ABSTRACT
Mr. Jefferson’s University The institutional history of Virginia requires additional consideration. The early history of the University of Virginia, which is well known, offers a unique window on some of the most significant curricular developments in American educational history. Unlike the colonial colleges and even the earlier state universities, from its founding the University of Virginia was distinctive. Jefferson’s placement of the Rotunda, for example, with its library containing the best of classical and enlightenment thought, rather than a chapel at the center of the academic grounds made physical this original and symbolic change.
