The Shadow of the Builder is a pageant that was performed at the University of Virginia’s centennial celebration on June 1, 1921. It was written by Frances O. J. Gaither, an American novelist and pageant writer, with the intent of honoring and celebrating the legacy—or, shadow—of excellence that Thomas Jefferson left on the university. The pageant’s playbill, likely distributed to all attendees, lists the cast members and provides a synopsis of the story as well as notes on the musical interludes.

The full script of Gaither’s pageant is surprisingly simple. It outlines a complete story, however, there are only a handful of staging directions, the majority of which involve lighting and where/on whom shadows fall. For example, the show opens with the shadow of Jefferson’s statue being cast against the façade of a university building. Gaither wrote it specifically for performance in the UVA amphitheater, taking into consideration the logistics of that performance space while still wanting to convey symbols of the title and theme of the show—the builder’s shadow. The drama of the pageant is centered around the Corinthian capitals that were to be put atop the columns of the Rotunda. The stone carver accidentally cracks one of the capitals, and although it is a small enough imperfection to likely go unnoticed thirty feet in the air, Thomas Jefferson’s extremely high standards for the construction of his university will not permit this capital to be used. The stone carver tells Jefferson about the high-quality white marble of Italy, but ordering this marble would create a significant delay and cost even more money. Convinced by his granddaughter, Jefferson is able to use the sway of his friend in the General Assembly to acquire more funds for the marble, and his colleagues on the university’s Board of Visitors trust his judgment and vision for the academical village so deeply that they look past the possible delays and defer the decision to Jefferson alone. The pageant concludes with Jefferson sharing the news of his decision to use Italian marble for the capitals with his impassioned granddaughter.

Scenes that feature the Ancient Greek figure, Socrates, as well as Phaedrus, Lysis, and other Greek youths are scattered throughout the pageant. These were likely included to provide parallels to many of Jefferson’s ideals, since he envisioned Socrates as a model of the professors he hoped would teach at the University of Virginia, and the vibrant youths of Ancient Greece as the kinds of students that would bring life to the village he was erecting. However, this post will not delve further into the historical significance of these characters—they are discussed more extensively in the previous blog post—but rather the characters more contemporary with Thomas Jefferson.

The pageant features many historical characters who had close relationships with Thomas Jefferson. These include James Madison, James Monroe, and Arthur Brockenbrough, but most notably Joseph C. Cabell, Lafayette, and Jefferson’s granddaughter, Cornelia Randolph. The script is digestible without a great deal of historical context, however, it assumes the audience to be familiar with the historical relationships between Jefferson and these characters, particularly Cabell, Lafayette, and Cornelia. This sort of historical knowledge is not considered common today, so a modern reader may be confused by certain “background” details in the pageant, such as Jefferson’s reaction to a visit from Lafayette, his insistence on Cabell to run for office again, or Cornelia’s concern over architectural drawings. It is interesting that Gaither does not explain these relationships in the script; her assumption of familiarity with Jefferson’s personal life seems to be strongly indicative of the intended audience—students, faculty, staff, and close community members of UVA.

Joseph Cabell: Jefferson was friends with the Cabell family, and called upon them for help when he began the project of building the University of Virginia. Joseph C. Cabell was a member of the Virginia General Assembly and was an avid supporter of Jefferson’s goals and ideas. He was able to use his position in the Assembly to continually acquire funds for Jefferson’s ambitious and often extravagant construction projects (“Cabells and the Founding of the University of Virginia”). Jefferson’s gratefulness for this financial support comes through in the second act of the pageant; Cabell tells him of plans to retire, to which Jefferson responds, “Desert now your holy labors! Think — one life you have. Can you spend it better?” (Gaither, p.78). This is very convincing to Cabell, who accepts and honors the responsibility he has in the success of the university.

Lafayette: Marquis de Lafayette was a French military officer who volunteered to fight for America’s Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Jefferson became close acquaintances with Lafayette after his assistance in the war and in the establishment of a new country after America won independence. The friendship that followed was long and with many correspondences throughout their political careers, and although they spent much of their time on different continents, they would visit whenever they were abroad and came to know not only each other, but also their families well (“Marquis de Lafayette”). In the pageant, Jefferson expresses great excitement over Lafayette’s visit, dismissing workmen and referring to the day as “Lafayette’s day.”

Cornelia: Cornelia Randolph was the granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson. She spent much of her early life at his house, Monticello, along with many other grandchildren of his, and would frequently accompany him on excursions. Cornelia was a talented artist and learned mechanical drawing—an architectural sketching technique—from Jefferson. She practiced this by rendering many sketches of UVA during its construction (“Cornelia Randolph Jefferson”). This relationship is represented endearingly in the pageant, as she follows Jefferson around with a notebook full of sketches, consulting them with the stone carver and the university proctor. Although there is no record of any decision-making role she played in the university’s construction, her character in the pageant is responsible for convincing Jefferson to order white Italian marble for the Rotunda’s capitals. This characterizes the desire for the most pristine and highest quality building materials as somewhat childish, while also removing that desire—and any inherent irrationality associated with it—from Jefferson and placing it on Cornelia. He takes on a careful and considerate character; by deciding to order the Italian marble, he is merely honoring the wholesome wishes of his granddaughter instead of fighting for an ambitious idea that is entirely his own.

Although this pageant tells a simple story that largely avoids the retelling of significant historical events, there can be found many underlying themes of nationalism and the systemic racism which was hidden and overlooked in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The pageant strongly reinforces the idealized image Thomas Jefferson had for the university. In the second act, Jefferson tells the Board of Visitors “these colonnades will shelter the visions of unnumbered hosts, young Lockes, Newtons, even Lafayettes brave for right. Here the fledgling poet shall sense the law of austere beauty which Homer knew, and boy Ciceros learn to strip their raw fancies from the chaste, compelling truth” (Gaither, p.79). The names mentioned here reveal a desire to raise America to the same intellectual level as England, France, and even Ancient Greece. The chairman of the pageant committee, W. M. Forrest, writes in his foreword to the pageant’s script, “in song and dance to the accompaniment of martial music will be revived again the memories of those days when the men of the University met the acid test of patriotism and went forth to battle and to die upon the fields of Virginia”—an apparent glorification of the confederacy and the role UVA had in its support.

Lastly, it should be noted that we now know a significant portion of the university’s construction labor was done by enslaved peoples (“Memorial”), who are not represented throughout the pageant. The cast of workmen is listed as “ladies and gentlemen of the community,” so it is possible that Black persons were present in the performance; however, the script has no mention of the unpaid laborers who were bought or rented to build the university. At the pageant’s opening, Jefferson approaches as the proctor, Mr. Brockenbrough, is overseeing the workmen. He convinces Mr. Brockenbrough to give the workers a holiday because the esteemed general and close friend of his, Lafayette, is coming into town later that day. This immediately establishes Jefferson as kind and generous, even to the laborers—an image that has been distorted so as to deify the founder of UVA. There is no question that Jefferson did many great things for the university and the United States as a whole, but it is important to retell history to the most complete extent possible.

Bibliography

“Cabells and the Founding of the University of Virginia.” Special Collections Library, small.library.virginia.edu/collections/featured/the-cabell-family-papers-2/cabells-at-uva/cabell s-and-founding/. Accessed 25 Feb. 2025.

“Cornelia Jefferson Randolph.” Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/cornelia-jefferson-ran dolph/#:~:text=Born%20at%20Monticello%2C%20Cornelia%20Jefferson,on%20visits%20to%20 Poplar%20Forest. Accessed 25 Feb. 2025.

Gaither, Frances O. J. “The Centennial of the University of Virginia, 1819-1921; the Proceedings of the Centenary Celebration, May 31 to June 3, 1921; : Virginia, University of : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, New York, Putnam, 1 Jan. 1970, archive.org/details/centennialofuniv00virguoft/page/66/mode/2up?view=theater.

“Marquis de Lafayette.” Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/marquis-de-lafayette/ . Accessed 25 Feb. 2025.

“Memorial.” Memorial | Memorial to Enslaved Laborers, mel.virginia.edu/memorial. Accessed 25 Feb. 2025.