Willa Cather Institute Launches Exhibit at Winchester-Frederick County Visitor Center, May 27
Beginning May 27, the Willa Cather Institute of Shenandoah University will present an exhibition dedicated to Cather's Virginia roots at the Winchester-Frederick County Visitor Center, located on the ground floor of SU's Davis Hall
Willa Cather, world-famous American writer, was a Frederick County native, born in Back Creek Valley, just a dozen miles west of Winchester. Beginning May 27, the Willa Cather Institute of Shenandoah University will present an exhibition dedicated to her Virginia roots at the Winchester-Frederick County Visitor Center, located on the ground floor of Davis Hall at 1400 S. Pleasant Valley Road.
The exhibition, "Willa Cather: Virginia Remembered," includes artifacts and contemporary photographs in order to introduce viewers to the Frederick County and Winchester scenes memorialized in her final novel, "Sapphira and the Slave Girl," published in 1940.
Though Cather is usually thought of as a Nebraska writer who wrote classics such as "O Pioneers!" and "My Ántonia," she often remembered Virginia and Virginia persons in her writing. Only "Sapphira and the Slave Girl," however, is entirely devoted to her birthplace. Based on family legend Cather overheard as a child, the book introduces fictionalized versions of Cather’s grandmother Rachel Boak and Rachel’s parents, Jacobs and Ruhamah Seibert. Cather herself, as a very young child, appears at the end of the novel.
Scenes in the novel, which takes place between 1856 and 1881, can be found in Back Creek Valley (including Gore) and Winchester. Chief among these settings are the Mill House, the Boak House and Willow Shade in Back Creek. In Winchester, the Old Town Spring, Christ Episcopal Church, the Taylor Hotel and the Stonewall Confederate Cemetery are all mentioned in "Sapphira."
A reception to mark the opening of the exhibit "Willa Cather: Virginia Remembered" will take place on Thursday, May 27, at 3 p.m. on the second floor of Davis Hall. For more information, contact Willa Cather Institute Director John Jacobs at (540) 665-4597.
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