MSS. Manuscript Collections

Abstract

The Viola James Collection contains membership cards for James as a member of the Clarksburg, West Virginia chapter of the Women of the Ku Klux Klan, which are in a wallet marked with the initials "KKK". The collection also has a blank application form and printed Christian literature related to the organization. It also includes a small framed tintype of two unidentified little girls.

Abstract The Erasmus Stribling and David Fultz Indenture, dated September 21, 1830, is between Stribling of Augusta County, Virginia, and Fultz of Bath County for the "term yet to come" for the work of enslaved people who Stribling "hired" from other enslavers. Some of the enslaved people named in the document include George Hodge, Sam Hamilton, Morriss, Sam McClintick, Big James, and Little James. They are listed as "employed on the Jackson River Turnpike in the possession and under the management...

Abstract

This note from Robert Lively to Walter Herron of Norfolk, Virginia, discusses payment to Herron for four unnamed, enslaved children, and collection of the children by a Mr. Armistead.

Abstract

This collection contains a two volume scrapbook kept by future First Lady of Virginia, Louisa Egerton Cameron (1846-1908) from Petersburg, Virginia during the American Civil War.

Abstract

The Barclay Shipping Ledger from Norfolk, Virginia, covers shipments going through Virginia from 1847-1878. The ledger includes records of auctioneers of enslaved persons.

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The Joseph R. Anderson Letters contain correspondence to Dr. Francis T. Stribling, the head of the Western Lunatic Asylum in Staunton, Virginia for bedposts, and James T. Ames Esq., the agent for Ames Manufacturing Company in Chicopee, Massachusetts regarding orders.

Abstract

The John W. Norwood Letter to Francis Stribling discusses the mental health of Norwood's wife and her paranoia torward the people they enslave.

Abstract The Lucie L. Gibboney Scrapbook contains dance cards, football programs, correspondence, dried flowers, ticket stubs, menus, photographs and other ephemera. Much of the materials relate to Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute (VPI) and the Town of Blacksburg, Virginia. Gibboney (1917-2007) probably collected these materials while visiting her future husband, James M. Graham, Jr. (1916-1976), a 1938 graduate of VPI, to document memories from their time...

Abstract

The Charles E. Cantzon Journal contains handwritten sheets of varying sizes that are memoirs and journal entries from the American Civil War from 1860-1865.

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The Pittsylvania County Voter Ledger contains the names of individuals registered to vote in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, from 1896-1924. Separated into a folder are lists of women registering to vote in the 1920s for the first time after the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.