VCU professor's book recognized as notable document by the American Library Association

By Malorie Burkett

RICHMOND, Va. – "The Capitol of Virginia," a book co-written by Charles Brownell, Ph.D., professor of art history at Virginia Commonwealth University, has recently been recognized as one of the American Library Association's (ALA) Notable Documents of 2002.

"The recognition advertises to the world that VCU is a major center for the study of Thomas Jefferson's architecture," said Brownell. 

Co-authored by Fiske Kimball (1888-1955), architect and writer Carey Howlett, an independent conservator and former director of conservation at Colonial Williamsburg, the book is in part a reprint of Kimball's study of Thomas Jefferson's architecture of the Virginia state capitol. Kimball's study was a doctoral dissertation that was first published in 1915. The Library of Virginia reissued the study in 1989, and in proposing to issue it again in 2002, asked Brownell to bring the story of Jefferson's work at the capitol up to date.

"I was glad to contribute to the volume because the book is given to all our state legislators and thus my participation spreads VCU's reputation for scholarship," said Brownell.

This is the second time one of Brownell's books has been recognized as a Notable Document. In 1993, "The Making of Virginia Architecture," the first general history of architecture in Virginia, was also recognized. The book was co-written by Calder Loth, senior architectural historian at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, William M.S. Rasmussen, Lora Robbins curator of art at the Virginia Historical Society and Richard Guy Wilson, commonwealth professor of architectural history at the University of Virginia.

Sponsored by the ALA's Government Documents Round Table (GODORT), Notable Documents is an annual list published on May 15 each year by the Library Journal. Peggy Jobe, chair of the Notable Documents panel says the purpose of Notable Documents is to recognize excellence in government publications while identifying documents of distinction and commending individual works of superlative nature.

GODORT solicits nominations from document librarians in the United States to promote publications of government agencies. "The Capitol of Virginia" was nominated by Mary Clark, director of the state and federal documents program at the Library of Virginia.

Documents eligible for consideration include any materials prepared by or for official international agencies, individual national government, and subsidiary state, provincial or local government and released for public use.

A resident of Midlothian, Va., Brownell earned his doctorate in art history from Columbia University in New York. He has written numerous books and articles and is also the founder of "New Findings from Virginia Commonwealth University," the only annual architectural history symposium in the country that exists to showcase the work of a single university's students.