Pre-1895 fire Rotunda, drawn by 10 (ish) year old Duncan Smith, who was born in Pavilion V in 1877. Thumbed through Duncan’s sketchbook yesterday and it was very special to see UVA (and some of greater Cville) through the eyes of a child.
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Thank you Bethany for sharing Duncan's sketchbook from UVA Special Collections! I'm glad to know about it because we're building a childhood history collection, and we definitely want to add this to our list of collections on the topic.
Duncan was gifted this sketchbook for Christmas and grew up to be a professional artist (UVA has some of his later work). His older sister, Lelia Smith Cocke, was also a prolific painter whose work is primarily here at UVA and at Hollins.
Yes! He also writes in print throughout the book as he’s clearly working on his script, and it literally looks like a child went in there yesterday and wrote his name. I realized I haven’t seen much 18th/19thc writing from really small children.
Duncan’s sketchbook was filled with the most delightful doodles and drawings of everything from imagined Civil War battles to absurdist mythical creatures. Here he is practicing his signature and imagining a future as a “prof of drowling (drawing!) and painting.” Very, very sweet.
A few decades later: Duncan Smith’s UVA Centennial Celebration poster. Jefferson’s silhouette overlooking the scene like an omnipotent puppet master feels apt for this place, even now. Obsessed with the art nouveau meets colonial revival situation going on here, too.
whole place to myself this morning to admire (more!) Duncan Smith: here’s the stained glass window he designed to honor his mother, Mary Stuart Harrison Smith, in the UVA Chapel.
Duncanspotting this morning, (took me an hour to find him because he’s not buried with the rest of his family) but here’s Duncan Smith’s headstone in the UVA cemetery. Check out the carved palette and paintbrushes :’)
In Wilmington for diss research and naturally came across our friend Duncan Smith, designer of the iconic Sgraffito decoration in the Hotel du Pont’s Gold Ballroom in 1917-1918. Left pic from 1930 (DE Historical Society)
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