University of Virginia Library

Wooden Blinds

The proctor also began looking for a craftsman capable of making the hundreds of sets of
wooden shutters planned for the windows and doors of the buildings, and in August Joseph
Pitt, Malcom F. Crawford, and John W. Simpson handed in separate bids to make them.
(Philip Sturtevant, who had already made eleven sets of wooden blinds for the university but
was carving the wooden capitals for the Rotunda's dome room, did not offer a
proposal.)[715] Pitt offered to furnish the university "Blinds Complete" for $8.75 "on
windows of 12 Lights-glass 12 by 16 and in the Same Proportion for Larger or
Smaller."[716] Crawford said he would "put Venition Shutters to all of the doors & Windows
. . . Ironed and Painted in the best Manner, to W[i]t. all the Twelve Light Windows, Twelve
by Eightteen Glass @ Eight Dollars & fifty Cents pr. Window—and all the other Windows
& doors at the same rate-in proportion to that Size."[717] Simpson said he was "disposed to
undertake the making of the Vernission Blinds, which I understand is to let, for Eight dollas
62½ Cts. pair and the meterials of the best quality & If requested will give security for the
performance."[718] Crawford's bid was accepted and he was still engaged in installing
shutters in the fall of 1827.[719] Shutters for all the windows of the pavilions and dormitories
were later estimated to cost $2,500.[720] Interestingly, in August 1825 Benjamin Blackford
was still shipping large numbers of "Large Sash Weights" from the Isabella Furnace to the
university, apparently for the windows of the Rotunda.[721]