Locating Slavery's Legacies @ Sewanee: The University of the South

Memorial Structure

Named Building

Lost Cause

Mallet, John

Mallet Portal; A Dormitory Named for John William Mallet

John William Mallet was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1832. He grew up there and enrolled at Trinity College Dublin. He earned degrees from Trinity College Dublin and later Göttingen University. In 1853, he came to the United States on a research trip. While in America, took a job at Amherst College as professor of Analytical Chemistry.

In 1854, he moved to the Deep South to become the Chair of Chemistry at the University of Alabama. With his marriage to the daughter of an Alabama judge in 1857, Mallet’s commitment to the slave South solidified. In 1861, Mallet enlisted in the Confederate military and was quickly promoted to first Lieutenant. He soon became Superintendent of Confederate ammunition factories at Macon, Georgia. He eventually rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and headed all Confederate ordinance laboratories.

At the war's end in 1865, he returned to academia, serving as professor of chemistry in the medical department of the University of Louisiana. He came to the University of Virginia in 1868, becoming professor of chemistry. He remained at UVA until 1883 when he became the University of Texas’ first professor of chemistry and chairman of the faculty. Only two years later, Mallet returned to UVA as professor of chemistry, where he remained until his retirement in 1908.

In 1929, UVA opened twelve dormitories slightly west of Monroe Hill. The dormitories were named after nineteenth century professors, including Mallet. “Portal” is the term used to identify each building. They are brick dormitories with classical architectural design features. These dorms were renovated in 1986, but the buildings were not renamed.

The dorm was built in 1929 and then renovated in 1986. The portal still bears Mallet’s name today, so it has not been destroyed, moved, or altered in any visible way in its current form: a brick dormitory with classical architectural design features.

Above the door to the entrance of the Mallet Portal, there is a white inscription with Mallet’s name and the years he lived (1832-1912.)

University of Virginia

1929

1986

1820-1865: Slavery, Anti-Slavery, and Civil War

1865-1890: Emancipation, Reconstruction and Resistance to Reconstruction

1890-1945: Era of the Lost Cause, Jim Crow legal segregation and discrimination, and organized anti-Black racism

Original building of the portals in 1929 was funded by the University of Virginia. The 1986 renovation was at least partially funded by the family of George Garvin Brown.

University of Virginia; Charlottesville, Virginia

Mallet Wikidata site

Alumni bulletin Ser.3 v.6 1913. HathiTrust

Chemistry in Action

Dunnington, F. P. 1928. A sketch of Dr. John William Mallet, as a chemist and a teacher. Journal of Chemical Education 5, Nr. 2 (1. February): 183. doi:10.1021/ed005p183

2017. File:Grave of John Mallet.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

From the Grounds Up: In the beginning, Monroe created a law office on a hill: Chapter and verse on what was to follow. Virginia Magazine.

Housing and Residence Life, U.Va.

1858. Letter from Dr. J. W. Mallet at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to Governor A. B. Moore. University of Alabama.

Lieut.-Col. J.W. Mallet; later professor of chemistry, University of Virginia (“Confederate ordnance”). The Library of Congress

Mallett, Bob. Lt Col Lt Col John William MALLET b. 10 Oct 1832 Drumcondra House, 5 Drumcondra Terrace, Dublin, Ireland d. 6 Nov 1912 Charlottesville, Virginia, USA: Mallett Family History

Mallet, John William. 1890. I. On a second case of the occurrence of silver in volcanic dust, namely, in that thrown out in the eruption of Tunguragua in the Andes of Ecuador, January 11th, 1886. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 47, Nr. 286–291 (31. December): 276–281. doi:10.1098/rspl.1889.0091,

Notes on the professors for whom the University of Virginia halls and residence houses are named :: :: University of Virginia Library.

UTPhysicsHistorySite

Vandiver, Frank E. “John William Mallet and the University of Texas.” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 53, no. 4 (1950): 422–42