1818.136: Report of Commissioners appointed to Fix Site of a University (1).
Published: 1818
Full Title: [Proceedings and report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia].
Author: Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826), et al.
Place Issued: Richmond
Issuing Press: Uncertain
Description: Unrecorded
Notes
A commission of twenty-four prominent Virginians was appointed by Gov. Preston in early 1818 to select a site for a state university authorized by an act (Chap. XI) of December 1817 Assembly, and to draft guidelines for its operation; the group met in a tavern at the Rockfish Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains in August 1818, electing Jefferson as its chair; hence, this report is commonly known as the "Rockfish Gap Report." Three days of deliberations led to the choice of the site offered by the Central College in Charlottesville as that for the location of the new university, over sites proposed in Staunton and Lexington. Several commissioners composed the various parts of the manuscript report to the Assembly in hands of varying legibility; Jefferson was concerned with that variability and so caused a complete and legible copy of the report to be "provide to the printers" in Richmond for their use; no copy of a resulting imprint is known extant, if one was actually produced before the report was ordered printed by both chambers of the legislature (1818.137, 1818.1380; but early histories of the University of Virginal report that one was printed, so the entry here. Short title above conforms to that used by Swem for the known editions; full title seen here is taken from the edition ordered printed by the House of Delegates; item is not in Swem.