Department: Retrospect
The stairs not taken
A stubborn elevator made headlines when poet Robert Frost visited Grounds in 1960.
Spring 2026
Pipe Dream
McIntire Amphitheatre once housed an outdoor pipe organ that was plagued by poor upkeep.
Winter 2025
Raiders of the Lost Cards
The card catalogue that holds a record of the first 125 years of students at UVA
Fall 2025
UVA’s own ‘red scare’
In 1951, assistant professor Homer G. Richey publicly alleged that several of his colleagues at the Woodrow Wilson School of Foreign Affairs were communist sympathizers.
Summer 2025
Speaking in Tons
Beta Bridge, UVA’s community bulletin board, just seems to know when it’s time to clear its cache of messages.
Spring 2025
What, the duck?
How a Marvel comic book character called Howard the Duck won a student election
Winter 2024
Tinker, Tale-Teller, Soldier, Seven
Remembering the life of Alexander G. “Sandy” Gilliam Jr.
Fall 2024
Early Chapel Life
Very little documentation of the early years of the building, completed in 1890, exist. These postcards help fill the gap.
Summer 2024
Constitutional Crossfire
Rosenberger was a victory for the equal access line, and one of a series of wins for religious speech and exercise in recent decades.
Spring 2024
Fruitful Find Within the Walls of Pavilion X
A 2012 renovation reveals a 19th century recipe and other mysteries.
Winter 2023
The beginning of the UVA construction boom
Take a look back at a 1951 issue of Alumni News that captures the start of a major period of expansion on Grounds.
Summer 2023
Through Roseberry’s lens
Remembering the legacy of photographer Ed Roseberry, who spent decades documenting life at UVA and in Charlottesville
Spring 2023
The Father of UVA Athletics You’ve Never Heard Of
Despite his influence on the UVA athletic department in the late 1800s, Richard Dabney Anderson is rarely mentioned in the annals of Virginia athletics.
Winter 2022
Remembering the infamous 2008 ban on signs at UVA sporting events
And the student protest that led to its repeal
Summer/Fall 2022
Hot Trax
For two decades, the hot, sticky, beer-soaked roadhouse where Dave Matthews Band began its rise to stardom drew big-name acts and packed houses.
Winter 2021
D. Alan Williams: June 14, 1928–August 3, 2021
UVA’s ‘Swiss Army Knife’ served in a variety of influential roles in four-decade career.
Winter 2021
When Student Activist Sabato Dug in for Clemons
The grassroots campaign that convinced the General Assembly to fund a badly-needed new library.
Fall 2021
Starvation for wages
The decadeslong battle for a living wage reached a crescendo in 2012, when 26 students went on a hunger strike.
Summer 2021
A legacy on the court
Forty years ago, UVA’s basketball team rose to No. 1 for the first time, paving the way for the top-ranking teams of recent years.
Spring 2021
Game, set, Mary Slaughter
How one woman became the ACC’s first female varsity athlete—on the men’s tennis team.
Fall 2020
Beloved professor Henry Abraham dies at 98
The Supreme Court scholar lived a full life with a “perpetual twinkle in his eye.”
Summer 2020
Testing Grounds for indie greatness
The story behind the mediocre band that prepped the stars of Pavement and Silver Jews for success.
Spring 2020
UVA preserves Alderman stacks graffiti before teardown
Decades of musings and drawings adorn Alderman carrels. How UVA is making sure some of it survives.
Winter 2019