JOHN BARBEE MINOR

"Old John B." joined the faculty as professor of law in 1845 and continued in that position for half a century. It was he who waved the white flag of surrender when Union troops under General George A. Custer advanced upon the University in the spring of 1865. After the war Minor and Professor Socrates Maupin borrowed money on their personal credit to keep the University going. Minor's legal scholarship was known throughout the South and his standard Institutes of Common and Statute Law, first published in 1875, was studied by generations of law students.

His interest in education extended beyond the University to public education of the children of Virginia as well. In 1849 he published Facts and Hints Relative to Free Schools Addressed Particularly to the People of Albemarle which refuted common arguments that a free education is demeaning public charity, necessitates excessive taxes, and promotes promiscuous association of the sexes.

In 1867 Minor, Robert E. Lee as president of Washington College, and Robert Lewis Dabney of Union Theological Seminary were appointed by the Educational Society of Virginia to prepare an address to the parents of Virginia on the necessity of cooperation with teachers. Lee wrote to Minor discussing the principles of early education in the family.

WILLIAM M. THORNTON

One of the most academically versatile professors at the University, William Mynn Thornton had been teaching Greek at Davidson College before joining the UVa Engineering faculty in 1875. He remained for half a century. In 1888 he became Chairman of the Faculty and in 1904 was appointed the first Dean of Engineering. Civil engineering had been taught at the University before the Civil War. Thornton added mechanical, electrical and chemical engineering and pushed for a humanities element in the curriculum. By the end of his fifty year stint on the faculty, Thornton's genius was legendary. Dean B.F.D. Runk later quipped that he could have taught any subject in the curriculum except medicine and "if they gave him six months he could teach medicine."

After the great Rotunda fire of 1895, Thornton wrote to University friends and alumni requesting them to recommend prospective students and personally urge them to attend. When E.A. Alderman was installed as the first president of the University of Virginia, Thornton wrote a letter of advice on improving the University in general including "installation of adequate baths" and a second letter on the finances necessary to enlarge the Department of Engineering to a maximum of either 250 or 500 students.

English dial slide rule owned by William M. Thornton. Click on image for larger view.

ORLAND E. WHITE

In 1921-1922 Orland E. White, a plant geneticist at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, participated in the famed Mulford Biological Exploration of the Amazon Basin, in search of medicinal plants and rare animal specimens. White's journal from the exploration describes the jungle, the native peoples encountered, and the members' plant hunting, including an unsuccessful search for aca-aca plant, used by native women to prevent conception. In 1927 White was appointed professor of agricultural biology and director of Blandy Farm which he proposed to make a center for genetic research. On arriving at the farm White found "a neglected piece of land with some dilapidated buildings, no modern improvements of any kind, ... and more kinds of weeds that I had ever seen in my life." When he retired 20 years later he left a modern "scientific institution with...130 acres of experimental plots, lawns, and arboretum...and a worldwide reputation and contacts."

Photograph of Mulford Biological Exploration team members. White is on the far left in the light suit.

ATCHESON L. HENCH

Atcheson Laughlin Hench came to Virginia in 1922 on a one-year appointment to teach Middle English and Chaucer while the University dickered with a well-known scholar whom they really wanted on the faculty. The celebrity-scholar never came and "Atch" never left--to the delight of his office mate, James Southall Wilson, who was "thankful to unload that Old English course on [Hench] and never teach Beowulf again." One of Hench's first pupils was the future best-selling author, Erskine Caldwell. Hench saved grade cards and reading lists for work completed by his students, including Caldwell. In an oral history interview given decades later, Hench was questioned about the grade "C, crude." He responded that the "crude" referred to the style, not the content, of Caldwell's work. When asked if Caldwell had ever published some of the stories he wrote for Hench, he replied, "I am sorry to say he did." Though Caldwell would never come to call his professor "Atch" as Hench asked him to, the two did become good friends.

JESSE BEAMS

Physics professor Jesse Beams was one of five scientists appointed by the National Research Council to study uranium fission before the United States entered World War II. After Pearl Harbor the project, code named "Manhattan," developed into a research network across the country. At Virginia, Beam used an ultracentrifuge, which worked on the same principle as a cream separator, to isolate Uranium-235 from U-238 and U-234. Beams succeeded though his method was not used for the actual manufacture of atomic bombs.

FREDSON BOWERS

In 1936 Fredson Bowers accepted an offer from Dean James Southall Wilson to serve as acting professor of English at the University of Virginia. Except for a brief hiatus in Washington as a Naval Commander supervising the deciphering of enemy codes, he remained in Charlottesville the rest of his life. Here he soon established himself as a pre-eminent authority on bibliographical analysis, establishing principles and methods in descriptive bibliography and textual criticism. In 1948 he inaugurated the publication of Studies in Bibliography which he personally edited for over 40 years. As an active and innovative chairman he built the English department at Charlottesville into one of the best in the United States. At the same time he relentlessly pursued a number of hobbies: collecting stamps, writing weekly music reviews for the Richmond Times- Dispatch, and judging Irish wolfhound shows

Photograph of Fredson Bowers judging Irish wolfhound competition. 1954.

William Shakespeare. Five Plays of Shakespeare. Edited by George Lyman Kittredge. Boston: Ginn and Company, 1941. Annotated copy used by Fredson Bowers in teaching University of Virginia classes.

JAMES SOUTHALL WILSON

A nationally known scholar, English professor James Southall Wilson launched the Virginia Quarterly Review in 1925 at the request of President E. A. Alderman and continued to edit it for six years. From the beginning it was a critical success, with articles by leading literary names on both sides of the Atlantic causing the Alumni News to proclaim that, "It has probably created more good will for the university among intelligent people everywhere than any other agency that has been created by the university during the last quarter of a century." Despite Wilson's pleas for funding and critical acclaim the Virginia Quarterly Review was not successful financially and was subsidized by the University.

On leaving the Quarterly, Wilson organized the 1931 Southern Writers Conference inviting well known authors to the grounds to discuss "The Relation of the Southern Author to His Public." Although Willa Cather and Thomas Wolfe regretfully declined, many noted authors attended including Sherwood Anderson, James Branch Cabell, Allen Tate and William Faulkner, who compared his presence at such an august gathering to a country hound dog afraid to leave the wagon that brought him to town. Ellen Glasgow and DuBose Heyward presided at the discussions.