Nov. 16 marks the
20th year for an annual conference organized by Charles E. Brownell, Ph.D., the
head of VCU's Architectural History Program. Traditions IV: 20th Symposium on
Architecture and Decorative Arts was scheduled to take place at the Virginia Historical
Society. (Above: a detail from a book cover by the Richmond publisher
Engelhardt.)
In the words of
Brownell, the conference was created "to air valuable work by current and
recent VCU graduate students, as well as important research by other members of
the VCU family circle." Ray Bonis, archives coordinator at Cabell, was scheduled to present on "Griffin and Randall, American Masters" and University Librarian
John E. Ulmschneider chaired a session on "Twenty Years of Research at
VCU."
For 20 years, Dr. Brownell, professor in VCU's Art History Department, has deposited copies of his graduate
students' research papers on architectural history topics to Special
Collections and Archives at James Branch Cabell Library. More than 300 of these papers exist and they offer a deep scholarly imprint on Richmond's architectural history. Many of these papers
develop into topics for master thesis and others are turned into papers
presented at the VCU Annual Architectural History and the Decorative Arts
Symposium. About the papers
Some of the most
architecturally significant buildings of 19th and 20th century Richmond are located on, or adjacent to, the campuses of Virginia Commonwealth
University. A focus has been on documenting
the architecture of what is known today as Richmond's Fan District and
especially the buildings of VCU's Monroe Park Campus. More about the collection