University of Virginia Library

XXVI. Scholarships and Fellowships

In the account given of previous periods, mention was
made of the numerous scholarships and fellowships which
were established from time to time during those periods.
All these were still in existence after 1904–05, but since
they have already been fully described by us as they were
founded, we shall not refer to them again.

The first scholarship to be created after the inauguration
of the Presidency was the Isabella Merrick Sampson
Scholarship, the gift of W. Gordon Merrick, of Glendower,
Albemarle county. Its endowment consisted of
two bonds for one thousand dollars each. The income
of the fund alone was to be used. Its purpose was to
afford a support to some deserving young man living in

the county who wished to enter the department of engineering
of the University of Virginia with a view to
preparing himself to become a member of that profession.
The incumbent was to enjoy the income of the
fund until his graduation, after traversing the full course.
The fund itself was to be held by three trustees, one of
whom was to be the President of the University; another,
the dean of the engineering department; and the
third, a citizen of Albemarle county.

In 1912, a scholarship was founded by the members
of the department of law in memory of Daniel Harmon,
always a useful member of the Board of Visitors, but
conspicuously helpful during the exacting and critical
years that followed the great fire in 1895. This scholarship
was open to any young Virginian who stood in
need of pecuniary assistance and also possessed decided
ability and high character. The Herndon Scholarships
owed their existence to a bequest of Dr. Cumberland G.
Herndon, a medical graduate of the University. They
were awarded by the medical faculty after a competitive
examination held during the summer vacation. The
candidates must submit acceptable proof of their inability
to defray the cost of a medical education; and they
must also put on record their intention to enter the medical
service of the Federal army or navy after graduation.
Each of these scholarships provided for the necessary
expenses of the holder for the space of four years,
which was the length of time now covered by the medical
course. The total amount embraced in this bequest
was fifteen thousand dollars.

In 1914, Thomas F. Ryan, of New York, but a Virginian
by birth, founded ten scholarships, one of which
was to be assigned to each of the State's ten Congressional
districts; and they were only to be granted to

native Virginians of talent and character who were without
financial resources. The Faculty, if they thought
proper, were authorized to reduce the number from ten
to six, reserving six hundred dollars for each in the place
of the three hundred which was to be paid out should
the plan of distribution by districts be continued. The
latter division seems to have been preferred. The applicant
must have been a resident of his district at least two
years before he sought the appointment; and he must
satisfy the normal entrance requirements. In the beginning,
he enjoyed the privilege of remaining four years
in any course which he had selected; but the tenure was
afterwards restricted to two years. The incumbents of
these scholarships were chosen by the Board of Visitors.

Under the will of Edward C. Folkes, two scholarships,
in memory of W. C. Folkes, were established about
this time for the benefit of young men living in Campbell
county. The principal of this bequest,—which
was not to be delivered until the death of the testator's
daughter,—amounted to $23,373.33, while the income
accruing to each scholarship was in the neighborhood of
six hundred dollars. When Colonel James H. Skinner,
of Staunton, died in 1898, he bequeathed his estate for
the creation and maintenance of as many scholarships as
the income would allow, taking the sum of three hundred
dollars,—afterwards cut down to two hundred and
fifty,—as the maximum amount to be attached to each
scholarship. The applicants must put on record their
intention of becoming clergymen in the Protestant
Episcopal Church. The principal of this bequest aggregated
$41,988.92. As the gift had been made subject to
the life interest of Colonel Skinner's sister, it did not
fall in until 1913.

In 1914–15, a scholarship valued at one hundred and

forty dollars was established for that session by the Virginia
Law Review. During the same session, a small
number of scholarships were offered by the University
to natives of Virginia, of adequate scholastic equipment,
who had been nominated by the Boards of Supervisors
of their respective counties. Such matriculates were
required to pay only five dollars for the use of field instruments
and laboratory apparatus,—a reduction of
forty-five dollars as compared with the sum demanded
of the regular students. In 1915, the Board of Visitors
founded twenty-two scholarships in the College department
for the benefit of descendants of Confederate soldiers.
These scholarships were awarded on the recommendation
of the different divisions of the United
Daughters of the Confederacy. A scholarship that
insured an annual income of fifty dollars was created by
Hollis Rinehart, an influential citizen of Albemarle
county; and two years afterwards, the chapter of the
Daughters of the American Revolution, domiciled in the
same county, founded a similar scholarship, with an annual
income of thirty dollars, and a maximum tenure of
one year. Its holder must have graduated from the
Charlottesville High School, with the highest mark of
his class; and he must also be a resident of the town or
the county.

In 1905, a fund of five thousand dollars was given by
Dr. William C. Rives to establish the William Cabell
Rives, Jr., fellowship of history and economics. Dr.
Rives was a grandson of the distinguished statesman of
the same name who had been a member of that noble
company of public-spirited citizens who had sustained
the University of Virginia in its early and most trying
years.

In 1911, the trustees of the Phelps-Stokes fund delivered

to the Board of Visitors the sum of $12,500 for
the creation of a fellowship in sociology for the
thorough study of the negro. This fellowship was expected
to yield an annual income of five hundred dollars;
and, at the end of four years, was to be filled only
by students of the graduate department. The object
of the original Phelps-Stokes Fund was to improve the
condition of the African race in the South. It appeared
to the trustees, according to their own statement,
"that the right way to go about this was to get first of
all the best information available on the subject, and
then to analyze and classify it in a scientific way"; and
they decided that the most reliable plan for accomplishing
their purpose was "to provide means to enable
Southern youth of broad sympathies to make scientific examination
of that people." In the summer of 1916,
there were issued two volumes which contained the
public addresses of recognized authorities on the negro
problem who had been invited to the University to
speak on that topic; and also the fruits of the investigations
by the fellows. These addresses and researches
bore upon every phase of the life and character of the
Southern blacks.

Two fellowships were created by the will of Dr.
Bennet W. Greer in 1913. Dr. Green had been a surgeon
in the Federal Navy before the War of Secession;
had been a zealous supporter of the Confederate
cause during that war; had subsequently accumulated a
handsome fortune in the Argentine Confederation; and
after his return to the United States, had led the life
of a retired scholar. He was a man of salient characteristics;
was ardently devoted to Virginia, his native
State; and was exceptionally loyal to his alma mater.
By the terms of his bequest, $24,000 was set aside for

the support of two fellowships for foreign study, the
holders of which were to be required to have graduated
both as masters of arts and as doctors of medicine, in the
schools of the University of Virginia. If no such
doctors were eligible in any one session, because of failure
to win the academic degree, then two masters were
to be picked out who were anxious to continue their
studies in European seats of learning. If two masters
of art also were lacking, then two bachelors of laws
of the University were to be chosen,—provided that
they desired to go abroad for additional preparation
for their profession. Preference in making the appointments
was to be given, in the first instance, to
native Virginians; and in the second, to native Southerners.
If no applicants for the fellowships came
forward, then the income for that year was to be expended
in the purchase of books for the medical department.

In 1915, there were two fellowships, with an annual
income of two hundred dollars each, established by the
Board of Visitors. Another fellowship proposed at
this time seems to have been purely honorary. It was
to be conferred by the Board on the recommendation of
the President and the Faculty. A bronze medal was to
be delivered to this fellow on graduation day at the commencement
exercises; and he was to be entitled to write
D. S. F. Va. after his name, and also to wear a ribbon-dyed
in the University colors.

The most important lectureship established after
1904–05 was made possible by a gift of twenty-two thousand
dollars from Mrs. Thomas Nelson Page, the income
from which was to be used in securing the annual
delivery at the University of a series of three discourses
by a specialist on some aspect of the department

of art, science, or politics, in which he enjoyed
the reputation of an expert. Each set of discourses
was to be marked by such unity of thought and treatment
that it could be published in book form. Among
the distinguished men who have spoken on this foundation
have been Viscount Bryce, President Taft, Professor
Gildersleeve, Professor Lounsbury, Professor
A. C. Coolidge, and President Charles W. Eliot.
A prize annually presented by the Virginia Chapter of
the Colonial Dames of America was granted to the author
of the most meritorious essay on some subject descriptive
of the history or literature of Colonial Virginia.
A second prize was established by Mrs. Susan Colston
Blackford, of Lynchburg, in memory of her husband,
the distinguished lawyer, Charles Minor Blackford.
This prize,—amounting to fifty dollars annually in cash,
—was each year awarded to that student in the department
of law who had written the best dissertation upon
some legal or sociological topic.