” where the Special Collections reading room had been, Perkins said. The new library “has the sense of an outward-looking building, not something that is secret and closed.”

The library is also making some of the Special Collections available in digital form, so scholars can visit from their office or home.

“Students can use and view rare documents in photographic reproductions,” Perkins said. “Protecting the documents is vital, but this makes the work accessible to the broadest section of the public and validates the importance of the collection in the first place.”