Frances Farmer was a law
librarian and the first female law professor at the University of Virginia. Born in Charlotte County, Farmer studied history and then
law before becoming a law librarian at the University of Richmond in 1938 and the
University of Virginia in 1942. She took charge of cataloguing and then greatly
expanding the School of Law's collection, helping to develop the school's alumni
association as a fund-raising tool. In 1959, she served a one-year term as president
of the American Association of Law Libraries. Four years later she was elected to the
general faculty and, in 1969, made a full professor. During her tenure the law
library grew from fewer than 40,000 to more than 300,000 volumes. Farmer retired in
1976 and died in 1993.Mon, 02 May 2016 16:05:42 EST
