The Post-Revolutionary Campus

With the College frequently battling for its survival from the 1 780s into the nineteenth century, no new construction was undertaken before the Civil War, and the appearance of the campus did not significantly change. In November 1781 the President’s House had burned while being used as a hospital for French officers following the Yorktown campaign, but it was rebuilt without major alterations. An engraving of John Randolph’s room while he was a student at the College in 1792 suggests the simplicity of accommodations afforded students (Fig. 9, College of William and Mary Archives).

Of the surviving illustrations of the College in the antebellum era, one of the most appealing and most representative of the rural character of the campus is a Thomas Millington lithograph of about 1840 (Fig. 10, College of William and Mary Archives). There are several versions of the lithograph, all based upon a wash drawing, also extant, by Millington, who was the son of a faculty member, John Millington.