This collection contains personal papers and memorabilia of Samuel D. Preston, a 1923 graduate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and member of the university's Board of Visitors from 1952 to 1960. The collection includes correspondence, newspaper clippings, awards, and photographs.

The correspondence in the collection is largely congratulatory in nature and includes a 1956 letter from Virginia Governor Thomas B. Stanley reappointing Preston to the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors. The folder also includes a copy of a 1917 telegram appointing Preston a second lieutenant in the Infantry Section Officers Reserve Corps. A small set of newspaper clippings in the collection relates largely to various awards and honors bestowed on Preston in his later years. Many of these awards and honors are also in the collection, in the form of certificates, resolutions, and plaques. The collection is completed by a small group of photographs of Preston, many of which were apparently taken while he was on a business trip to Buenos Aires in 1955.