MSS16861Alson, Roy PapersRoy Alson Papers finding aid MSS 16861Joseph Azizi, Archivist; Charleston Baker, Student Processing AssistantAlbert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library

Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections LibraryP.O. Box 400110University of VirginiaCharlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110URL:

This record is made available under an Universal 1.0 Public Domain Dedication Creative Commons license.

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2026-03-05 17:46:07 +0000.Description is written in: English, Latin script.Describing Archives: A Content Standard Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library Roy Alson papers Alson, Roy L. MSS 16861 Archival Resource Key /repositories/3/resources/1704 .65 Cubic Feet 3 photograph 3-ring clamshell boxes, 1 half-width legal document box 1970-1983 1970-1975 good English Content Warning

This material may contain offensive or harmful imagery. The purpose of this note is to give users the opportunity to decide whether they need or want to view these materials, or at least, to mentally or emotionally prepare themselves to view the materials. 

Content Description

This collection contains black-and-white negatives, color slides, and photographic prints, taken and collected by Roy Alson, as well as a few photographs by other photographers, and some printed materials. Alson, who graduated from the University of Virginia's College of Arts and Sciences in 1974, the same year as the first cohort of women to be admitted to the University, was a photographer for The Cavalier Daily and a photo editor for Corks and Curls.

The photographs, slides, and negatives document student life at the University of Virginia from 1970-1974 when the first cohorts of women attended UVA. The prints include photographs of UVA basketball, football, and lacrosse sporting events, photos of school social events (such as UVA Happy Day in 1971), school theater productions, music concerts, close-up portraits of students, photos of UVA buildings, and several contact sheets of photograph negatives. Most negatives and some photographs have notations of the event or person depicted.

The printed materials include a first year directory for the class of 1974, copies of the 1974 UVA graduation exercises, an interfraternity council booklet (1973), event programs for the 1973, 1974, and 1975 Restoration Balls, a copy of the 1975 Founders Day Exercises, a 1976 Cavalier daily special issue on the Rotunda, and a 1972 April Fool's Day edition of Cavalier Daily.

Biographical / Historical

Roy Alson graduated from the University of Virginia's College of Arts and Sciences in 1974 with a B.A. in Biology. During his time at UVA, he was a photographer for The Cavalier Daily and a photo editor for Corks and Curls. The Cavalier Daily was founded in 1890 under the name, "College Topics" and is currently a student-run volunteer organization. Corks and Curls, first published in 1888, was a UVA yearbook depicting student life that ended in 2008. Roy Alson entered the University of Virginia at the time the University admitted its first cohort of women students. The first official coeducational class at the University of Virginia in 1970 saw 450 women enrolled, making up 39% of the admitted class. The number of first-year women would exceed that of men for the first time in 1980 and in 1995. After attending UVA, Alson went to medical school at Wake Forest University. He is currently professor emeritus at Wake Forest University School of Medicine where his areas of interest and expertise were in pre-hospital and disaster medicine.

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research use.

Conditions Governing Use

This collection contains some in-copyright material. Visit our Permissions and Publishing page (https://www.library.virginia.edu/special-collections/services/publishing) for more information about use of Special Collections materials. The library can provide copyright information upon request, but users are responsible for making their own determination about lawful use of collections materials.

Preferred Citation

MSS 16861, Roy Alson Papers, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was gifted by Roy Alson to the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia on 31 May 2024.

Student life University of Virginia -- Co-education photographs Photograph printsArchival Resource Key/repositories/3/archival_objects/2548691970-19831Photograph slidesArchival Resource Key/repositories/3/archival_objects/254870circa 19711Photograph negativesArchival Resource Key/repositories/3/archival_objects/2548711970-197523Printed materialsArchival Resource Key/repositories/3/archival_objects/2548721972-197641-2