This collection contains photographs, newspaper clippings, and several other papers containing information about Solitude, the oldest building on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia.

The collection consists of a timeline and copies of documentation about Robert Creede Taylor, a former student at Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, and his family during the years 1866 to 1915 gathered by R. C. Taylor's great-grandson.

The collection contains account books, dairy building blueprints designed by Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and various work-related papers created between 1930 and 1953. A few of the items are undated. Thornton ran a dairy and ice operation in Stony Creek, Virginia, in addition to his job as an insurance company medical examiner.

The collection consists of a text from radio talk titled "The Insect Menace to Log Cabins and Rustic Woodwork," given by entomologist Grover W. Underhill in 1935.

The Charles E. Vawter Family Collection contains a ledger from 1882-1883, two Virginia Polytechnic Institute's Bugle yearbooks from 1900 and 1913, a CDV photo album, and two early daguerreotypes.

The collection contains data from a cooperative study of Grayson County, Virginia, conducted by the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station and the U. S. Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Home Economics. The study includes raw and tabulated data on family members, education, health, income and expenditures, employment, housing, food, clothing, and household furnishings and supplies.

This collection includes eighty postcards. Dated cards range from 1906 through 1995, but many cards are not dated. Cards depict various subjects including campus views, campus buildings, football, Corps of Cadets, and Blacksburg views. Some of the postcards are postmarked and addressed to recipients, while some are blank.

Map shows VPI campus, with building index.

Map shows the VPI campus circa 1944.

Map shows the VIP campus, to be consulted for building proposals.