The diary of a Richmond College student who graduated in 1870 is the topic of an April 1 lecture sponsored by Friends of Boatwright Memorial Library at the University of Richmond. His speech will begin at 2 p.m. in Jepson Hall 118.
Admission is free and open to the public.
Anderson, who also is manager of the university archives, says that James became a Baptist minister and president of what is now Averett College. The university recently purchased the diary from a dealer. It reveals, Anderson says, what religious, academic and social life was like in the late 1860s at Richmond College, then located at Grace and Lombardy in downtown Richmond. James' claim to fame as a student was in promoting the dining hall plan, which still exists. Before he successfully lobbied the administration for an on-campus dining facility, most students ate in boarding houses.