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Legal Knowledge Podcast Bonus Content - S1E3

A Library Podcast

Legal Knowledge
Podcast

3. The Teachings and Legacy of John Barbee Minor

Bonus Content

Dr. Randi Flaherty discusses John B. Minor’s legal pedagogy in this episode, which combined rigorous classroom teaching with personal mentorship.

John B. Minor

While conducting research on the Minor Family, Meggan Cashwell located this photograph of John Minor in his office at Pavilion X, surrounded by law books and loose papers. This is the only candid photograph of Minor taken in the Pavilion that has been discovered to date. Image courtesy Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library.

 

Minor's Office Today

Historic Preservation Project Manager, James Zehmer, shows UVA Law special collections staff where John Minor’s office was once located at Pavilion X. Pictured (left to right): James Zehmer, Jane McBrian, Cecilia Brown, Meggan Cashwell, Rebecca Barry.

 

Pavilion X

Pavilion X was the residence of UVA Law professors for over a century. Its Law School residents included John A.G. Davis, Henry St. George Tucker, John B. Minor, and William Minor Lile. Each of these men, along with their families, lived consecutively in the pavilion from 1833 to 1936. Prior to the construction of Minor Hall, the first purpose-built Law building, and between uses of the Rotunda Annex as classroom space, professors taught and lived in the pavilions. Pavilion X originally included two levels and a basement, which served as living quarters for the professor, his family, and enslaved laborers, and a lecture room where classes were taught.

In this mini-interview, Randi shares about Minor’s varied uses of Pavilion X, which was a bustling space of labor and learning during his lengthy tenure from 1845-1895.

Transcript

Lawn Room 7

John B. Minor resided in Lawn Room 7 on the West Lawn next to Pavilion III (the original home of the Law School) for at least a year while he was a student at UVA from 1831-1834. In this mini-interview, Randi talks about some of the sights, sounds, and even smells Minor would have experienced as an early Lawn resident.

Transcript