Alumni of the University have earned the applause of their fellow citizens since Edgar Allan Poe first published Tamerlane and Other Poems in 1827. In addition to Poe, the University numbers among its famous alumni President Woodrow Wilson, composer John Powell, poet Karl Shapiro, Admirals Richard Byrd and William F. Halsey, and author Julien Green whose novel Moira was set on University grounds. Perhaps more notorious locally was Joseph G. Semmes, the student who shot and killed Professor John A.G. Davis. As famed nationally as any of the illustrious names above were the fictitious Tarleton twins, Scarlett O'Hara's beaux, expelled from the University shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War.

 

WOODROW WILSON

 

 

Woodrow Wilson came to the University of Virginia in the fall of 1879 to study law, though he was purportedly more interested in American and English political history than in his formal law courses. Poor health forced him to withdraw and return home a little more than a year later. The recipient of the letter on display, Richard Heath Dabney, was a lifelong friend of Wilson's and a faculty member at the University for 49 years.   Photograph of Woodrow Wilson. No Date.

 

In this letter, Wilson reports on his health, mentions his current activities including law studies and his new role of "vocal star," inquires after activities at the Jefferson Society, sends regards to his friends including future Virginia English professor Charles "Chucky" Kent, and asks who has succeeded to his room [at 31 West Range].   Autograph letter, signed. Woodrow Wilson to Richard Heath Dabney. 1881 February 1.

 

 

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Plaster cast of John Powell's hand. No date. The cast of his hand confirms that Powell had unusually small hands for a concert pianist.

Powell dedicated his overture for orchestra to the University of Virginia "on her hundredth birthday." The manuscript score has a presentation inscription from the composer. John Powell. "In Old Virginia," Overture for Orchestra. Autograph manuscript score. 1927. Score. New York: G. Schirmer, 1927.

W. A. PLECKER

 

Alumnus Dr. Walker Ashley Plecker, Virginia's first Registrar of Vital Statistics, was determined to classify all Virginians into two categories: "White" or "Colored." The latter category included anyone with one-sixteenth or more African-American, native American, Asian or southern European heritage. He feared that many racially mixed individuals would masquerade as whites "using the advantage thus gained as an aid to intermarriage into the white race and to attend white schools...." In 1943 he sent a list of surnames, by county, of "mixed Negroid Virginia families striving to pass as ÔIndian' or white" and asked local registrars to report any suspicious cases. This blatantly illegal maneuver was ignored by the clerk at the University of Virginia hospital to whom it was sent. Typed carbon copy letter, signed. W. A. Plecker to Local Registrars, Physicians, Health Officers, Nurses, School Superintendents, and Clerks of the Court. 1943 January. The copy on display was sent to the University of Virginia Hospital.

Paul Semmes

 

Perhaps the most notorious student in the history of the University was Joseph G. Semmes. In November 1840, Semmes and a classmate, William A. Kincaid, both masked, were firing their pistols on the lawn. Professor John A.G. Davis left his Pavilion to determine the cause of the disturbance. According to this letter written by Davis's nephew, Peter Carr, "Davis stepped up to him & caught hold of his disguise in order to detect him, as he was committing a high infringement of the laws of good order of the Institution. The person however jerked away from him, ran three or four yards, wheeled around, and fired his pistol at Mr. Davis--He then fled as fast as possible past Mr. Davis' pavilion, jumped down a wall that bounds the southern side of the University & escaped." Davis died two days later after requesting that no harm should come to the culprit on his account. Semmes was apprehended, released on $25,000 bail, disappeared and was rumored a suicide. When Semmes matriculated in 1840 he listed his birthplace as Washington, Georgia, and his parent/guardian as one Paul Semmes. A Paul Semmes, also of Washington, Georgia, entered the University in 1833. He became a prominent Georgia businessman, was later commissioned a Colonel in the 2nd Georgia and appointed Brigadier-General in 1862. He commanded his brigade at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, where he was mortally wounded. If the two Paul Semmeses are the same man, the most notorious alumnus of the University was probably the younger brother of one the most honored alumni. William A. Kincaid, Semmes' partner in the initial disturbance, remained at the University. He was later a planter in Mississippi and served in the Confederate Army. Autograph letter, signed. Peter Carr to Warrick Miller. 1840 November 18.

Photograph of engraving of Paul Semmes.

ADMIRAL RICHARD E. BYRD

 

Photograph of Admiral Richard E. Byrd. No date.

Richard E. "Dick" Byrd sandwiched in a year at the University of Virginia, 1907-08, between longer enrollments at the Virginia Military Institute and the Naval Academy. He achieved national fame for his flight to the North Pole in the Fokker trimotor "Josephine Ford" on May 9, 1926. The book Skyward contains pieces of fabric from the plane. The following year Byrd turned his attention to Antarctica, establishing a base "Little America" on the Ross Ice Shelf. On November 28 and 29, Byrd and his crew flew to the South Pole. On their return to base they explored and photographed previously unknown parts of Antarctica. In 1933 Byrd began to organize a second expedition. In September he asked his brother, U. S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, to deliver a letter to the Canadian ambassador in Washington asking him to intercede with the Canadian Prime Minister for "thirty full blooded Eskimo dogs of the very finest type...for my Expedition." Richard E. Byrd. Skyward. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1928 Typed carbon copy letter. Richard E. Byrd to the Honorable W. D. Herridge, His Majesty's Minister for Canada. 1933 September 13.

EDGAR ALLAN POE

 

Edgar Allan Poe matriculated in February 1826. In May he wrote home to his adopted father, Richmond merchant John Allan, thanking him for clothes and requesting that he send Tacitus's History and some soap. The remainder of the letter describes the recent "disturbances:" The Grand Jury met and put the students in a terrible fright--so much so that the lectures were unattended--and those whose names were upon the Sheriff's list-- travelled off into the woods & mountains--taking their beds & provisions along with them. Following this disturbance, several students were reprimanded or suspended and one was expelled. There have been several fights since you were here--One between Turner Dixon, and [Robert] Blow from Norfolk excited more interest than any I have seen, for a common fight is so trifling an occurrence that no notice is taken of it--Blow got much the advantage in the scuffle--but Dixon posted him in very indecent terms...nothing was talked off [sic] for a week, but Dixon's charge & Blow's explanation--every pillar in the University was white with scratched paper--Dixon made a physical attack upon Arthur Smith...he struck him with a large stone on one side of his head--whereupon Smith drew a pistol (which are all the fashion here) and had it not missed fired--would have put an end to the controversy.

Photograph of daguerrotype of Edgar Allan Poe. 1848.

Autograph letter, signed. Edgar Allan Poe to John Allan. 1826 May. Courtesy of the Valentine Museum, Richmond, Virginia.

KARL SHAPIRO

 

Karl Shapiro. "University" in Person, Place and Thing. [New York]: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1942

In 1932 Karl Shapiro stayed a brief semester at the University of Virginia where he generally ignored his studies to write poetry. Years later in The Younger Son he remembered mountaineers coming to the door of his brother's room on the Lawn selling whiskey in Mason jars, and how when passing the room which once belonged to Edgar Allan Poe "he would always pause and touch the door with the flat of his hand, like touching a mezuza, and if no one was looking, would kiss his hand." He later portrayed the intense and dehumanizing social snobbery at Virginia in his poem "University." In 1946 alumnus [Francis] Coleman Rosenberger solicited unpublished works for the British Poetry Quarterly "to show what is going on in American poetry today." Shapiro sent him "An Urn of Ashes." Shapiro later gave Rosenberger permission to anthologize the poem in a postcard that also announced the birth of his son John.

JULIEN GREEN

 

Julien Green, the only non-Frenchman ever elected to the prestigious French Academy, entered the University in 1919. According to Thaddeus B. Woody, a fellow student who later became a UVa French professor, the shy young man was never very happy on the Grounds and left before finishing his studies. While at the University, Green wrote to his Aunt Catherine that he was able to finish his studies every morning by ten and then spend the rest of the day in the library where he learned more than in class. He also wrote that "I never realized I was really attached to this place until I considered leaving it." Green, who has been described as having "a Puritan's obsession with sin, a Catholic's hope in grace" set his 1950 novel Moira at the University. In it a young pre-theological student is seduced by his landlady's nymphomaniac daughter. He smothers her, turns down a chance to escape and prepares to turn himself over to the authorities.   Julien Green. Moira. Paris: Librarie Plon, 1950. Autograph letters, signed. Julien Green to Catherine Hartridge. 1922 April 18 and May 4.

Photograph of Julien Green. No date