Pavilion X Exhibition

First Faculty Resident

Robley Dunglison

Initially, the first occupant of Pavilion X, Professor of Medicine Robley Dunglison, rented enslaved laborers for domestic service, including two men named John and Wyatt as well as a woman named Maria. Dunglison also contracted with John Hartwell Cocke to hire an enslaved man named Nelson, who worked in Pavilion X’s garden and stables. In 1828, Dunglison petitioned the Board of Visitors for permission to construct an outbuilding behind Pavilion X, described explicitly as a “building for the accommodation of servants.” In 1830, Dunglison enslaved eleven people: three adults over the age of twenty-four and eight children and young adults. The fate of these families following Dunglison’s resignation from the University in 1833 remains unknown.

Throughout his time at UVA, Dunglison worked to establish Thomas Jefferson’s conjecture that African Americans were biologically inferior to whites. Using the Anatomical Theater designed by Jefferson, Dunglison and his colleague Professor of Anatomy and Surgery Thomas Johnson dissected Black cadavers stolen from nearby African American burial sites. In addition, Dunglison wrote extensively on racial differences and promoted phrenology: the belief that skull shape and size indicate evolutional development. Following his departure from UVA, Dunglison continued this work at the University of Maryland and the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia.

The drawing above depicts the original facade as designed by Jefferson. Considered fundamental to a medical education, the cadavers used for dissections were most often stolen from Black cemeteries.