New research revives exhibit on Jefferson’s Academical Village

Sitting cross-legged in the sunlight, University of Virginia student Ariel Cornett looked up from studying to admire her setting.
The Rotunda, columned pavilions, a lush rectangular lawn flanked by hidden ornate gardens — close to how Thomas Jefferson imagined them nearly 200 years ago — surround her.
“It’s beautiful,” she said. “It inspires you.”

Now an updated exhibit opening today at the newly renovated UVa Art Museum offers Cornett and others a chance to see how it got that way.
“Thomas Jefferson’s Academical Village: The Creation of an Architectural Masterpiece” delves deep into the UVa founder’s crown jewel in design and building.
The same hands that helped to craft the Declaration of Independence and signed laws as a U.S. president also drew the collection of buildings and landscaping still considered the architectural cornerstones of UVa today.
“Architecture was one of his great passions,” said Richard Guy Wilson, UVa Commonwealth Professor of Architectural History and curator for the exhibit. “He said somewhere that ‘one of my great delights is putting up and pulling down.’”
Jefferson is known for other architectural achievements, such as his Albemarle County hillside estate of Monticello. Monticello and the Academical Village are designated as World Heritage Sites.

However, the Academical Village is considered by many scholars to be his greatest work.
“Jefferson said it was his ‘swan song in old age,’” Wilson said. “This was what he saw as one of his really great legacies.”
Using scores of rare hand-drawn sketches, documents, correspondence and portraits, the exhibit guides visitors through Jefferson’s thought process over several years in making the school into a bricks-and-mortar reality.
The project was completed in 1826.
It is not the first time UVa has displayed the exhibit. The original debut was in 1993.
However, with help from colleagues, Wilson said he has uncovered a wealth of new information and some original papers on the design and construction of the Academical Village.
For instance, although never carried out, Jefferson considered painting the inside of the Rotunda dark blue. He hoped to use it as a planetarium, or in his words, a “dome of science.”

Random ... or purposeful?

More recent findings also raised the possibility that what may have appeared to be random design at first actually had some hidden significance.
The 10 pavilion buildings are based on the designs of two architects: Andrea Palladio, who was more modern, and Freart de Chambray, who leaned toward more ancient influences.
“Is there a dialogue between the ‘ancients’ and the ‘moderns’ going on back and forth across the Lawn?” asked Wilson. “I don’t know, but it’s a question we are looking into.”
For sure, Wilson noted, there are many instances where the Academical Village is symbolic.
“There is a definite hierarchy going on,” Wilson said. “That’s why he put the Rotunda, the library, at the top. It’s the mind of the university.”
The fact that the Rotunda was the center was also significant because other universities revolved around the church.
Bruce Ambler Boucher, UVa Art Museum director, himself an architectural historian, agreed that the exhibit shines because it wades through the nuances.
“Jefferson set out very consciously to create a design that had a sense of grandeur, scale and hierarchy of knowledge,” Boucher said. “But it was also meant to encourage students and teachers to measure themselves with the best of the past.”
Wilson said perhaps some of the most interesting work for the updated exhibit was focused on the building process itself.
At the time it was constructed, the Academical Village was one of the largest architectural undertakings in the fledgling United States.
“What we asked was how in the world did they build this damn thing,” Wilson said.
Over the years, a list of more than 400 contractors and subcontractors known to have worked on the project, including slaves and free blacks, has been compiled. All of the names are on display in the exhibit.

The human element

Unfortunately, and as a testament to time, only one picture of one worker has so far been discovered.
“We know what happened to some of these people, but don’t have pictures of them,” he said.
During his research, Wilson said he could also see elements of Jefferson’s own personality.
Jefferson believed in architectural precedents, Wilson said, but at the same time “he was willing to break all the rules.”
Described as controlling and obsessive, Jefferson counted every brick needed for the Academical Village.
Still, despite being the driving force behind what the project would look like in the end, Jefferson still knew when to ask for help.
“Jefferson’s role was overwhelming,” Wilson said. “But at the same time, he was able to pull together other people and create a consensus while demanding a high standard for the work.”

Wilson said he hopes that after visitors tour the exhibit they will also find their way over to the Special Collections library.
Another exhibit curated by Wilson — “From Village to Grounds: Architecture for the University of Virginia after Thomas Jefferson” — opens Monday and picks up where the “Village” exhibit leaves off.
“It goes on to discuss how the university grows after Thomas Jefferson’s death,” he said. “His successes, failures and his rediscovery.”
In the daily hum of life at the university — the area’s largest employer and home now to more than 20,000 students — it is easy to forget what all of it means.
“We often just go and come and don’t think about the things he did,” Boucher said. “But it is very interesting to take stock in why Jefferson designed the buildings the way he did, the people who helped him and the singularity of the design.”