University of Virginia Library

1. PART ONE - GENERAL CLASSES

Section A. General Reference Materials.

The most comprehensive collections on bibliography in Virginia
are at the Virginia State Library, the College of William
and Mary, Sweet Briar College, and the University of Virginia.
The largest, at the State Library, contains 3,220 volumes. Bibliographical
material of some note is scattered through thirty
or more libraries in the State. This scattered condition, which
is characteristic of all divisions of research material, may be
illustrated at the outset by reference to certain foreign encyclopaedias.
For example, various Larousse publications are located
at the Coast Artillery School at Old Point Comfort, at the
College of William and Mary, at Randolph-Macon College at Ashland,
at the Randolph-Macon Woman's College, at the Richmond
Public Library, at Sweet Briar College, at the University of
Richmond and the University of Virginia, at the Virginia Military
Institute, at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, at the State
Library, and at Washington and Lee University. Copies of La
Grande Encyclopédie may be found at the Coast Artillery School,
at Hollins College, at the Richmond Public Library, at Sweet
Briar, and at Washington and Lee. Brockhaus' Konversationslexikon
may be consulted at Sweet Briar, the University of Virginia,
and the State Library; and Meyer's Konversations-lexikon
at the College of William and Mary, Randolph-Macon, Randolph-Macon
Woman's College, Sweet Briar, and Washington and Lee.
Copies of the Enciclopedia Italiana are at the Richmond Public
Library, at Sweet Briar, at the University of Virginia, and at
Washington and Lee; and the last three libraries have the Spanish
Enciclopedia universal ilustrada Europeo-Americana.

The collections of dictionaries offer another significant
example of the scattered situation in Virginia. There are many
libraries in the State which deserve consideration because commendable
beginnings have been made in the acquisition of the
fundamental materials. The present stage of development, however,
is one in which library after library repeats the more
ordinary works and very few have so far been able to acquire any
considerable number of items of distinction. The more comprehensive
collections of dictionaries are to be found at the Coast Artillery
School, the State Library, Sweet Briar, the College of
William and Mary, and the University of Virginia. The last, comprising
about 500 volumes, is perhaps the largest. That at the
Coast Artillery School[1] is useful and varied, and includes

dictionaries of sundry tribes of American Indians.

Section B. Bibliography.

For bibliographical material, libraries in Virginia have the
geographical advantage of easy access to the resources of the
Library of Congress. Local bibliographical collections are
making progress in effectiveness; but there is much distance to
go before any of them can lay claim to complete adequacy.

Depositories of Library of Congress printed cards are located
at the Coast Artillery School (partial), at Hampton Institute
(partial), at the State Library, and at the University of
Virginia. The College of William and Mary receives all Americana
and Virginiana cards. The State Library, Washington and Lee
University, and the University of Virginia are are subscribers to
the new edition of the printed book catalogue of the British
Museum. The University Library receives also the general catalogue
of the Bibliothèque Nationale, the Gesamtkatalog der
Preuissischen Bibliotheken, the cards printed by the Library at
the Vatican, the genealogical cards compiled by a committee of
American librarians with headquarters at Wesleyan University, and
the Shakespeare cards issued from the Folger Library in Washington.
Book catalogues of other libraries are scattered among half a
dozen collections. For example, the catalogue of the Astor
Library is at the State and the University Libraries; the catalogue
of the Boston Athenaeum is at William and Mary, the State Library,
and the University Library; the catalogue of the Carnegie Library
is at the Randolph-Macon Woman's College, at the Richmond Public
Library, at William and Mary, and at the University of Virginia;
and the Peabody Institute catalogue is at the Randolph-Macon
Woman's College, the State Library, Washington and Lee, William
and Mary, and the University of Virginia.

Similar conditions prevail with regard to the general bibliographies.
Brunet is to be found at most of the libraries already
mentioned and at the Union Theological Seminary in Richmond; Hain
is at Washington and Lee, Graesse and the Gesamtkatalog der Wiegandrucke
are at the University of Virginia, and Sweet Briar
possesses copies of the British Museum Catalogue of Books Printed
in the Fifteenth Century.

Of the American national bibliographies, Evans and Sabin
are to be found at the State Library, Washington and Lee, and
the University of Virginia. These three libraries and Hampton
Institute, Hollins College, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College
have the English Catalogue; and the same three and William and
Mary have copies of Lowndes' Bibliographer's Manual of English
Literature. Other foreign national bibliographies are infrequent,
though the University of Virginia has an incomplete

set of Hinrich's Fünfjahrskatalog, Washington and Lee and the
University of Virginia have Lorenz's Catalogue Général de la
Librairie Française; and the State Library and the University
of Virginia have Arber's Term Catalogues.

The H. W. Wilson Company seems to have found a fair market
for its index publications in Virginia, most of the libraries
so far named and a number of others, including the four State
Teachers' Colleges, subscribing to one or more. The same is
true of the New York Times Index; and Dr. Lester J. Cappon's
recent bibliography, `Virginia Newspapers, 1821-1935', has
found its way into a considerable number of Virginia libraries.
Available in Richmond is a typescript union list of periodicals
currently received by nine Richmond libraries, compiled by Miss
Mary L. Garland.

The State Library, Washington and Lee, William and Mary,
and the University of Virginia subscribe to the Bibliographical
Society of America Papers; and the State and the University
Libraries receive two or three of the foreign bibliographical
journals and society papers. But in general, Virginia libraries
are not notable for foreign bibliographical or documentary
publications.

Strength in subject bibliographies is also scattered, and
no single library has at present an adequate collection that includes
all subjects. In philosophy and psychology the University
of Virginia is perhaps strongest. In religion the Episcopal
Theological Seminary in Alexandria and the Union Theological
Seminary (Presbyterian) in Richmond are outstanding. In the
social sciences fairly good collections of subject bibliographies
are to be found at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute,
the State Library, the College of William and Mary, and the
University of Virginia; and the Hampton Institute Library is
strong in education and the Negro. In science reasonably adequate
bibliographies are located at the Randolph-Macon Woman's
College, at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, at Washington and
Lee, at William and Mary, and at the University of Virginia.
For technology one finds good bibliographical equipment at the
State Library, at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and at the
University of Virginia; the Medical College of Virginia, at
Richmond, is notable for medicine; and there is an important
collection of bibliographic material on naval science at the
Mariners' Museum[2] near Newport News. The College of William

and Mary and the University of Virginia appear to be best supplied
in the fine arts. Most of the libraries mentioned in this
paragraph and some others, such as the Richmond Public Library,
have given considerable attention to bibliographic material in
literature and history.

Special card bibliographies are being compiled in several
Virginia libraries; as, for example, on miscellaneous military
subjects at the Library of the Coast Artillery School, on Robert
E. Lee books and manuscripts[3] at Washington and Lee University,
and on Virginiana at William and Mary and at the University of
Virginia. Akin to these are the archival undertakings at the
State Library and at the University of Virginia, and the activities
in Virginia of the Historical Records Survey under the
Works Progress Administration. For the University project, conducted
by Dr. Lester J. Cappon, there have recently appeared the
bibliography `Virginia Newspapers, 1821-1935', which has already
been mentioned, and various bibliographies published in Doctor
Cappon's annual reports.

There are useful collections on the history of books and
libraries at the University of Richmond, at the University of
Virginia, and at Sweet Briar. Some emphasis on this general subject
is evident also in the collections at the Farmville State
Teachers College, at Hollins College, at the State Library, and
at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Specimens of incunabula
are rare, there being a few examples at the Randolph-Macon
Woman's College, at the Richmond Academy of Medicine, at the
Union Theological Seminary, at Washington and Lee, at the
Packard-Laird Memorial Library of the Virginia Episcopal Theological
Seminary, and at the University of Virginia. The collection
of early Americana at William and Mary, the Williamsburg
material at the Library of Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated,
the Miller Collection of old medical works at the Richmond
Academy of Medicine, and the sixteenth century volumes on
geography and travel and on the astrolabe at the Mariners'
Museum are notable.

Section C. Library Science.

The most effective collection of library science materials
in Virginia is at the College of William and Mary, in connection
with the training school for teacher librarians. This consists
of about 800 volumes in library science itself, supplemented
by 3,900 volumes specially selected from other subjects

as being best fitted as library material for the different
school grades. Other useful collections, smaller in extent,
are at the Hampton Institute, for the service of its Library
School for Negroes, and at the University of Virginia in connection
with its summer quarter courses for high school librarians.
The State Library also has considerable material on this subject;
and the same is true of the four State Teachers Colleges, the
Virginia Military Institute, and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

Section D. Dissertations.

Definite statements with regard to collections of theses
and dissertations have at present to be limited, since in a number
of libraries such material is not distinguished from the
regular collections of books and pamphlets. There are indications,
however, that the recent tendency towards publication of
annual volumes of abstracts and the increasing demand for the
inter-library loan of local theses and dissertations is drawing
attention to the need of a more effective handling of this
material. In several college libraries a start has been made by
the segregation of theses and dissertations prepared by members
of the local faculty. Somewhat more extensive collections may
be found at the University of Richmond, at the Union Theological
Seminary, at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and at Washington
and Lee University; and there is a special set of about 100
Dutch theses on marine insurance and marine law at the library
of the Mariners' Museum. The largest collection is at the University
of Virginia, and its availability is being increased by
the recent adoption of a special method of handling all pamphlet
material. Annual volumes of abstracts of dissertations are
being issued at the University of Virginia under the supervision
of Mr. John Cook Wyllie, a member of the library staff; and he
has also prepared, in connection with annual volumes of Publications
and Research, printed and numbered lists of all University
of Virginia theses and dissertations from their beginning. Many
of the Virginia libraries have on file the general bibliographies
of American theses, but foreign bibliographies on this subject
are woefully lacking.

Section E. Documents.

The largest collection of local Virginia documents is at
the University of Virginia, the Bureau of Public Administration
Library and the Virginia Collection in the General Library combining
to total 2,000 or more items. The State Library also has
a collection of considerable size.

In state documents the State Library leads, having 15,000 to
20,000 Virginia documents and approximately 50,000 from other

states. These figures do not include the sets in the State Law
Library. The College of William and Mary has also given emphasis
to the collection of Virginia state documents. There is a growing
collection of state documents at the University of Virginia; and
the Library of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute if effectively
supplied with state publications on agriculture, conservation,
geology, mines, and taxation.

To be a complete depository of United States federal documents
appears to be impossible unless pending legislation greatly
increases the availability of the material now being issued from
Washington. But the State Library, the College of William and
Mary (since March 1936), and the University of Virginia have
been officially designated as complete depositories. Partial
collections are currently received by Bridgewater College, Emory
and Henry College, Hampden-Sydney College, the Norfolk Public
Library, Roanoke College, Sweet Briar College, the University of
Richmond, Virginia Military Institute, and Washington and Lee
University.

The number of foreign documents available in the State is
very limited. Virginia Polytechnic Institute has a scattered
collection of about 350 volumes, sets of World War Records may
be found at the Coast Artillery School and the University of
Virginia, and the latter and Sweet Briar College have considerable
runs of Great Britain Parliamentary Debates.

Section F. Manuscripts.

Virginia has been a happy hunting ground for manuscripts,
the hunters including not a few sharpshooters from other States.
There are several notable collections within the State's boundaries;
and information concerning the fairly numerous smaller
and special collections is likely to prove of service for
research.

The largest collection in Virginia is at the State Library
and comprises approximately 1,500,000 items. These are limited
to Virginia and cover the history of the Commonwealth from the
early seventeenth century to the present. The collection is
filed and accessible for use, and the following printed calendars
have been issued:-

Aside from the archival material, which includes manuscript
records of the Commonwealth and of some of its governmental subdivisions
and letters and papers of the governors and other
officials, there may be noted the following collections:- the
Abercrombie letter books (1746-1773), the Allason papers (17231815),
the Emma Read Ball collection concerning the Ball family,
the Beaumarchais papers (American Revolution), thirty-eight
pieces, the William Brent, Jr., miscellany, 1821-39 (including
copies of certain original deeds, plats, etc., dated 1651-1757),
the N. F. Cabell papers (1722-1879), the Campbell-Brown letters
(1793-1886), the papers of the Society of the Cincinnati (17831810),
the George Rogers Clark papers, 19,958 pieces, the
Captain James Culbertson collection concerning Augusta County
during the Revolutionary period, 421 pieces, the letter book of
Andrew Dunscomb (February 1784-February 1787), the Francis Walker
Gilmer letters (1800-1830), John Hook's letter book (1772-99) and
twenty-seven letters written to him by various persons but mostly
by David Ross, the Lee-Custis letters, sixty-four pieces, the
McBryde papers concerning the presidency of the University of
Virginia, the Angus W. MacDonald papers, being chiefly lists of
documents comprising the MacDonald transcripts, the Martin
papers, the farm journal of William Massie, of Nelson County,
1819-44, the letter book of William Nelson (1766-73) and of
Thomas Nelson, Jr. (1772-75), the J. Ross Perkins collection of
116 Confederate letters written by several soldiers in the Ross
family, the W. B. Rogers collection in regard to the Virginia
geological survey, Edmund Ruffin's farm journal for Marlbourne
(1844-51), a Southern Historical Society collection (1793-1815),
being chiefly military papers of 1814, eighty-one pieces, and a
small collection of the papers of George Washington.

The State Library collection includes a considerable number
of account books and diaries, oither originals or photostat
copies. Among the original account books are those of a merchant
of Alexandria (1823-28), of Patrick Henry (1770-74, 178395),
of a merchant of Lynchburg (1832-37, 1865-66), of the Rev.
James Morrison (1824-57) who is remembered for his connection
with the First Independent Church of Richmond, of John, James,
and B. Oliver, merchants in Caroline and Hanover Counties (17901800),
in four volumes, of Samuel Patterson (1805-08), and of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Richmond (1851-75). The diary

originals include records by Charles Fenton Mercer of a trip
abroad (1854-55, 1856-58), the Confederate diary in six volumes
of George M. Neese, notes on a trip abraod by William L. Sheppard
in 1860, and the thirteen volume diary of Colonel Taylor
of Orange County (1786-99).

A rough estimate of the number of manuscripts at the
Library of the College of William and Mary, including the
official papers of the College which are in the library vault,
is from 150,000 to 175,000 pieces. These manuscripts are generally
of Virginia families or of families related to Virginia
families or to southern districts near Virginia. Some of them,
more particularly the Southall papers, have been carefully
arranged and an inventory is ready for use. The others are in
process of arrangement. The more notable of the collections are
the following:- Ambler papers, Alexander Balmaine journal,
Berkeley family papers, Blackwell family papers, Brodnax papers,
Buckingham Female Institute papers and ledgers, Landon Carter
family papers, William Chamberlayne papers, Coupland family
papers, the Flora Darling papers relating to patriotic societies,
Dorsey family papers, the Gen. Jubal A. Early papers, the Col.
Benjamin S. Ewell papers and his letters in relation to the
College from 1854 to 1890, Huffman papers, the Robert M. Hughes
collections relating (1) to the State Board of Law Examiners and
(2) to William and Mary College from 1890 to 1935, the letters
(143 pieces) written by Thomas Jefferson to William Short, Jerdone
family papers, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston papers, Leavenworth family
papers, McGavock family papers, the Madison papers (including
both the President and the Bishop), the papers of John Marshall
(about 150 pieces), Massey family papers, Merritt papers, the
papers of James Monroe (about fifty pieces), the papers of the
Rev. Robert Nelson, missionary to China, the minutes and papers
of the Alpha Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the Robert Pleasants
papers, the John Preston papers, Southall papers, Thweat family
papers, Timberlake papers, P. N. Tyler papers, student notebooks
of the University of Virginia 1830-80, and student notebooks of
William and Mary College from 1790 to date, and the papers of the
College of William and Mary including minutes of the Board of
Visitors, of the faculty, and of the literary societies, and the
books of the treasurer.

A printed catalogue (120 pages) of the manuscripts in the
collection of the Virginia Historical Society was issued in 1901
as a supplement to the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography.
This extensive collection relates primarily to Virginia, and its
items extend over the whole period of Virginia history to 1900.
It is for the most part accessible for use. The most notable
divisions of this material (including the accessions since 1901)
are connected with such names as Adams, Ambler, Robert Anderson,
Banks, John Barrett, Berkeley, Beverley, Black, Blair, Blakiston,
Bland, Bolling, Byrd, Cabell, Campbell, Carter, Cary, Claiborne,

Cocke, Custis, Bishop Early, George Gilmer, Harrison, Henry,
Huntington, Johnson, Jefferson, Kent, Knox, Ludwell, Madison,
Marshall, Massie, Monroe, Moseley, Powell, Raines, Randolph,
the Donald Robertson School, Robinson, Semmes, Spotswood, and
Washington — a veritable roll call of famous Virginia families.

At the University of Virginia also the manuscripts — numbering
approximately 500,000 items, a portion of which, however,
are on deposit and are not owned by the University Library —
are mainly a Virginia collection. They comprise lotters, diaries,
account books, unpublished archives, and records of the University;
and they are filed and partly catalogued. Of the manuscripts
which are the property of the University Library the
following are among the most important:- Blackwell papers, Brooke
papers, E. P. Buford papers, Brunswick County (1890-1930), the
Cabell collection, John Warwick Daniel papers, the Davis-Terrell
papers from Albemarle County, the Francis Walker Gilmer letters,
the Armistead Churchill Gordon papers and letter books, the
Grinnan business letters and accounts (1770-1830), the Henry T.
Harris papers of Nelson County, the Humphreys autobiographical
letters, the John L. Burt papers of Pittsylvania County, the Gen.
John D. Imboden papers (1831-95), the Thomas Jefferson collection,
the Jones papers from Surry County, the Morris family
papers from Hanover and Louisa Counties, the William Mullen
papers, the Palmore papers and the Perkins letters from Cumberland
County, the W. M. Seward records of Brunswick County, the
Smiley family papers of Augusta County, the Stanard papers, the
Sterrett family papers of Rockbridge County (1828-92), the John
R. Thompson collection, the Twyman papers of Albemarle County,
Joseph Waddell's diary (1855-59, 1862-65, four volumes), the Wallace
family letters dating from 1750, and the Withrow papers,
Waynesboro (1880-1910).

Among the literary miscellany are the manuscripts of several
books and of a number of fugitive pieces and autograph letters.
The writers include Kate Bosher, Gamaliel Bradford, W. C.
Brownell, Sarah Cleghorn, John Esten Cooke (Mohun), Arthur K.
Davis, Jr. (Traditional Ballads of Virginia), Walter de la Mare,
Lord Dunsany, Basil L. Gildersleeve, Armistead Churchill Gordon,
J. H. Ingram (Life of Poe — a revision later than any of the
published editions), Thomas Jefferson (Essay on the Anglo-Saxon),
D. H. Lawrence, Amy Lowell, Percy Mackaye, Edwin Markham, Edgar
Allan Poe, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Mary Stuart Smith (translations
from the French of Pouvillon and from the German of Lenbach),
Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Arthur Symons, and Marguerite
Wilkinson.

In Richmond, in addition to the manuscript material in the
State Library and in the Virginia Historical Society, there are
a number of smaller collections.

For example, manuscripts relating to the history of the

Confederacy are to be found at the Confederate Memorial Institute
Battle Abbey Library and at the Confederate Museum Library. For
the latter collection Dr. Douglas Southall Freeman in 1908
compiled A Calendar of Confederate Papers.

At the library of the University of Richmond there are, the
property of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society, several
thousand items of material relating to the history of the Virginia
Baptists, including church records, manuscript sermons, and
the correspondence of J. L. M. Curry (1825-1903) and of George W.
McDaniel (1875-1927). In the case of this collection, as has
also been true of several other collections in the state, advantage
has recently been taken of the aid afforded by the Historical
Division of the Works Progress Administration for the arrangement
and filing of manuscripts.

Another collection significant for research in religious
history is located at the Spence Library of the Union Theological
Seminary in Richmond. For this is the official depository for
the manuscript records of the Presbyterian Synods of Virginia and
of North Carolina; and it also holds in custody many records of
the Synods of Appalachia and West Virginia. This collection includes
297 manuscript volumes of synod and presbytery minutes,
sessional and congregational records of individual churches, and
419 manuscript items, bundles of letters, and histories of churches.
This material dates from 1755, and is accessible to any serious
research student. Among the Presbyterian leaders represented are
Archibald Alexander (1772-1851), George Addison Baxter (1771-1841),
Robert Lewis Dabney (1820-98), Samuel Davies (1723-1761), William
Hill (1769-1852), John Blair Hoge (1790-1826), Henry Patillo
(1726-1801), and John Holt Rice (1777-1831).

There is also a small collection of manuscripts, relating to
the Episcopal Church in Virginia, which is housed in the library
conducted in connection with the Mayo Memorial Church House in
Richmond.

The well known Poe Shrine shelters several autograph letters
of Edgar Allan Poe.

One more general collection in Richmond should be mentioned:
that at the Valentine Museum. This includes a few European items,
including autographs of Napoleon, Frederick the Great, and several
noted scientists; and also about a hundred letters of Americans
outside of Virginia: P. T. Barnum, Longfellow, Daniel Webster,
and others. But here, too, the material is chiefly Virginiana,
and comprises archives, business accounts and correspondence,
family papers, and a literary miscellany. The nucleus is the
extensive Valentine family collection covering the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. Other material includes John Adams's
accounts and business letters (1800-30), the Barron papers (1802-41)

which include contemporary accounts of the naval war with Tripoli,
the business records of John Bolling (1706-13) and of William
Bolling (1804-14), Daniel Call's legal papers (1789-1830), Confederate
manuscripts of the quartermaster department and of Generals
Jackson and Lee, Patrick Henry's store accounts (1758-70), which,
with the later account books in the State Library, give an unusually
full record of his business transactions, the Norton
papers (1760-1820), some of which were recently published in the
volume[4] compiled by Frances Norton Mason, and the Robinson-Shields
(1820-50) and Woods-Warwick-Stuart (1782-1863) family letters.
In the last group mentioned is some material on the war of 1812.
Miscellaneous letters and documents include items by Wade
Hampton, Thomas Jefferson, Bishop Richard Channing Moore, John
Randolph of Roanoke, and George Washington. The literary manuscripts,
some published, some unpublished, include writings of
the following: H. C. Alexander, George W. Bagby, John D. Blair,
James Barron Hope, J. B. Jeter, Dabney H. Maury, and John B. Tabb.

In Tidewater Virginia there are, in addition to the important
collections at the College of William and Mary, several significant
groups of material. Two special libraries are rapidly
gathering and making accessible for research use transcripts or
film copies of rather widely scattered material. The Library of
Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated, has, indexed by subject and
name, transcripts of all York County records dealing with Williamsburg,
and more than a score of volumes of typed transcripts of
miscellaneous source material concerning the buildings at Williamsburg.
At the Yorktown headquarters of the Colonial National
Historical Park efforts are being made to collect film copies of
source material on the Revolutionary War in the South. This
quest, started in 1936 and commencing with Yorktown, already consists
of approximately 50,000 sheets of enlarged films. The collection
at Yorktown also contains copies of domestic material on the
earlier history of the region included in this National Park.

Further along the James River are three other collections.
At the Coast Artillery School are preserved the official archives
both of the Artillery School and of Fort Monroe, covering the
years from 1824 to 1906. In its collection relating to the Negro,
the library at Hampton Institute includes a group of manuscript
records of slave inventories and of slave sales. Accessible in
the Mariners' Museum are about 1,500 manuscripts of naval matters,
ranging from logbooks, ships' account books, and ship papers,
signed by the Presidents from Washington to Hayes, to Mark Twain's
pilot license (12 April 1859) permitting him to act as pilot on
the Mississippi River.

South of Richmond at Petersburg, the Public Library contains

the letters of H. D. Bird, a railway engineer, covering the years
1832-75; the Bolling family papers (1795-1880); the Nimmo notes,
these being ten volumes of gleanings from various county records
(many of the originals having meantime disappeared); the minutes
of the Petersburg Board of Health for the years 1821-32; and sundry
military records of various encampments during 1814 and 1815.

Among the manuscript collections in Piedmont Virginia, in
addition to the material at the University of Virginia, are those
at the Packard-Laird Memorial Library of the Episcopal Theological
Seminary near Alexandria, at the Library of Hampden-Sydney
College at Hampden-Sydney, and at the Library of the Randolph-Macon
Woman's College in Lynchburg. The Virginia Theological Seminary
possesses thirty-six volumes of manuscripts and about 500
pieces, including three volumes of miscellaneous autographs of
famous Episcopal churchmen, approximately 100 manuscript essays
submitted by candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Divinity,
and class minutes and minutes of various church organizations.
This library also contains sundry clay tablets from Ninevah,
dating from the ninth century, B.C. Religious records are also to
be found in the Hampden-Sydney Library. These comprise approximately
5,000 pieces of manuscript material including various
record books of the Presbyterian Church and of the College, and
eighty-three volumes of minutes and of other accounts of the
activities of the local literary society. At the Randolph-Macon
Woman's College there is an interesting example of specialization
in collection, its significant manuscript holdings consisting of
material relating to John Randolph. These comprise an original
manuscript and forty-six letters from Randolph to St. George
Tucker, his step-father, written between 1795 and 1810.

In the Valley section of the State there are at least five
collections which deserve mention. The bibliography at Washington
and Lee University has already been referred to. In this
Library also are the papers of William Fleming (1729-95) comprising
about 460 pieces, both personal and official. The personal
papers include letters, deeds and other papers relating to
land, and the diary of Colonel Fleming for the years from 1782
to 1790. The public papers consist chiefly of miscellaneous
letters, reports, and commissions. There is also the journal of
the first Kentucky convention (27 December 1784 to 5 January
1785).

At the Roanoke Public Library there is a small but notable
collection of illuminated European manuscripts and, in addition,
several Arabic and Persian manuscripts. This collection dates
chiefly in the fifteenth century, but the sixteenth, seventeenth,
eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries are also represented.

Also in Roanoke is the Transportation Library of the Norfolk
and Western Railway, in which are preserved various early manuscript

records and reports significant for the railway history of Virginia
and of the South.

The Holston Conference records of the Southern Methodist
Church have been preserved and are accessible in the Library of
Emory and Henry College.

At Big Laurel in southwest Virginia is a semi-private
genealogical collection known as the James Taylor Adams Library.
This includes about 10,000 letters containing data on the various
branches of the Adams family, and half that number on other families,
mostly of Virginia and Kentucky. There is also a considerable
collection of notes and manuscripts on the pioneer
families of Wise County, in which Big Laurel is located. These
letters are not indexed.

Section G. Newspapers.

The Virginia libraries contain several fair collections of
earlier Virginia newspapers, scattering files from other sections
of the eastern United States, and a few foreign newspapers.
Through a plan devised by Dr. Lestor J. Cappon, University of Virginia
Archivist, responsibility has been assumed by a considerable
number of libraries for the preservation of current local
papers. Other libraries have been deterred from adopting this
policy of cooperation only by lack of space for the storage of
bulky newspaper files. Doctor Cappon's `Virginia Newspapers,
1821-1935', which was published by the Appleton-Century Company in
1936, serves both as a bibliography and as a record of holdings,
not only by Virginia but also by other American libraries. Details
concerning Virginia newspapers appearing within the limits
covered by his volume will therefore be, for the most part,
omitted from this survey report.

The most extensive collection of bound volumes of newspapers
— 4,400 — is at the Virginia State Library; and this Library is
currently receiving and preserving forty-one titles. The largest
number of the papers which appear in this collection are Virginia
publications; but the other localities represented include Alabama,
Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South
Carolina, Texas, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, England, France,
and Germany. Among the earlier runs, several being incomplete,
are [Annapolis] Maryland Gazette, 1728-54; [Boston] Columbian
Sentinel, 1797-98; [Edenton] State Gazette of North Carolina, 178790;
[Hartford, Connecticut] American Mercury, 1788-95; [Hartford]
Connecticut Courant, 1793-96; Bache's Philadelphia Aurora, 1799;
[Philadelphia] County Porcupine, 1798; Philadelphia Gazette, 179597;
[Philadelphia] General Advertiser, 1799; [Philadelphia] Universal
Gazette, 1798-1800; [Richmond] Daily Compiler, 1816-46;

[Richmond] Enquirer, 1804-77; [Richmond] Examiner, 1799-1804;
[Richmond] Virginia Argus, 1797-1816; [Richmond] Virginia Gazette,
1780-1809; [Richmond] Virginia Independent Chronicle, 1786-89;
[Richmond] Virginia Patriot, 1809-21; [Washington] National Intelligencer,
1800-59; and the [Williamsburg] Virginia Gazette
(original and photostat copies), 1736-80.

The files of foreign newspapers at the State Library include
[London] Bell's Life in London, 1851-1861; [London] Times, 185760,
1914-19; [Paris] Le Charivari, 1847-52; [Paris] Le Corsair,
1849-52; [Paris] Calignani's Messenger, 1846-54; [Paris] La
Gazette de France, 1849-54; [Paris] Le Moniteur Universal, 17891864;
and four volumes of miscellaneous French newspapers for
1848-50.

In other libraries in the State the files of newspapers
dating earlier than 1820 mainly duplicate the holdings at the State
Library. For example, William and Mary and the University of Virginia
both have the photostat sets of the Virginia Gazette (dating
from 1736), and the University of Virginia has a run of Le Moniteur
Universel covering the years 1789-1849, 1856, 1871-75. At
the College of William and Mary there are files of the [Richmond]
Virginia Argus, 1802-12, and of the [Richmond] Enquirer, 1812-13;
and there are volumes 21-40 of the [Boston] Columbian Sentinel,
1794-1804. This library has 249 bound volumes of newspapers. The
University of Virginia Library has scattered issues of foreign
papers from England, France, India, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Santo
Domingo, and South Africa, and longer runs of the [Sofia, Bulgaria]
La Bulgarie, 1925-36, [Leeds, England] Leeds Mercury, 1883-93, and
[London] The Times, 1890-94, 1918-19. This collection contains
1450 bound volumes, and a rather large number of unbound volumes,
and is currently receiving and preserving fifty-two newspapers.
The Virginia Historical Society has 250 bound volumes which include
the [Richmond] Virginia Argus, 1804-16, and the [Richmond]
Virginia Patriot, 1809-10.

The Library at Hampton Institute is preserving files of three
negro papers, the [Newport News] Star, the [Norfolk] Journal and
Guide, and the [Richmond] Planet. At the Randolph-Macon Woman's
College there are 326 bound volumes, including files of the Lynchburg
News, the New York Times, and the foreign Le Matin and La
Prensa. Sweet Briar College has an early run of Niles' Weekly
Register (1811-49) and subscribes to the Manchester Guardian.
The library at Washington and Lee University contains early
issues of the [Alexandria] Columbian Mirror and Alexandria Gazette
and of the Lexington News Letter, 1819-30. The Petersburg Public
Library, which at its foundation fell heir to the library which
had belonged to the Petersburg Mechanics Association, has 302
bound volumes of old newspapers, mostly of southside Virginia. At
the Jones Memorial Library in Lynchburg there is a file of local
newspapers beginning in 1814; at the Norfolk Public Library a local
file dates from 1802; and the Public Library at Roanoke has files
of Roanoke, Floyd, and Salem newspapers running back towards

the period of the War between the States.

Section H. General Periodicals and Society Publications.

Figures for GENERAL PERIODICALS are liable to be misleading,
due to differences in interpretation and methods of handling.
This being understood, we give the following totals for the dozen
Virginia libraries which seem, from statistics reported by the
respective librarians, to have the largest number:- University of
Virginia, 14,152; Randolph-Macon Woman's College, 6,490; Randolph-Macon
College, 5,180; State Library, 5,000; University of Richmond,
5,000; Richmond Public Library, 3,800; Virginia Polytechnic
Institute, 3,112; Washington and Lee, 3,000; William and Mary,
2,710; Sweet Briar, 2,703; Virginia Military Institute, 2,602;
Petersburg Public Library, 2,249. To these figures are herewith
appended scattered notes on two or three of the collections in
the State.

The eighteenth century material at the University of Virginia
Library includes American Museum; or, Repository of Ancient
and Modern Fugitive Pieces, 1787-89; Analytical Review, 1788-93;
Anti-Jacobin, 1799; Beiträgen zur Völker und Länderkunde, 1781-90
(volumes eight and nine for 1787-88 containing the contemporary
translation into German of Thomas Jefferson's `Notes on the State
of Virginia'); British Critic, 1793-1804; Critical Review, 175680,
1791-1804; Gentleman's Magazine, 1731-1813; Literary Journal,
1744-48; Magazine für Erfahrungesselenkunde, 1783-93.

Among the southern magazines at the State Library are the
following:- De Bow's Review, 1848-70 (incomplete); New Eclectic,
1863-70; Old Dominion, 1870-72; Sewanee Review, 1892-97, 1908date;
South Atlantic Quarterly, 1905-date; Southern Literary
Messenger, 1834-64; Southern Magazine, 1871-75; Southern Quarterly
Review, 1842-55; Southern Review (Baltimore), 1867-75; Southern
Review (Charleston), 1828-32; Virginia Evangelical and Literary
Magazine, 1818-28; Virginia Quarterly Review, 1925-date.

The southern group at the library of the College of William
and Mary includes: De Bow's Review, 1848-61; Southern Literary
Messenger, 1834-1864; Southern Quarterly Review, 1842-57; Southern
Review (Baltimore), 1867-72; Southern Review (Charleston), 1828-32.

Among the runs of early Americana at the Virginia Historical
Society may be named these:- American Quarterly Review (Philadelphia),
1827-37; American Review (Philadelphia), 1811-12; American
Review - Whig Journal (New York), 1845-46; Analectic Magazine
(Philadelphia), 1808-18; De Bow's Review (New Orleans and Washington),
1860-62; Democratic Review (Washington), 1838-52; Portfolio
(Philadelphia), 1806-15; Southern Literary Messenger (Richmond),
1841-64; Southern Quarterly Review (Charleston), 1844-54; Weekly

Register (Baltimore), 1811-12.

Of general SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS the University of Virginia
Library has the beginnings of a fair collection; and a few isolated
sets are scattered among four or five other libraries in the
State.

The University of Virginia has some of the publications, but
not the monumental sets, of the following general academies:
Académie des Sciences (Paris), Académie des Sciences, Belles-lettres,
et Arts (Lyon), Académie des Sciences Mathematiques et
Naturelles (Belgrade), Academia Nacional de Artes y Letras (Havana),
Academia Nacional de Ciencias (Cordoba), Academy of Sciences of
the U.S.S.R., Far Eastern Branch (Vladivostok), Academia dei
Lincei (Rome), Academia d'Italia, Classe di Scienze, Fisichi,
Mathematiche, et Naturali (Rome), Akademie Wissenschaften (Vienna),
Akademie van Wetenschappen (Amsterdam), National Academy of
Sciences (Washington), Saechischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
Philologisch-Historischen Kalsse (Leipzig), Imperial Academy
(Tokyo). Publications of other learned societies include Academy
of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Academy of Science of St.
Louis, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Boston), American
Academy of Political and Social Science (Philadelphia), American
Association for the Advancement of Science (Washington), British
Association for the Advancement of Science (London), Cambridge
Philosophical Society, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Ceska
Spolecnost Nauk (Prague), Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences
(New Haven), Danske Videnskabernes Selskab (Copenhagen), Finska
Vetenskaps-societatem (Helsingfors), Instituto di Studi Superiori,
Sezione di Scienze Fisischi e Naturali (Florence), Humanistiska
Vetenskapssamfundit i Lund, Kentucky Academy of Science (Lexington),
Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, Royal Canadian
Institute (Toronto), Royal Society of Canada (Ottawa), Royal
Society of Edinburgh, and Royal Society of London.

Other sets of publications of academies and similar learned
societies are located as follows: a run of the French Academie
des Sciences and of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society of London at the Mariners' Museum; the Mémoires of the
Académie Royal des Sciences at the Coast Artillery School; the
Journal (1834-74) of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain
and Ireland at the Union Theological Seminary; twenty-nine volumes
(in thirty) of the Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en
Wetenschappen at Washington and Lee; and the Proceedings for 18511912
of the Royal Institution of Great Britain at the Virginia
Polytechnic Institute.

Section I. Directories.

A number of libraries, especially public libraries, have
files of local city directories. Richmond directories, for

example, have been collected by the Richmond Public Library, the
State Library, the University of Richmond, and the Virginia Historcal
Society. The Roanoke Public Library and the Virginia Historical
Society also contain scattering examples of other city
directories as well as the local publications.

At the State Library there are Richmond directories from
1850 to date, the Virginia Directory from 1852 to 1917, and incomplete
files for Danville, Lynchburg, Norfolk, Petersburg, and
Roanoke; among places outside of Virginia this library has runs
for the District of Columbia and for Newark, New Jersey, with
scattered volumes from other localities. This collection contains
approximately 500 volumes.

There is a heterogeneous collection of city, county, state,
and more specialized directories at the University of Virginia.
The General Library has various city directories, college and fraternity
directories, and directories covering various professions.
The Medical Library has the American Medical Directory, Polk's
Medical Register, and various state directories. The Bureau of
Public Administration Library has an almost complete collection of
state directories, with a scattering of county directories; its
collection of directories of agencies engaged in public administration
in the United States is large, and its foreign directories
covering the same field is representative.

Section J. Illustrations.

Among the libraries in Virginia there is a considerable number
of interesting collections of pictures, slides, films, and
other illustrative matter. Examples may be mentioned for ten or a
dozen libraries, naming them alphabetically.

At the Coast Artillery School there are approximately 3,500 negatives
on Fort Monroe history and on general military subjects, and
approximately 8,000 slides on military subjects.

Hampton Institute has 1,691 pictures in the Carnegie art
collection, twenty volumes and twenty portfolios of the Curtis
collection on the North American Indian, and 274 photographs of
various examples of Negro art.

At the Mariners' Museum there is a miscellaneous collection
of small prints and engravings numbering 2,976 items; and of photographs
there is a collection of no less than 15,380 items. These
two collections include sailing vessels, naval engagements, ports
and harbors, bridges, lighthouses, portraits, and marine paintings.

Old Petersburg is recorded in a small collection of pictures
at the Petersburg Public Library, the main emphasis being on

details of early houses of historical or architectural interest.

At the Roanoke Public Library there is a file of mounted
pictures (2,655 items in all) arranged by artist or subject.

The State Teachers College Library at East Radford also has a
picture collection of 2,271 items - 414 mounted, 1110 unmounted,
and 747 slides.

Three of the libraries at the University of Virginia contain
collections of illustrative matter. The Medical Library has extensive
sets of microscopic slides, of slides on the subject of
skin diseases, and of anatomical slides of the stereopticon type
prepared by Edinburgh University. The Fine Arts Library has on
file general collections on art and a special collection of photographs
of old houses in Virginia. At the Extension Library there
are available 309 films on general historical subjects, on world
war history, and on miscellaneous subjects, 135 colour prints
illustrating various schools of painting, and 620 slides on such
subjects as American history, nursing education, and the University
of Virginia.

In the Library of the Virginia Historical Society there are
twenty-one files and various unfiled pictures of personages,
events, houses, and scenes of historical interest. These are
indexed.

The State Library contains a printed picture collection (both
flat and vertically filed) of approximately 2,500 items, 1,500
being portraits and the rest largely historical scenes. There are
about fifty large oil paintings in the possession of the State
Library, some of considerable value; and in the J. G. and C. W.
Chapman collection there are about 500 or more small oil paintings.

A set of the Carnegie collection of prints is located at the
Library of Washington and Lee University.

The Library of the College of William and Mary possesses an
extensive and celebrated collection of portraits; it has also
approximately 3,000 engravings dating from 1780 to the present.

Section K. Ephemerae.

Virginia libraries are quite normal in having a large amount
of pamphlet material and in being baffled by the problem of securing
at the same time both adequate and inexpensive handling.
At the University of Virginia Library a staff committee of five
members has recently reviewed the whole subject and has courage
ously proposed a method aiming at preservation, accessibility, and
economy. This method is being given a thorough trial with an extensive
general collection as its material. The University
Library also has large special collections in biology, classics,

forestry, medicine, optics, public administration, and rural
social economics.

Other important pamphlet collections are located at the
libraries of Sweet Briar College, the College of William and Mary,
the State Teachers College at East Radford, and at Hampton Institute.
The largest special collection is probably at the Union
Theological Seminary in Richmond. This has been accumulating for
130 years, numbers approximately 20,000 items, and the initial
steps in the work of organization as undertaken by the present
Librarian indicate that some of its items are excessively rare
and that the collection as a whole probably will constitute one
of the most valuable and significant resources of that library.

Among the libraries which have files of clippings are Hampton
Institute (587 books, on the Negro), Petersburg Public, Randolph-Macon
Woman's College (on the College), Roanoke Public (on
Roanoke and Virginia), University of Virginia, Virginia Polytechnic
Institute, the State Library (4,000 pieces on 3,000 subjects),
and William and Mary (on Williamsburg and the College).

The collector's instinct seems to thrive among librarians,
the genus Ephemerae revealing sundry interesting examples. Of
course the World War inspired many collections of world war
printed materials. In Virginia the University of Richmond, the
State Teachers College at Harrisonburg, the Virginia Polytechnic
Institute, and the State Library have such collections. The sets
of war posters are perhaps the most important. Various programmes
are preserved at Randolph-Macon Woman's College, the State Library,
William and Mary, and the University of Virginia; and there are
collections of bookplates at the Roanoke Public Library, at the
College of William and Mary, and the State Library. The College
of William and Mary has a file of about 2,000 legal briefs.
This library also has a collection of charts.

A variety of nautical charts and a collection of plans and
lines of vessels may be found at the Mariners' Museum; and at
the Public Administration Library at the University of Virginia
there is a considerable number of charts, maps, and graphs covering
the public administration field, local, national, and foreign.
The State Library has an interesting group of representative
ballots; it has also gathered stamps, autographs, and currency,
the last item including Virginia and American colonial currency
and a considerable number of Civil War and Confederate specimens.