My main archival object was a yearbook known as Corks and Curls that consists of the various departments, fraternities, and other organizations in UVA at the time, and the names of the individual members. The author is unknown but it was published in 1921, the same time that the centennial pageant took place. It also has photographs of the students and the University during the time when the specific edition was published. I think the audience for this kind of material would be historians or anyone keeping a clear record of all the people in these organizations. This is a recurring annual yearbook that categorizes students at UVA based on the organizations they belong to, some of which focus on music such as the Virginia Glee Club. The “Birth of the University” section of the book has an analogous retelling of events to the pageant but in much less detail and more brevity. Rather, its purpose is to show how the departments and fraternities came to be. There’s an emphasis on freedom as a motivation for Jefferson and religious life that will become important later when discussing the pageant itself.

I then found additional resources that connected the information from the book to the pageants for UVA during the 1920s. There was an article written by Brendan Wolfe called “Jefferson’s Shadow” that had a lot of valuable information that connected the pageants with Jefferson’s role as founder of the University of Virginia. The article questions the extent at which Jefferson oversaw the essential duties within the University. There was also the script, known as The Shadow of the Builder, which centered on Jefferson and how he founded the University. It was particularly helpful for me in determining who else was involved in the overall production. All these archival objects helped me realize how students, staff, and faculty of the University viewed Jefferson back then. There was a strong sense of adoration for him, way more compared to the present day when he is put under a lot more scrutiny. These resources also helped me determine the dichotomy of nationalism and globalism in the pageants.

Afterwards, I then read through a collection of responses to UVA from various letters regarding the status of their presence in the 1921 centennial pageant, and found out a couple of important themes among all of them. There's an ongoing theme of globalism with these letters, as UVA intends to have some global appeal by inviting all these universities and institutions from several countries. Alternatively, it could be interpreted as trying to impress those countries by hosting such an extravagant event. It’s not just local institutions like the American Academy of Arts & Sciences but also some international ones such as L’Universite de Paris and the University of Belgrade. The fact that representatives from some of these countries attended for addresses and the dinner shows at least some level of respect between these nations. Regardless of how you look at it, these letters tell me that UVA wasn't secluded as I initially thought. This does contrast with the nationalism that is present in the pageant, particularly in the sections when it recaps the state's history. Perhaps in an attempt to appeal to other nations, it glosses over any conflict the US may have previously had with another country. In doing so, they also exaggerate and aggrandize their victories, and minimize any impact other countries aside from them that may have brought to certain events. An example of this is the University displaying statues of Confederate soldiers and leaders such as Robert E. Lee who fought in the Civil War. Paul McIntyre, being heavily involved with the formation of the Department of Music along with the centennial pageants, was greatly supportive of these actions. It makes sense that they would mourn the loss of their confederate soldiers and commemorate statues of them in their honor. However, this still speaks to a bigger picture of nationalism in the sense that they had a great amount of pride for those soldiers. The poems and historical re-enactments that serve as a prelude to the festivities also carry this theme of nationalism, once again suggesting how simply conflicts would be solved and diminishing any mentions of conflict altogether. There seems to be a dichotomy of nationalism and globalism within this pageant; while speaking to these nations directly, they are compromising and willing to set aside their differences to attend this massive celebration. But when the University talks to an audience that's mostly their own, they are not afraid to make themselves look better by implying how effectively they solved conflicts. Even if it's only implicit, there is still a good amount of nationalism involved in this pageant.

I also think the key people that were involved in the pageants are just as important as the organizations. One such person is Paul McIntyre; according to page 210 of the book, Corks and Curls, he was instrumental in establishing the Department of Music for UVA. As stated before, he supported and was involved with the development of many confederate statues. Considering how integral he was for the pageants, this highlights how nationalistic they were because of how people like him were in charge of the pageants and being prideful of their country. John Powell and Arthur Fickenscher were also important in developing the music department, being music director and professor of music, respectively. William Faulkner was another person who greatly helped with the pageants.

The script of the pageant, titled The Shadow of the Builder, gives an idea of the structure of the pageant and who is involved. What I found most notable about the script was the general appraisal that Thomas Jefferson received and the focus on religion. It makes sense considering he was the founder of the University, but it implies that Jefferson was the sole individual for creating what we know of UVA, when a lot of it actually stemmed from the hard manual labor of slaves that Jefferson owned. As Brendan Wolfe’s article “Jefferson’s Shadow” states: “Enslaved African Americans, in other words, did the work of this foundation for the preservation of freedom” (Wolfe). This is a clear-cut case of nationalism and colonialism as the pageant credits the work entirely to Jefferson and it shows how much control he can harbor on a foreign group to build the foundations of UVA. In addition, the script has several pages that essentially affirm its significance as a place of religious worship and claims that because Virginia as a state is Christian in nature that the University must be as well. This could be another instance of nationalism from the pageant because of how it treats this one religion as the standard and how it ignores any other religion from a non-Western country. It is interesting that Jefferson designed the University of Virginia as the ultimate beacon of freedom when a lot of its foundation was built upon enslaved people, the complete antithesis of freedom.

Works Cited:

Corks and Curls. University of Virginia, 1888. Accessed 6 Mar. 2025.

The Centennial of the University of Virginia, University of Virginia, 1921. Accessed 6 Mar. 2025.

Wolfe, Brendan. “Jefferson’s Shadow.” Brendan Wolfe, brendanwolfe.com/mr-jeffersons-great-shadow. Accessed 6 Mar. 2025.