This collection consists of papers--including correspondence, schoolwork, diplomas, diaries, photographs, and printed materials--of Louis O'Shaughnessy, professor of mathematics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VPI); his wife Ida Surface O'Shaughnessy; their daughter, VPI mathematics instructor Betty O'Shaughnessy Bock; and the Surface family (parents and siblings of Ida Surface O'Shaughnessy).

Collection includes pamphlets, books and reports relating to soil erosion, land drainage, and other agricultural issues.

This collection contains papers of William MacFarland Patton, civil engineer and professor at Virginia Agricultural & Mechanical College (now Virginia Tech). It includes a partial draft of Patton's book, A Practical Treatise on Foundations and draft of an unpublished textbook on civil engineering, together with patent documentation for two inventions.

This collection contains the scrapbooks of Emmett Russell Price, professor of Agricultural Journalism at VPI, from 1910-1944. The scrapbooks consist of newspaper clippings about Blacksburg and VPI.

The Harvey Lee Price Papers contain handwritten notes and genealogies of various Montgomery County families which Price used to write his four volume series Outlines of Montgomery County Families. Also included are Price's subject files on the county and Virginia and his diplomas from VPI.

The Lingan S. Randolph Papers includes papers with specifications for the details of labor and materials for the installation of a steam heating system at Sweet Briar Institute, Amherst, Virginia.

In general, vertical files at Special Collections include newspaper clippings, photocopies, ephemera, unpublished and/or informal publications, and other papers relating to a specific subject area. Files in this collection relate to Virginia Tech and its history. Topics may include, but are not limited to, colleges and departments, student organizations, administrative offices, centers and other campus units, and athletics.

This collection contains the papers of Henry B. "Puss" Redd. The collection contains photographs, clippings, and VPI alumni material as well as a large amount of material related to Redd's position as a faculty member and a coach for the VPI football team.

The collection includes papers from Frank L. Robeson's tenure as a student at Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute, Columbia University, and Johns Hopkins University, as well as subject and research files from his nearly 50 years as an instructor and professor at VPI, dating from 1899 to 1954.