One of the historic exhibits to be presented at the display April 26, 27 and 28 at Diilwyr, Elementary School will be a collection of items of interest about Buckingham Insti tute, Vi ginia's first college for women. . The school opened almost 120 yeais ago to date, to be exact. May 3. 1837. The summer. 1972 issue of the Virginia Cavalcad° made the follcw ng description: "A new b-ick building, still somewhat bare, re ceived the excited girls It stood at the top of a slight rise, surrounded by worn-out tobacco land. The im posing structure had been designed and built by Carrol M. Shepard, a local contractor Its .72 rooms pro vided .space for 12 i students and all the activities of the school " The Institute Community Is known as Gravel Hill, named from the post Office that used to serve the com munity. There are still some of the original res donees there and the one remaining building of the Insti tute is the president's cottage which is not the home of W IJ Waycaster. The hill in front of the house was where the school house once stood The building was destroyed by fire in 1906. The school closed its doors in 1863, . due mainly to the Civil War which laid a heavy hand on all education in the South. The building after wards was used to house refugees who fled before the advancing Union armies , The birth of the school is des cribed in the Virginia Cavalcade as follows: "In 1832 some of the lead ing citizens of Buckingham and neighboring counties met at ‘Bell mont'. the home of Theoderick C. Gannaway. For a long time they had been discussing the need for a school for young ladies. They wanted their teen-age daughters to have a collegiate education similar to that given their sons at Randolph Macon and Hampden-Sydney. . The

62.5%