Locating Slavery's Legacies @ Virginia Military Institute

Memorial Object

Plaque/Marker

Enslaver

Harrison, William Henry

Stone memorializing William Henry Harrison

The “Walk of Fame” was created in 1929 by then president Hamilton Holt to honor significant historical figures. The memorial is located in the center of campus around Mills Lawn.
This stone commemorates William Henry Harrison, the 9th U.S. president, who owned enslaved persons and facilitated the displacement of Native Americans from their ancestral lands as a military officer during conflict initiated by the U.S. government in the early nineteenth century.

The stone was donated to Rollins College by Judge Alfred K. Nippert in January of 1937. According to Nippert, the stone was claimed from the property of Harrison's North Bend, OH homestead, where he resided during the 1840 presidential election and which burned to the ground in 1858. The stone still exhibits signs of being burned.

Holt, Hamilton

Hard stone, 1 foot long x 8 inches wide. Engraved with very faint markings.

WILLIAM HENRY
HARRISON
NORTH BEND

Nippert, Alfred K.

Holt, Hamilton

1937

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

Walk of Fame

Rollins College; Winter Park, Florida

Harrison, William Henry

Holt Brown Book, Rollins College Archives and Special Collections, Olin Library, Winter Park, FL.

Zhang, Wenxian, et al. Walk of Fame: A Rollins Legacy. Winter Park, FL: Rollins College, 2005."

ones, Devry Becker. ""Life At North Bend / President Harrison."" The Historical Marker Database. July 2, 2022.