1867-1899

Access and use

Location of collection:
Virginia Union University
L. Douglas Wilder Library
Virginia Union University
1500 North Lombardy Street
Richmond, VA 23220
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Selicia Allen
Phone: (804) 278-4117
Fax: (804) 257-5818

Summary

Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

Most of the school's early records have not survived. This is most likely a result of storage problems such as fires and floods on campus. Others were possibly removed by departing administrators and faculty who viewed them as personal documents. The records described here constitute the extant records of the school from its founding in 1867 until its merger in 1899.

For more information on the University's early history, see the following books: Corey, Charles H. A history of the Richmond Theological Seminary, with reminiscences of thirty years' work among the colored people of the South.Ellison, John Malcus, ed. A century of service to education and religion: Virginia Union University, 1865- 1965.Fisher, Miles Mark, ed. Virginia Union University and some of her achievements: Twenty-fifth anniversary, 1899-1924.Reynolds, Mary C. Baptist missionary pioneers among Negroes: sketches.

Biographical / historical:

The National Theological Institute in Washington, D.C. established a campus in Richmond, Virginia in 1867 under the auspices of the American Baptist Home Mission Society (ABHMS). Headed by Dr. Nathaniel Colver, the school leased the former slave pen known as Lumpkins' Jail, located in the Shockoe section of Richmond. In September of 1868, the Reverend Charles H. Corey took over the school and in January of the following year, the school was renamed the Colver Institute. In January 1870, the Colver Institute moved to the United States Hotel on the corner of Main and 19th Streets (known as the Union Hotel until 1853) with financial help from the Freedman's Bureau. On 10 February 1876 the school was incorporated by the Virginia general assembly as the Richmond Institute. The last name change came in 1886 when the school was renamed the Richmond Theological Seminary. It remained such until it merged with Wayland Seminary (located in Washington, D.C.) in 1899 and became Virginia Union University at its present site at the corner of Brook Road and Lombardy Street.

Arrangement:

The arrangement of the collection is essentially chronological.