Rufus W. Holsinger moved to Charlottesville, Virginia in the late 1880s and opened a photography studio. For the next forty years he photographed the people of Charlottesville, their homes, their workplaces, and the events they observed. The result is a dramatic portrait of life as it was 100 years ago in this rural town, the home of Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and many other luminary figures. Witness the tragic burning in 1895 of the Jefferson-designed Rotunda at the University of Virginia, a devastating fire which was documented by Holsinger - in fact, when Holsinger heard the bell ring, he drove his horse so fast to the fire that the spokes flew off the wheels of his buggy.

Henry Martin rang the alarm that day, and continued to ring the bell for The University for a period of over fifty years. You can Meet Henry Martin and read about his life is this unique period of history. You will also find a formal portrait of of the first automobile in Charlottsville, as well as a photograph of Beckwith Havens and his areoplane - Charlottesville's first glimpse of a whole new age... These were exciting and unsettling times, but this town, like towns all over America, met it's future with strength, fortitude and it's own brand of style.

Holsinger's Charlottesville is a look backward to that interesting and nostalgic era when the horse and buggy began to travel side by side with the trolley car and automobile. Over eighty photographs, each one identified and narrated, are included in this edition, as well as a brief history of this famous little town by the renown local historian Bernard P. Chamberlain.

The cost of the book is US $34.95.