A new exhibit exploring the deep and complex history of Pavilion X, now home to Batten School Dean Ian Solomon and his family, will open to the public for the first time since its installation in December 2021. The exhibit details additional layers of the Pavilion's and UVA's history, uncovering stories that are often left untold.

In an excerpt from Dean Solomon's message welcoming viewers to the exhibit, he says "As you learn about Fanny Gillette Hern, her husband Davy, Henry (who self-emancipated in 1865), Old Sam and Young Sam (carpenters who built this pavilion), and others, I hope you will see history as an unfolding process of discovery and understanding in which each of us plays a part. Their stories – our shared stories – are still being written as we work to cure our defects and fulfill America’s founding promise of freedom and equality."

The exhibit, displayed in the central basement hallway of Pavilion X, will open to the public from 2:00-4:00PM on Friday, January 21, 2022 as part of the University's Community MLK Celebration calendar of events. Dean Solomon and UVA's Vice Provost for Academic Outreach Louis Nelson, who together commissioned and oversaw the research and installation of the exhibit, will be in attendance and available for questions. Light refreshments will be provided in the garden of Pavilion X for exhibit attendees.