Pencils down

Just received an e-mail from Edward Gaynor, the head of Collection Development at the Special Collections Library at UVA, about the UVA Quiz on this week’s cover. I didn’t tell Gaynor this, but I’ve always harbored dreams of becoming a librarian, especially since they’ve become so cool.

Just received an e-mail from Edward Gaynor, the head of Collection Development at the Special Collections Library at UVA, about the UVA Quiz on this week’s cover. I didn’t tell Gaynor this, but I’ve always harbored dreams of becoming a librarian, especially since they’ve become so cool. So it was a little like getting a letter from a rock star. Who works in a library. Or something like that.

Anyway, he offered three clarifications to the quiz, which make the stories behind the questions that much more interesting to me.

Concerning the earliest documented streaking of the Lawn (question #10), Mr. Gaynor added this:

"The earliest documented streaking episode is from 1895. William Poindexter Moore, in a letter to his mother, recounts the story of a student who won a $10 bet by a running naked in 16 degree weather three miles up to the reservoir and back."

No word on if this involved kissing the ass end of the Homer statue. He also has the name of the first African American student to apply to UVA (#12):

"The ‘unnamed’ African American student who applied to UVa in 1935 was Alice Carlotta Jackson, a Richmond native and civil rights activist.  Her papers were donated to the UVa Library in 2003 by her son."

As for the first Board of Visitors meeting (#21):

"The first meeting of the Board of Visitors was on May 5, 1817 and was attended by Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, James Madison, and John Hartwell Cocke. (I sincerely wish I could think of something funny to say about this, but alas, I’m blocked.)"

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