University of Virginia Library

I. Method of Treatment

The history of the University of Virginia, during the
one hundred years of its existence, can be related in three
different ways. First, as annals, with an inflexible fidelity
to the flow of events from year to year; second,
as a series of monographs,—the theme of each to be
treated separately for the entire interval of time lying
between 1819 and 1919; or third, as a succession of
periods,—each period growing out of the preceding one,
but dissimilar in length, in problems, and in achievements.
To present that history in the form of annals would be to
introduce unavoidably definite elements of incoherence
and desultoriness. To narrate it in the form of a series
of independent monographs would be to destroy its fundamental
unity, and the close inter-relations of its almost
innumerable phases. On the other hand, to consider
it as a succession of periods permits of the retention of
all the advantages of chronological sequence and of separate
exposition subject by subject, with the discursiveness
of the one and the disconnection of the other substantially
modified.

The history of the University of Virginia lends itself
fully to a narration by periods. Thus we have the First
Period,—the period when there was a persistent struggle
for the incorporation of a university, in which Jefferson
was the great protagonist; the Second Period,—the period
of germination, when Albemarle Academy and Central
College were rapidly developing into a seat of higher

learning; the Third Period,—the period of construction,
which saw the erection of the buildings, the adoption of
the regulations, and the selection of the professors; the
Fourth Period,—the period of formation and experimentation,
which began with the opening of the University
to students; the Fifth Period,—the period of reformation
and expansion, as illustrated in the introduction
of the Honor System, the establishment of the Young
Men's Christian Association, and the addition of new lecture
halls and new schools; the Sixth Period,—the period
of the war, when the activities of the institution were
almost suspended; the Seventh Period,—the period of
reconstruction and re-expansion, which succeeded that
conflict; the Eighth Period,—the period of restoration,
which followed the Great Fire; and finally, the Ninth
Period,—the period of the presidency, in which the drift
has been towards a broader democratization, in harmony
with the dominant spirit of our own times. It is this
division of my general subject which I have adopted in
the present work.