The Buckner Clay family memorabilia collection contains diplomas, photographs, engravings, portraits, and other material belongings.
This collection was donated to the Law School by the Clay family through the UVA Foundation in October of 1994.
Buckner Clay was born near Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky, 31 December 1877, son of Ezekiel and Mary (Woodford) Clay. He was a descendant of John Clay, who came to America from England in the first years of the Virginia colony.
Ezekiel F. Clay, father of Buckner Clay, was a son of Brutus J. and Amelia Clay, and was born in Bourbon County, 1 December 1840. He left college to enter the Confederate army, became a colonel of cavalry, and was an officer until taken prisoner in the spring of 1864. After the war, he settled on his estate, Runnymede, in Bourbon County, where he raised Kentucky thoroughbreds. Ezekiel Clay married, in 1866, Mary L. Woodford, a daughter of John T. and Elizabeth (Buckner) Woodford, another prominent Kentucky family. The fourth of their six children was Buckner Clay.
Buckner Clay graduated from Kentucky University AB with the class of 1897, and received his degree in law from the University of Virginia in 1900. He was admitted to the bar at Paris, Kentucky, but in June 1903 went to Charleston, where for a number of years he was the junior member of the law firm of Price, Smith, Spilman & Clay.