This collection contains the papers of Elizabeth Kent Adams (1908-1994), Radford, Virginia resident and local historian. The collection contains such materials as correspondence, newspaper clippings, unpublished writings, and miscellaneous records, all relating to the history of Southwest Virginia and Adams' ancestral lines, particularly the Cloyd, Kent, McGavock and Putnam families.

Much of the correspondence in the collection focuses on Kentland, the Kent family home at Whitethorne (Montgomery County), Virginia--specifically the inclusion of Kentland on historic landmark registers the maintenance of Kentland's cemetery. (Other correspondence relates to the papers of A. W. Putnam at the Tennessee State Library and Archives.) Also relating to Kentland is a history of the plantation, written by Louisa Dekker and annotated by Adams.

Adams' subject files, arranged here in an imposed alphabetical order, consist largely of newspaper clippings, the majority of these being of Goodridge Wilson's long-running "Southwest Corner" newspaper column. Among the topics addressed within the subject files are the Adams, Bingamin, Cloyd, Harman, Heavin, Howe, Ingles, Kent, McGavock, and Sifford families; and the communities of Alleghany, Catawba, Dunkard's Bottom, Elliston, Fort Chiswell, Highland, and Whitethorne, with the latter receiving the most extensive coverage (particularly relating to Whitethorne history and latter-day development proposals for the area). Included also is a special issue of Virginia and the Virginia County (July 1949) devoted to Wythe County. Several items relate to Radford residents Saul Simon and Mary Ledger "M'Ledge" Moffett.

The miscellaneous file contains a number of items relating to the Kent family, including a Kent coat of arms certification, a photocopy of the will of James R. Kent, and photographs of the ferry and mill at Whitethorne. Together with these Kent family items is a small collection of ephemera, including a poem about Mountain Lake by Carolee Pleasants Otey, notes on the Cowan family, a 1922 letter from Elizabeth Kent Cowan Adams to her son, Richard Putnam Adams, genealogical notes on the Cloyd, Cowan, and McGavock families, and an early description of the resort at Montgomery White Sulphur Springs.