Description:Portrait of Chancellor Kirkland sitting at his desk with a view of the Vanderbilt campus in the background. He is wearing a black suit and white shirt with red tie. He is sitting with his left arm resting on the arm of the chair and his right arm resting on his desk. He holds a document. On the desk is a vase containing bearded iris indicating his love of gardening and hybridizing iris.
History:This portrait was commissioned by the Vanderbilt Board of Trust in 1938 and hangs in Kirkland Hall.
Notes:Educated at Wofford College (SC) and the University of Leipzig, James H. Kirkland joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1886 as professor of Latin. Upon the retirement of Vanderbilt’s first chancellor, Landon C. Garland, in 1893, Mr. Kirkland was appointed to that post which he held for forty-four years, retiring in 1937. In 1895 he became the prime force in founding of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. It was during his tenure that the separation between church and university came (1914); the School of Medicine moved to the main campus (1925); a vision of affiliation between Peabody and Vanderbilt was conceived; the University worked closely with and benefited greatly from the General Education Board (a Rockefeller-funded board). At his retirement in 1937, Vanderbilt's administration building, which had been called variously through the years, Main Building, University Hall, and College Hall, was named Kirkland Hall in honor of Chancellor Kirkland and his wife, Mary Henderson Kirkland.
