Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library

Thanks to Abigail for sharing the joy of working with archival materials with others!

Interested in seeing these items and more like them yourself? Plan your own visit with our handy new LibGuide:

guides.lib.virginia.edu/speccoll/home.

Repost from @/abigailenjoysliterature on TikTok: “to this day, still one of the best days ever. this was one of the highlights of grad school. i yearn for access to special collections again oh my god. what’s the coolest book related artifact you’ve seen?? #reading #BookTok #literature #reader #fyp”

"P is for Point Clouds" exhibit is up in our Common Room! These aren't 3D models—they're clouds of tons of tiny points of measured, preservation-level accurate 3D data. 5 local historical locations including the Pine Grove Rosenwald School=explorable in VR, or as flythrus on our display or online +

"Z is for Zines" exhibit I curated w/ @rareuva.bsky.social help. As a librarian, zines=I can amplify more authors/experiences/topics our community cares about+needs than via just books; especially work where racism, transphobia+more violence+systematic harm=barriers to author, publish, widely share+

Manuscript frontispiece of the ledger

“Mrs. Van Lew, postmistress of Richmond, and a great friend of the prisoners.”

“The Prisoners’ Song”

Some sort of written code by a POW

In the American Civil Wars class visiting Special Collections today, students were greatly intrigued by a new acquisition: the James Thomas Watt Hairston Civil War prison ledger.
archives.lib.virginia.edu/repositories...

Exploring the ABCs of the UVA Library A yearlong exhibition showcases nearly 200 items, spotlighting rare books, artifacts and surprising objects from the collection.

New exhibition—the ABCs of the UVA Library!
From Artists' Books to Zines, with 24 stops in between. (Actually more, as the article notes)
This evening's event is a sold out full house, but the exhibition will be up for the academic year at @rareuva.bsky.social (with outposts in other libraries)

The A-Z exhibits include 2 from the lab: "P is for Point-Cloud Data" by Will Rourk & @arinbb.bsky.social (on 3D captures of historic artifacts+architecture); and "Z is for Zines" by @literaturegeek.bsky.social

Typed copy of "The Weary Blues” signed and inscribed by Langston Hughes: “For Vachel Lindsay, whose poetry I much admire, these jazz poems of mine.” Lindsay writes below Hughes’ signature, “This is to certify I think these five poems are poetry.” 

News page clipping featuring photo captioned "Langston Hughes, Washington's Bus Boy Poet"

"A Discovery and an Eclipse: Langston Hughes’ Rise to Fame": In a new post on our blog, Curator George Riser highlights a set of poems addressed from Langston Hughes to Vachel Lindsay—whose endorsement contributed to Hughes' rise in acclaim as a poet.

smallnotes.library.virginia.edu/2025/07/21/a...

Take this opportunity to print your own copy of the Declaration on the University's replica “Franklin” press. Then, walk downstairs to the Declaring Independence exhibit and see 1 of the 2 copies of the original Dunlap Broadside, part of the Albert H. Small Declaration of Independence Collection.

Approximately 200 copies were printed by young Philadelphia printer John Dunlap the night the Second Continental Congress ratified the words of Thomas Jefferson. The challenge of setting into type and printing this important document is often overlooked.

"Print your own copy of the Declaration of Independence with Josef Beery. South Gallery. Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. Thursday, July 3, 2025. 1:00-3:00 p.m. University of Virginia Library." Graphic features a photo of Beery spreading ink on a printing plate and a photo of a copy of the Declaration of Independence.

Join printer Josef Beery as he recreates the first printing of the Declaration of Independence in the South Gallery of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library on Thursday, July 3, from 1:00 to 3:00 pm. No tickets required!

Gifts Sent to President Teresa Sullivan (RG-2/1/8.122), Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library

Sullivan was reinstated just two weeks later. A full timeline via Virginia Magazine:
uvamagazine.org/articles/tim...

We would congratulate you on your continued tenure @ UVA. You are a class act! One we wish we knew! Peace.”

Postage was placed on the insole, and the shoe mailed without any packaging on July 2, 2012. The inscription on the shoe reads: “Dear Dr. Sullivan – If only we could click our Red Ruby slippers together and make our way to Charlottesville we would!!! …

Red shoe covered with words written in black marker.

On June 9, 2012, UVA’s first female president, Teresa Sullivan, was controversially fired by the Board of Visitors. The President’s Office received hundreds of letters of support—none was more unusual than this red shoe, sent by the Reverends Mary and Milton Cole from Des Moines, Iowa.

Michael Laurie, White Fire (London: Quality Press, Ltd., 1949). (PR6023.A87 W5 1949)

Curator Yuki Hibben, who facilitated this recent acquisition, says, “As an object, the book is a beautiful and evocative work of art. The author expresses his tenderness and devotion to his beloved through the material qualities of the book.”

Written during a time when homosexuality was still illegal, the story and the book itself embody enduring love despite discriminatory social conditions. #QueerHistory #PrideMonth

Book open to title page of White Fire, featuring hand-drawn embellishments and leaf motifs in red. A J. M. monogram in red has been pasted to the blank facing page.

Although printed on cheap paper and published by a little-known firm, this book was elevated with a full teal morocco binding, gilt lettering and edges, marbled endpapers, and hand-drawn motifs throughout.

Pencil and white gouache portrait of a young man, bordered in red and silver and initialed at lower right.

Dedication written in green ink: "For my Julian — without whom there would have been no White Fire: but with whom, all things are possible — from the author. ‘Oh boy whom I love, I will carry you with me in my flight!’ — Gide. Richmond Hill 25/viii/49.”

One of just eight known copies in the world, this lovingly adorned copy of White Fire, a story about gay male love, was gifted by its author Michael Laurie (likely a pseudonym) to his lover, Julian—whose likeness is captured in an intimate pencil and white gouache portrait drawn by Michael.

Juneteenth in Virginia: Keeping the Celebration Going Visit the post for more.

Happy Juneteenth! Here in Virginia we traditionally celebrate Emancipation Day in April, on the 3, the day Richmond fell, & on the 9, the day Lee surrendered at Appomattox. Check out my short piece here. @rareuva.bsky.social

Juneteenth in Virginia: Keeping the Celebration Going

They also examined photographs and sound recordings in the Ernie McClintock Papers (MSS 16810)—allowing our staff a glimpse into the close community that Ernie and Ronn created for themselves and their family of actors. #PrideMonth

Two photos featuring Ernie, Ronn, and Geno.

In 2023, Geno Brantley, Ernie and Ronn's adopted son, visited our library with his wife Donna Pendarvis, biographer Elizabeth Cizmar, and other actors who worked with Ernie. They recounted wonderful stories about the couple's 38 years together as creative theatre professionals and life partners.

A photo of Ernie and Ronn posing in front of a museum’s welcome banner and a photo of an altar in their home.

Together, they moved to Harlem (1966-1989) and later Richmond, VA (1991-2003). Ernie and Ronn, along with their friend, Marcus Primus, opened the Afro-American Studio for Acting and Speech—a school centered on Black self-expression, storytelling, and community healing—in Harlem on March 28, 1966.

A page from one of Ernie’s journals featuring a love poem.

Born in Chicago's South Side, Ernie McClintock (1937-2003) was an American director, actor, teacher, and major force behind the scenes of the #BlackArtsMovement. In Chicago in 1962, Ernie met his long-time partner Ronald “Ronn” Tyrone Walker (1936-1999)—an award-winning scenic artist. #QueerHistory

Emilee Taxman, Patchwork Voices (Madison, Wisconsin: Blue Rose Press, 2023). (HQ77.7.P3 2023)

Two-page spread featuring a sketched portrait of a person with short curly hair and wearing a collared shirt and text that reads, “Looking in the mirror and being unable to stop grinning at myself because of how happy I finally was my body. And knowing that it was not because I have changed myself beyond recognition but that I had changed myself to fit recognition.”

...trans, nonbinary or gender variant. The short segments are paired with portraits of the individuals, drawn and painted by the artist in ink and colored pencil. The book is a joyful read and reveals that there are indeed many ways to express gender. Very helpful if one has a nonbinary relative!"

Two-page spread featuring a sketched portrait of a person with short straight hair and wearing glasses and a collared shirt alongside text that reads, “When I realized I never had to pretend to be a girl ever again—that being me, Will, is a forever thing.”

"This artist book was created at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, for the artist’s qualifiers show. Taxman interviewed 18 transgender people posing the question, 'What was the defining moment of your transition?' To the uninitiated, there are a lot of varied personal experiences of being...

Cover of Patchwork Voices by Emilee Taxman, featuring the transgender symbol.

Two-page spread featuring a sketched portrait of a person with shoulder-length voluminous curly hair and wearing a low cut shirt with a necklace with pointed objects, perhaps stones, alongside text that reads, “A defining moment of my transition I would say was the realization that having these feelings of growing up (being socialized as a girl) and not fitting in with the labels of ‘man’ or ‘woman’ was valid. I realized being non-binary is not linear either. I learned that more than half of the animal kingdom and many common plants are intersex. With knowing that information, researching the tribes in Africa and speaking with the trans/2spirit indigenous community it donned on me that being trans, non-binary and gender variant is ancient, sacred, spiritual and always has been a part of nature. We all look and identify differently and it’s beautiful.”

Reference Librarian Anne Causey recommends Patchwork Voices by Emilee Taxman as part of @uvalibrary.bsky.social's compilation of book and film recommendations exploring the history, present, and future of trans people for #PrideMonth.

Explore the full list at library.virginia.edu/news/2025/ce....