Raiders of the Lost Cards

Hidden for decades among busts and other forgotten mementos in a boiler room at Alumni Hall, this old card catalog holds a record of the first 125 years of students at UVA. It came to light as staff packed up the building for demolition.

It’s not clear who created the catalog, who updated it, or how it was used. The cards are exclusively handwritten from 1825 until the section marked 1834, which has some typewritten cards (though that would have been before commercial typewriters).

Some of the cards from the first class are sometime later marked “Deceased,” or in the case of John A.G. Davis, who later as a law professor was famously shot to death on the Lawn, “Killed November 14, 1840.” Early cards list only a city; later ones have full mailing addresses. Every card has a year and a letter to denote major.

After its brief period of discovery, the catalog is back in storage. It will return when the new Alumni Hall opens in 2027.