Join fellow members on a visit to the temporary Rotunda Planetarium, an inaugural and documented plan of Jefferson’s that was never realized in his time.

6 PM - Member Social & Gathering, Front Parlor of Pavilion VII

7:30 PM - Group heads to the Rotunda, Dome Room

Registration is required to attend the social

In 1819, Thomas Jefferson sketched plans for a planetarium spanning the dome of the University of Virginia’s Rotunda Library. Due to ballooning costs, insurmountable technical hurdles, and delays in the Rotunda’s construction, however, Jefferson’s proposed celestial dome was never realized.

Rotunda Planetarium revisits this inaugural vision. An array of digital projectors will transform the Rotunda’s dome room (UVa’s architectural centerpiece and a UNESCO world heritage site) into a vast enlightenment planetarium. A paired exhibition, “Rotunda Planetarium: Science & Learning in the University of Virginia’s First Library,” will display books, instruments, specimens, and artifacts from the Rotunda’s early history. This exhibition will highlight the Rotunda’s original function as a site for interdisciplinary discovery, while also bringing renewed attention to the stories of those who built, worked, taught, and learned under its dome.