University of Virginia Library

Tenth Annual Report of the Archivist, University of
Virginia Library, for the Year 1939-40

THE CLOSE of a decade of activity in the field of manuscripts
and related historical materials by the University
of Virginia offers the temptation to review briefly the
developments in Virginia during the period and to relate them
to the progress of this movement in the South and the nation
at large. It seems especially fitting to do so because the
1930's have been a time of unprecedented advance in manuscript
and archival work. If this progress has been particularly noteworthy
in the southern states, it may be argued that this appears
to be the case only because so little had been accomplished hitherto
in this region. Undoubtedly the renaissance in southern literature,
historiography, and higher education since the World War
has created an increasing demand for the basic source materials
essential to scholarship. Southern research repositories have
profited by the experience of historical agencies of renown in
New England, the Middle Atlantic states, and the Middle West.
Even the "depredation" of private manuscript collections in the
South by northern agents and collectors in the past has resulted
in a net gain to research: the manuscripts that were carried off
were, in most instances, more safely preserved in northern libraries
than in southern attics; resentment over the loss of these
records eventually moved southerners to take positive steps
towards preservation of the abundant materials that remained;
and in so doing, they found much that had been not only undiscovered
or overlooked, but even rejected because of the narrow
viewpoint of an earlier generation.

In an era of perplexing economic and social problems, like the
'thirties, men are inclined to probe the past for the causes of
their ills and to demand the original records to fortify their
conclusions. This demand, whether by dispassionate scholars or
propagandists, was more easily met because of the momentum
gained during the preceding decade in the widespread movement
for scientific research in the social sciences and humanities and
for the preservation of original materials pertinent thereto.
Directors and curators of repositories have learned better how

to co-operate for the common end of scholarship. The microfilm
and other new techniques have provided a broader realm of usefulness
for the records and have made libraries more dependent
upon and therefore more considerate of one another. A large
degree of antiquarianism has been sloughed off. Recent and even
current records have come increasingly within our perspective.
Repositories of recent origin are least likely to be trammeled by
tradition and outworn methods, but one of the most venerable, the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, has redefined its principles and
standards in clear and concise terms and has announced its
declaration of faith in the knowledge of history as "an essential
way of approach to the problems of man in his relation to
society," thus justifying the preservation of the raw materials
of history and the dissemination of historical knowledge.[1]

In this nation-wide movement Virginia institutions of learning
have endeavored to find their stride and to keep pace. During
the nineteenth century and the first quarter of the twentieth
century only the Virginia Historical Society and the Virginia State
Library were active in the preservation of research materials
and the publication of selected documents. The State Library
rendered unique service to scholarship in editing and publishing
the official executive and legislative records of colonial Virginia
and in compiling numerous calendars and bibliographies. Meanwhile
it made accessible an ever increasing proportion of the
state archives and photostatic copies of numerous county archives
antedating 1800. Although in latter years congestion due to lack
of space has seriously jeopardized the advancement of this program,
the State Library can look forward confidently to a new
period of progress when it occupies its new building in the
autumn of 1940. Such has been the pleasant experience of the
University of Virginia's Alderman Library which was opened in
May, 1938. Here no concrete plan for the collection and preservation
of historical sources was put into operation until 1930, but it
was not the first attempt. In the spring of 1861, a committee
of the faculty drafted a letter proposing that the University
preserve for future research all documents and other contemporary

materials on the war which had just begun. Copies of the
letter were sent to various departmental heads and other high
officials of the national and state governments, North and South.
Ironically, the only reply came from the secretary of war of the
United States and no records were ever received.[2] The emphasis
upon contemporary materials in this abortive project, however,
has a modern touch. It represents one angle of the University
Library's present research program which has imposed no restriction
as to period within its special interest in Virginia and
southern history. The new library building, with its spacious
quarters and modern facilities, has prompted an ever increasing
number of persons to entrust their family papers to the University
for safe-keeping. It was also a factor in the acquisition of the
Tracy W. McGregor Library of rare Americana.[3] "To him that
hath shall be given" may seem appropriate to the situation, but it
is only a half-truth. The basic importance of personal contacts
in the field can hardly be overemphasized. Any historical agency
which depends solely upon correspondence and chance offers of
manuscripts and imprints has neglected its greatest opportunity
by failing to hunt for the buried treasure.

Historical research has been encouraged and expanded in other
Virginia institutions in similar fashion. No effort was spared in
the quest for original materials essential to the accurate restoration
of colonial Williamsburg. The physical aspects of this
monumental undertaking are virtually completed, but it is significant
that the Research Division is no less indispensable to-day
in the collection of original materials and compilation of data
for further study of colonal Virginia. Near by is the library of
the College of William and Mary with its steadily growing
manuscript division, developed by Dr. E. G. Swem, whose Virginia
Historical Index is the sine qua non of scholars of the Old
Dominion. It is obvious that the mutual advantages of research
between the College and the Restoration are numerous. A third
agency in this area of Tidewater Virginia is the National Park
Service, carrying on both historical and archeological research at

Yorktown and Jamestown. In Richmond are the headquarters of
three leading religious denominations active in preserving their
original records: the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, the Presbyterian
Union Theological Seminary, and, most noteworthy, the
Virginia Baptist Historical Society at the University of Richmond.
A few other libraries in the state attempt spasmodically to gather
historical materials, for the most part bearing on the immediate
locality.[4]

Ample evidence of this active interest in historical research
and collecting can be found in almost every southern state, usually
operating through state supported institutions. Best known, perhaps,
because of their policy of gathering materials throughout the
South, are the large repositories of the University of North Carolina
(a pioneer in the field) and Duke University.[5] The University
of Texas is interested chiefly in materials of the Lower South and
the Southwest;[6] Louisiana State University, a more recent entrant,
is concerned especially with the lower Mississippi Valley. Other
agencies have confined their activity quite strictly within state
boundares, as Virginia has done. State universities have launched
new projects or revamped old ones in Kentucky, Georgia,
Alabama, West Virginia, and South Carolina. Archival programs
have been expanded in Maryland, West Virginia, Mississippi, and
Alabama; new state archives buildings have been erected in
Maryland, North Carolina, Mississippi, and Alabama. The close
relationship between archival materials and collections of private,
unofficial papers is clearly shown in the dual nature of the contents
of these southern repositories, almost without exception.
Even in Virginia and North Carolina, where the state archival
agency assumes responsibility for the one type of records and
the state university for the other, complete exclusion of either

type is impossible. The Mississippi Department of Archives and
History is purposely acquiring all kinds of historical materials.[7]
Other examples could be cited as proof that all such custodians,
whether archivists in the strict sense of the term or not, have
many problems in common, even though the emphasis may vary
from one to another.

The resources of southern libraries toward the close of the
1930's were set forth in a study sponsored by the American
Library Association.[8] That this national organization chose the
South as the first region for such a survey may be indicative of a
growing interest, from without and from within, in its intellectual
as well as its economic status. If the report provided its readers
with an agreeable surprise, it will serve most effectively as a
challenge to build wisely on these foundations. Fortunately the
South is no longer so exclusively sectional in its attitude as it
was a generation ago. The goodly proportion of southern members
in the Society of American Archivists is an encouraging
sign. And if the South has more to contribute than formerly to
research on a national scale, this is derived from advancement
made under stimulating conditions at home.

Three events of national importance during the 1930's warrant
special comment. In December, 1936, at the annual meeting of the
American Historical Association in Providence, Rhode Island, was
organized the Society of American Archivists.[9] It took over the
work of the Historical Association's Public Archives Commission
which had pioneered in this field and prepared the way for the
new national organization. The Society quickly won recognition
from historians and other scholars; its annual meetings, its joint
sessions with historians and librarians, and its journal, The American
Archivist, are ample testimony of its accomplishments. The
Public Archives Commission had long advocated the establishment
of a governmental agency to centralize and administer
the archives of the United States. This dream was realized in

1935-36 when the newly formed National Archives moved into
its spacious building in Washington, D. C.[10] This fact in itself
served as a substantial incentive to the formation of the Society
of American Archivists. The National Archives very soon became
the nerve center of archival developments throughout the country.
The third event occurred in the same year, 1936—the
launching of the Historical Records Survey by the Works Progress
Administration under the able directorship of Dr. Luther H.
Evans. Any doubts as to the practicability and potential contribution
to scholarship of this nation-wide project have been dispelled
by the swelling tide of inventories of county and city
archives, of church and labor records, guides to manuscript
repositories, and calendars of certain collections. Most of these
publications are of high calibre. The time they will save for investigators
cannot be overestimated. Many fields of research
have been expanded as the HRS has brought to light unused and
unknown materials, and the project has taught archivists that
unskilled as well as skilled labor under adequate direction can be
used effectively in archival establishments.

The training of archivists is still as vital a question as it was
two years ago when discussed in this series of reports.[11] The
superiority of graduate work in the social sciences and the
humanities over library school courses in craftsmanship as
preparation for top-ranking positions in this field was emphasized.
The committee of the Society of American Archivists concerned
with this problem likewise stressed, in its report of October,
1938, the fundamental importance of graduate training in scholarship,
including historical method, history of archives, bibliography,
and other necessary auxiliary sciences.[12] Among the few experimental
courses offered thus far by universities, the one given at
the National Archives in conjunction with American University
shows most promise for two reasons: it requires scholarship on
the Ph.D. level and the National Archives provides internships for

practical experience in archival technique.[13] Co-operation with
institutions outside Washington may result in similar privileges
offered to graduate students from other universities. Few of our
universities are equipped to-day to launch a creditable program
of training in archives and manuscripts. Indeed, the number of
historians and other scholars who have kept abreast of the rapid
developments in this field is all too limited. We must guard
against planless exploitation and unintentional debasement of
this new profession.

With few exceptions, the present-day archivist or director of
manuscripts got his training in the old school of hard knocks and
experience. He had to solve his problems of classification and
cataloguing without benefit of consultation and he served as
general utility man because he had few, if any, assistants. Whatever
his scholarly attainments, he had to contend with dirt and
vermin in the transfer and inventory of records one day and
settle questions of policy the next. If the reminiscence of his
versatility in the days "way back when" makes him a bit contemptuous
of our prospective archivist who is primarily a scholar
and only incidentally an artisan, he may recall that, under the
conditions just described, time for creative work and constructive
administration was continually sacrificed to daily mechanical
routine. And even the professional archivist will not escape
soiled hands in his contacts with the manuscripts.

The library school is inclined to view the archives or manuscript
collection as merely another division of library service to
which the customary technique and mechanics can be adapted.
Obviously there are many institutions in which a broader policy
would be impracticable. But the library schol puts the cart
before the horse if, as in one instance, it capitalizes on the new
interest in archives and manuscripts by adding a few courses to
its curriculum and advising the student to supplement them by
graduate work in history and political science. There is a real
need for training of assistants in archival craftsmanship and
routine technique which the library school can meet by well
selected courses covering a year or two; but, with allowance for
the exceptional individual, the professional archivist, in the finest

sense of the term, requires the prolonged training in advanced
scholarship which is the best guarantee of a "philosophy of
archives." Only by keeping this distinction clearly in mind can
the archivist be assured of a genuine professional status.

The nucleus of the present division of manuscripts of the University
of Virginia, now containing some two million pieces, was
composed of four collections: the Jefferson, Lee, Cabell, and PoeIngram
papers. The small, but significant, Jefferson Collection
soon became one of the special interests of Curator John Cook
Wyllie, who sought to enrich it not only with original letters and
documents but also with photographic copies of isolated and little
known items in public and private repositories. The research
value of this unique collection will be enhanced by the publication
of a calendar which is now nearing completion. During the
past year several institutions have co-operated in permitting
photostat or microfilm copies to be made from their Jefferson
Papers: from the Monticello Foundation, music in Jefferson's
library and miscellaneous manuscripts, pictures, and books pertaining
to him and his family, including Nicholas P. Trist;[14] from
the Library of Congress, a sketch of the founding of Virginia, written
by Jefferson presumably early in 1776, embodying an attack
on Lord North's ministry and on the theory that the American
colonies were under financial obligation to the mother country;[15]
from the Massachusetts Historical Society, Jefferson's account
books for 1771-72, 1774, and 1776-78,[16] the manuscript catalogue
of his library, and the index cards to the Society's collection of
his manuscripts; from the Huntington Library, his account book
for 1775; from the Virginia State Library, his marriage bond,
July (?) 23, 1771, and the original Report of the Rockfish Gap
Commission, August 1, 1818, which determined the location of the
University of Virginia.[17] The first of a series of typewritten

transcripts of Jefferson documents recorded in the clerk's office
of Albemarle County, Virginia, has been presented to the University
Library by the compiler, Mrs. J. N. Burnet. Photographic
copies of Jefferson material obtained from individuals include two
letters to Edmund Pendleton, 1784, one to James Madison, 1824,
and about 100 letters to and from Jefferson, 1788-1826, especially
from Randolph Jefferson, Peter Carr, and J. Garland Jefferson,
young law students for whom the statesman served as mentor.
Among original Jefferson manuscripts acquired, covering the
period 1810-23, are two drawings of the house described by Dr.
Fiske Kimball as "Shadwell," two preliminary sketches for the
governor's house in Richmond, and an important letter to Robert
Walsh, Jr., April 5, 1823, regarding a proposed biography of Jefferson.

Considerable research has been done in recent years in the
University's Lee Collection (eighteenth century, especially Revolutionary),
mentioned above. Through the interest and enthusiasm
of Mr. Cazenove G. Lee., Jr., of Washington, D. C., and the
Society of Lees of Virginia these papers have been augmented
by photostatic copies of fifteen letters, owned by the Historical
Society of Pennsylvania, from Thomas Lee of "Stratford" to Conrad
Weiser of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1744-50, concerning French
and Indian affairs and revealing Lee's keen interest in Indian
mores and social life; by photostats from the Lee Collection of
Harvard University; and by a typewritten copy of the letter books,
1769-76, of William Lee of "Green Spring," owned by Mr. Cazenove
Lee, Jr. The original Register of Cases, 1794, of Charles Lee
(1758-1815) before the federal and state courts in Eastern Virginia
has been given to the University of Virginia. The expansion
of the Jefferson and Lee collections may serve to illustrate
what can be done with photographic reproduction by careful
planning and the co-operation of libraries and individuals.

The eighteenth century manuscripts in the Alderman Library
have been enriched by the Hamond Papers,[18] 1771-ca.1799,
consisting chiefly of the autobiography, letter-books, and orderbooks
of Captain Sir Andrew Snape Hamond, Bart. (1738-1828).
He was captain in the Royal Navy during the American Revolution,
controller of the Navy, governor of Nova Scotia, and member
of Parliament. The papers deal with naval and military operations

in North America during 1771-83; a few additional entries
were made by Admiral Sir Graham Eden Hamond in 1799. A
smaller collection on the British side of the war is composed of
"Four Memoranda on the conduct of the War in Virginia and the
Carolinas, etc., 1779-1781," submitted to Lord George Germaine by
Richard Oswald.[19] One of these discusses the military importance
of the Elizabeth River and Hampton Roads, dated June 26, 1779;
another is " . . . Relative to the Plan for an alliance with Russia,"
August 2, 1781. Oswald, a prominent merchant before the Revolution,
was appointed British commissioner at the Paris peace conference
in 1782.[20] To the Latané Deposit[21] of eighteenth century
Essex County, Virginia, materials have been added official documents
pertaining to land-holdings of Lewis Latané, two letters
to Major William Latané, 1794 and 1800, and one of James Whitehead
to the Vestry of South Farnham Parish, 1788. The social
and political life of a mercantile family of southeastern Virginia
is revealed in the Prentis Papers:[22] Judge Joseph Prentis's
(1754-1809)[23] Garden Book, ca. 1775-88, and "Monthly Kalendar,"
1775-79; letters of Robert Prentis (b. 1741), 1775, 1783-1804, concerning
commercial dealings in the West Indies; letters of Robert
Anderson to Joseph Prentis, 1795-1826; letters of Judge Joseph
Prentis to his son Joseph Prentis, Jr. (1783-1851), while the
latter was in Williamsburg, 1796-1805, and, from July, 1805, to
1809, attorney in Suffolk; and those of Robert Saunders to Joseph
Prentis in the same cities during 1799-1826. On microfilm are
copies of legal and business papers of William Prentis, (17011765),
native of England, Williamsburg merchant, father of Judge
Joseph Prentis and uncle of Robert Prentis, ca. 1733-70, involving
members of the Blair, Cary, Nicholas, Whiting, and other families.

The Dabney Family Papers, numbering about a thousand

manuscripts and photostats, relate especially to Robert Lewis
Dabney (1820-1898), M. A. of the University of Virginia, and staff
officer and biographer of "Stonewall" Jackson.[24] They shed light
on his life in Louisa County, at Hampden-Sydney College, and at
the University, and they include material which he used in writing
the life of Jackson. The R. M. T. Hunter Collection,[25] one of the
most valuable in the Library, has been increased by several
thousand pieces, including many letters of Hunter to his wife
during his long political career, records of the firm of Stone,
Hunter & Company in Fredericksburg during the 1790's and of
Hunter, Garnett & Company of Essex County during the early
1800's, mill and blacksmith accounts at "Fonthill," Hunter's estate,
in the latter 1850's, and letters and note books of R. M. T.
Hunter, Jr. (1839-1861), while he was a student in the University
of Virginia, 1857-61. The surviving papers of the Honorable
Claude A. Swanson (1862-1939), member of the Virginia Legislature,
governor of Virginia, member of Congress, United States
senator, and secretary of the Navy, have been received recently
from the family. Although he was in public life more than half
a century, only a very small portion of his political correspondence
escaped destruction—four vertical file drawers on Virginia politics,
1921-22.[26]

The Holland Manuscripts, 1820-90, reveal in considerable detail
economic and social life in southside Virginia, especially Franklin
County and vicinity, from the planter's viewpoint. The ante
bellum material centers around the family of Asa Holland,
farmer, mercantile partner, county official, and local postmaster.
There are letters on the Rocky Mount Turnpike Company, others
on the tobacco business in Danville in which Asa was interested
through his brother Smithson H. Holland, others on Hollins
Institute, of which Asa's son-in-law, William E. Duncan, was
principal in 1858-59, and on Alleghany College, Blue Sulphur
Springs, 1860-61. Post office reports, 1854-60, include lists of

subscribers to newspapers and magazines and titles of periodicals.[27]
The collection is valuable, too, for its Civil War letters—
of Asa's son, Mark, who fought in many of the Virginia campaigns
throughout the four years, of Duncan in the quartermaster's office
at first and later in the artillery under General A. P. Hill, and
of two other Holland kinsmen. Three volumes of commissary
accounts of the Confederate War Department in the area of
Franklin County and southwestern Virginia, 1863-65, are of special
interest. The papers after 1865 are less numerous but throw
some light on post bellum agricultural and general economic conditions.

Another collection, similar in character to the Holland Papers,
is that of the Douglass Family of Orange, Greene, and Albemarle
counties, 1731-1900. The material on the eighteenth century
consists of a few surveys and deeds, a Quaker marriage certificate
of the Hanover County Meeting, 1789, and scattered letters,
bills, and receipts. Agricultural conditions, business affairs,
social life, a few glimpses of politics, are seen in the correspondence
and transactions of John Douglass (d. 1828), his son, John
B. Douglass (d. 1861), and grandson, John M. Douglass. Among
their correspondents were members of the Duke, Graves, Southall,
Watts, and White families. The grandson, like Mark Holland,
served in the Confederate army in Virginia throughout the war
and many of his letters have survived. Economic conditions
during reconstruction and afterward are revealed in letters and
documents—e.g., in labor contracts of Jason B. Douglass, John
M.'s brother, with certain freedmen, 1866-73. There are numerous
family letters from Kingston, Georgia, in the 1870's and 1880's
and a few comments on Republican politics in Virginia after
1880. The John R. Wingfield (1845-1925) Manuscripts comprise
the personal and business papers of this lawyer and politician, a
resident of Charlottesville and Albemarle County, ca. 1865-1925.
He was a member of the Virginia Senate during 1881-86 and supported
the Readjuster Party. His papers, numbering more than
5,000, include letters and documents from Costa Rica where he
served as United States consul, 1886-89, records of the Horse

Creek Coal Company of West Virginia after 1900, the Minute
Book of the Ivy Creek Farmers Club, Albemarle County, 1911-14,
and miscellaneous account books.

From Fluvanna County come the Winn Papers, of particular
interest to students of medical history. Fourteen volumes of account
books cover the medical practice of Dr. Philip J. Winn in
detail during 1857-87. While a medical student in the University
of Virginia, 1873-76, his son, John F. Winn, wrote numerous letters
home regarding the faculty, courses, student life, and personal
matters. The father also preserved letters from various patients
and their families, 1864-87, and from his son, who, as a physician
in Richmond, discussed certain case histories and diseases he was
treating. Dr. J. F. Winn was editor and proprietor of The Sanitary
Monitor, 1886, and of Practice: the Physicians' Monthly
Journal, 1887, both published in Richmond.[28] The Account Book
and a volume of medical notes of Dr. Austin Brockenbrough, ca.
1780-83, reveal some details of this physician's work in Tappahannock,
Virginia, and vicinity. From Staunton, Virginia, come three
"Journals" (account books) of the medical practice of Dr.
Francis T. Stribling, 1831-38. Also of interest to medical historians
is the Jefferson R. Kean Collection of ten manuscript and
printed items à propos of William Gorgas's recognition of Dr.
Walter Reed's contribution to the scientific knowledge of yellow
fever.[29]

No academic year of the University of Virginia passes without
some noteworthy additions to its official records[30] or to material
about the University in collections of personal manuscripts. One
of the most significant is the deposit of Alexander Garrett Papers,
1812-48. As first bursar of the institution, Garrett was most
familiar with its finances which were discussed in letters from
Jefferson and Madison, 1821-28, preserved in this collection. Here,
too, is the six-page order of ceremonies for the laying of the corner-stone
of Central College, Oct. 6, 1817, which President James

Monroe and ex-presidents Jefferson and Madison attended.[31]
From the death-bed of the "Sage of Monticello" went a brief note
from Garrett to his wife on July 4, 1826: "Mr. Jefferson is no
more, he breathed his last 10 minutes before 1 o'clock today almost
without a struggle. . . ." Letters from Thomas W. Gilmer, 1832, on
the nullification controversy, from John H. Cocke, James Monroe,
John Minor, and Chapman Johnson are also among these papers.
Records of two proctors of the University have been received:
letters (typewritten copies, the gift of Professor Robert H.
Webb) of Robert Riddick Prentis (1818-1871), son of Joseph
Prentis, Jr., for the period 1835-71 (he was proctor during
1853-65), and a small group of bills, receipts, and other papers
of Major Green Peyton (d. 1897) while holding that office, 186897.
The Virginia Quarterly Review has donated 89 letters from
prominent editors, publishers, and writers to the recent editors of
the Review, Stringfellow Barr and Lambert Davis, and has lent
for microfilming a package of correspondence between Havelock
Ellis and Dr. Louise S. Bryant, 1935-39.[32] Other acquisitions
pertaining to the University are Professor George W. Blaetterman's
(1820-1912) reminiscences and "Personal Recollections of
Thomas Jefferson"; a copy of Bohn's Album and Autographs of
the University of Virginia (Washington, 1859) with numerous additional
photographs of professors and buildings inserted; the
minutes, constitution, and other memoranda of the Class of 1908;
some twentieth century records of the Y. M. C. A. at the University;
and further additions to the collection of students' notebooks
on lectures by J. P. Emmett (chemistry), James P. C.
Southall (mathematics and physics), N. F. Cabell (materia
medica), etc.

The Civil War theme is apparently inexhaustible. So is the
supply of materials newly discovered each year. Although they
are seldom novel in their general character, they are always fresh
in detail and provide incentive for new research. The viewpoint
is modified by successive generations of historians and the picture

is never completed. Soldiers' letters continue to come out of
hiding. To the University of Virginia's files have been added,
besides the Holland and Douglass letters described above,[33]
twenty-five written by J. A. Tompkins, 5th Virginia Cavalry,
to his mother during 1863-64, the last from Prison Camp, Point
Lookout, Maryland. The Elisha F. Paxton (1828-1863) Collection
is composed of twelve letters written to his wife in Lexington
and to others from the Confederate army in Virginia, a "Stonewall"
Jackson letter (A.L.S.), April 12, 1862, and a copy of another
dated September 23, 1862, and letters of tribute to General
Paxton written to his son, John G. Paxton, by Mrs. M. A. Jackson,
William A. Anderson, and other friends and comrades of the
general.[34]
Eight letters of the Reverend Robert William Watts,
(1825-1910) Methodist chaplain in the Army of Northern Virginia,[35]
are extant, written in Loudoun and Fauquier counties,
1861-62, to members of his family. The civilian reaction to
invasion is strikingly shown in the diary of Lucy R. Buck (18421918)
written at her home "Bel Air," Front Royal, Virginia, December,
1861-May, 1862.[36] With mingled feelings of hatred and
tolerance, she describes the Federals' occupation of the town and
their encampment at "Bel Air" in May, 1862. A companion piece
to this record is the four-volume diary, 1856-70, of Marcus Blakemore
Buck, her kinsman, who lived on a farm in Warren County
near "Bel Air." Although his diary is concerned chiefly with
agricultural routine, he writes at some length on troop movements
and war conditions in the lower Shenandoah Valley. Additional
letters of Federal soldiers have been acquired: twenty by natives
of Maine and Massachusetts while in Washington, D. C., and nearby
camps, at Hampton, Virginia, and Roanoke Island, North Carolina,
1861-64;[37] a dozen letters written by Captain Henry S. Spaulding,
24th New Jersey Volunteers, to his wife, November 1862-May,
1865.[38] Greatly disillusioned by the spirit of selfishness and pettiness
in the army, he tells of marauding by northern soldiers in
tidewater Virginia, of desertions and life behind the lines, and
he criticizes northern press accounts of the Battle of Fredericksburg.
The Library is planning to publish a series of calendars
of its Confederate material; compilation of the first volume has
been completed.

The Breckenridge-Watts Papers, 1794-1862, entrusted to the
Library as a deposit, contain personal letters from members of
these and related families—the Allens, Gambles, Jacksons, Madisons,
Morrises, and Sanderses—with references to and comments
on social and political life of the Old South. Another deposit is
the correspondence of the Hume Family of Virginia, 40 letters,
ca. 1835-ca. 1914, but especially those of David Hume (d. 1856 or
1857) of Alexandria, 1853-56. A dozen miscellaneous letters from
the correspondence of President Benjamin S. Ewell of the College
of William and Mary, 1854-93, have been acquired. The Account
and Memorandum Book of William Chapman, long a resident of
Waynesboro, Virginia, records occasional notable events in the
town during the period 1838-98, and numerous births, marriages,
and deaths. In the absence of state vital statistics during the nineteenth
century, even fragmentary notes of this kind are not to be
despised. The earliest records of the Monticello Guard, a military
company of Charlottesville and vicinity organized in 1857, but
claiming its antecedents back to the early militia of Virginia,[39]
are preserved in the Alderman Library for the Albemarle County
Historical Society.[40] They consist of two minute books, 1857-61
and 1871-80, a volume of by-laws, resolutions, and list of members,
1871-79, and two account books, 1875-81.

Of literary and artistic interest are the 15-page manuscript,
"My Recollections of Sarah Helen Whitman," March-April, 1905,

in the hand of William Whitman Bailey, the gift of Miss Margaret
Emerson Bailey, and photostats of three Edgar Allan Poe letters
(in private hands), written from Richmond, in 1835 and 1836.
From the Harvard College Library photostat copies have been
obtained of eleven letters from Poe to James Russell Lowell,
1842-44. The Samuel W. Marvin Collection of literary autographs
consists of 50 letters addressed to Marvin while he was an
executive officer of Charles Scribner's Sons, by distinguished authors
and editors, covering the period 1879-1917,[41] and Henry Van
Dyke's preface to The Blue Flower[42] in his autograph. Two
manuscript scores—"Interlude of Good Fellowship" and "Interlude
of Athletic Prowess"—by the Virginia composer and pianist,
John Powell, who composed them for the University of Virginia's
Centennial in 1920, have been placed in the custody of the Library.

Two items supplement the Woodrow Wilson Papers:[43] a letter
of January 10, 1901, refusing the offer of the presidency of Washington
and Lee University, and a brief note written from the
president's room, Princeton University, October 20, 1904. A
letter by Calvin Coolidge, written in 1900 while he was practicing
law in Northampton, Massachusetts, and one by Franklin D.
Roosevelt of 1918, while he was assistant secretary of the Navy,
have been found in the Low Moor Iron Company Papers.[44] The
Library has also acquired a collection of miscellaneous letters
written by Virginia politicians, mostly in the 1870's and 1880's,
along with a few autobiographical sketches of members of Congress
from Virginia.[45] The original "Douglas Register" of St.
James-Northam Parish, Goochland County, 1756-97, recorded by
the Reverend William Douglas,[46] is deposited in the Library.

Genealogists will be especially interested in the correspondence,
charts, and other material from which Colonel Brooke Payne
compiled his The Paynes of Virginia (Richmond, 1937). Four
items on Italian history may be mentioned: two letters written
at Pisa, one by Cosimo de Medici, 1561, the other by Julio de
Medici, 1574, and two eighteenth century maps of the Papal States.

Most notable of the business records acquired during the year
are those of the Low Moor Iron Company near Clifton Forge,
Alleghany County, Virginia. This fifty-year accumulation—
some twelve tons of 1,065 volumes and unbound material in fileboxes—will
reveal the history of the company from its founding
in 1873 until it ceased operations ca. 1930. The records of mines,
furnaces, stores, the labor accounts, and particularly the bulky
correspondence with a great variety of firms and individuals over
a wide area will provide valuable evidence on American economic
life, business practices, and industrial technique during the period
of their greatest expansion. The very magnitude of such a
collection enhances its research value, but it also presents a serious
problem of filing and making it accessible. A partial answer
to this question is the destruction of certain series of papers, like
vouchers and invoices, in which the essential data are duplicated
in more usable form in the bound volumes. After a check was
made of the bookkeeping system, it was decided that the elimination
of certain segments of the loose papers was justifiable.[47] Facing
the risk of condemnation by the social historian, such a decision
is more easily postponed than made, despite practical considerations.
The iron industry of Virginia on the modest scale
characteristic of an earlier day is glimpsed in two Day Books of
Liberty Furnace, Shenandoah County, 1832-58 and 1871-72, and a
Cord Wood Book, 1872-74. Another approach to this industry is
available through the records (3 letter-books and 300 loose papers)
of the Dover Company of Henrico and Goochland counties, 186672,
with officers in New York City and Cambridge, Massachusetts.[48]

It represents one of many attempts to develop manufacturing
in the post bellum South. This trend is also evident
in a series of manuscript geological and mining reports on properties
in southwestern Virginia and West Virginia, 1862-ca. 1870,
made by Adelberg & Raymond, mining engineers of New York
City, Dr. H. Credner, A. Eilers, and Charles F. Anderson. Iron,
coal, and oil lands in the Kanawha and other valleys of West
Virginia, zinc and copper deposits in Wythe and Carroll counties,
Virginia, were surveyed; the reports and recommendations were
couched in the customary vein of optimism.[49] It is interesting
to note that this prospecting in West Virginia began as soon as
the new state was organized, long before the end of the war. William
Peile's Diary, January-July, 1888, records brief entries of
iron mining operations in Buckingham County, Virginia.

The Papers of Andrew Clow & Company of Philadelphia, 17801806,
shed light upon commercial relations between a typical
eastern banking and commission house and Virginia merchants
like William Wilson & Company and Josiah Watson & Company of
Alexandria, and others in Richmond, Norfolk, and Petersburg. The
Account Book of William C. Jones of "Walnut Valley Plantation,"
Surry County, Virginia, adjoining historic "Bacon's Castle," reflects
the variety of occupations subsidiary to agriculture during
the years recorded, 1803-13. In the Winn Papers described
above[50] are three letters of John Timberlake to Captain John
Winn, 1840-41, concerning the sale of cotton yarn manufactured in
Charlottesville, Virginia, and the use of child labor. Partial
records of two transportation companies have been received:
a volume of toll-gate receipts, 1852-57, of a turnpike company of
Franklin County—probably the Rocky Mount Turnpike Company
mentioned in connection with the Holland Papers;[51] and an
account book on financing the construction of the Martinsburg
& Potomac Railroad Company, 1870-73.

Some additions to the collection of general merchandise account
books and tradesmen's records should be mentioned. From

Franklin County come three volumes of the Holland Family's
mercantile enterprises for 1822-28 and 1840-46. The flour mill
and store account of William or Thomas Noland at Aldie, Loudoun
County, 1816-20, includes transactions with James Monroe,
1816-17. Four volumes of mercantile and mill records of William
Hendrick of Mecklenburg County, Virginia, and vicinity cover the
period 1835-54; the Day Book of Hume & Towles, merchants of
Orange County, is for 1859-60. Pittsylvania County is represented
by a Day Book of Berger's Store near Toshes P. O., 1867-68,
and by 34 ledgers of Hurt's Store near Alta Vista, 1871-1907. The
William A. Warren account books supplement and largely precede
in date the Bell-Warren Collection acquired previously.[52] The
Day Book of Lauck & Stephen, 1832-34, records mercantile accounts
in Martinsburg, Berkeley County, Virginia (now West
Virginia). The Papers of A. J. Parr & Brothers[53] at Orleans,
Fauquier County, Virginia, 1858-62 and 1865, consist of letters received,
bills, and vouchers for merchandise purchased by the
firm from local farmers, tradesmen, and wholesale houses in
Baltimore, Richmond, Alexandria, etc. A manuscript book of
1831-34 records real estate and other accounts, evidently of
Washington, D. C., including additional notes on the settlement of
the Estate of Robert Leckie and a brief item on Mrs. Ann Royall.
From Staunton, Virginia, comes the Day Book of a lawyer of
Augusta County for 1821-26 and 1831-33.

The incidental acquisition of archival material as a part of
collections of private papers re-emphasizes the impossibility of
segregating the one from the other and the undesirability of regarding
them as mutually exclusive.[54] Official records of the

Confederate States of America are widely scattered, the largest
collection being in the National Archives.[55] The finding of a few
commissary books of the Confederate War Department, among
the Holland Papers mentioned above,[56] suggests that many more
of these archives will doubtless come to light from time to time.
Some Franklin County, Virginia, archives are also among these
papers—deputy sheriff records of Asa Holland, 1850-52, and public
school records accumulated by Superintendent William E.
Duncan, consisting of a series of teachers' reports on printed forms,
1874-81, and a volume showing salaries paid to teachers, by district,
1879-188-(?). A volume of clerk's fees and fines from the
Circuit Court of Franklin County, 1850, embraces like data from
the neighboring counties of Bedford, Campbell, Patrick, and
Roanoke. The Wingfield Collection contains some official records
of John R. Wingfield as treasurer of Albemarle County, 18891905—tax
books (including poll and delinquent land taxes), school
funds, road warrants, licenses, accounts with Charlottesville
banks, and a direct tax book of 1866. From Shenandoah County
comes a Day Book of Sheriff William Bochin, 1832-35; from
Petersburg, tax receipts of the city for 1861, 1862, and 1863. Copies
of selected documents in two manuscript volumes, "Quaint, Curious,
and Historical Extracts from the Records of Elizabeth City
County, Virginia, A. D. 1715-1728," were collected by Jacob
Heffelfinger of Hampton, Virginia, in 1877. The county clerks of
Virginia have been most cooperative in supplying the University
Library with copies of current poll and capitation tax lists, thus
continuing a practice of several years.[57] This Library has aided
in diverting certain archival records of Rockbridge County from
private hands to the Virginia State Library; the latter has provided
the former with important photostats and materials on
exchange. This policy of reciprocity has long been of great
advantage to both institutions and to the promotion of research
in Virginia.

Various materials obtained in the form of photographic reproductions
have been described above in relation to certain collections
of original manuscripts. Other microfilm and photostat
copies are listed herewith. The one-volume diary of A. J. Peyton
of Orange County, 1859-61, is valuable for its information on the
Baptists in the locality and observations on the political crisis of
those years. The migration of Virginians to the Middle and Far
West is illustrated in "Incidents and reminiscences of the life
of C. D. Reynolds [b. 1819] from boyhood to old age beginning
at his earliest recollections. Written by himself . . . on Dry
Creek, Stanislaus County, California, January 7, 1893" (70 typewritten
pages). Born in Orange County, Virginia, Reynolds
moved as a boy with his family to Kentucky and Missouri and
later to California as a 'forty-niner. He describes life in the
mines during the 'fifties, sheep ranching after the Civil War, and
makes some comments on national and California politics of the
1880's and early 1890's. Microfilm copies of 55 autograph letters,
1849-61, of Hamilton Fish (1808-1893) while he was governor of
New York and United States senator, pertain to numerous persons
prominent in American political life.[58] From Williamsburg
have been received photostats of fragmentary manuscripts found
in the Carter-Saunders House containing "secrets" of the Phi Beta
Kappa Society, and memoranda concerning the destruction of
original records and books in Williamsburg by Federal troops during
the Civil War.[59] On microfilm is a copy of the Diary of
Landon Carter of Sabine Hall, 1766-67 (original in the William L.
Clements Library), interleaved in The Virginia Almanack for
those years; Carter wrote chiefly of farming and the weather.

Photographic copies of a few Virginia church records have
been secured: the Proceedings of Hanover Presbytery, 1755-86;
Records of the Maysville Presbyterian Church in Buckingham
County, 1824-70; and the Parish Register of St. Paul's Episcopal

Church at Ivy, Albemarle County, 1848-1936. The John Bowie
Strange Camp No. 14, Virginia Division of United Confederate
Veterans, at Charlottesville, has permitted the Library to microfilm
its Minutes, 1910-30, and retain the originals on loan. A
biographical sketch of Mrs. F. L. Murphy, 1854-1933, by J. K. Hall,
M. D., supplements the film collection of Bumgardner Papers
previously acquired.[60] "The Bible of Hugues de Berzé" was lent
for photographing—a nineteenth century manuscript copy of a
thirteenth century moralizing poem by Berzé.[61]

The newspaper collection of the Alderman Library[62] now contains
2,100 bound volumes, which, however, are only a small
percentage of the total—about ten per cent. Most of the files of
old papers are Virginia publications; a few of various metropolitan
dailies of the early twentieth century have been acquired.
Among additions of early nineteenth century Virginia papers are
files of The Virginia Advocate of Charlottesville, 1840-41, and the
Enquirer of Richmond, 1817-20; seven numbers of the scarce
Richmond Whig and Commercial Journal, June 4-11, 1832, and
issues of 1808 of three papers in the same city—The Spirit of '76,
November 25, The Virginia Argus, December 6, and The Enquirer,
December 2. Two numbers of rare Charlottesville papers, hitherto
unrecorded, are The Era, September 16, 1859,[63] and The May-Flower,
April 5, 1860.[64] Scattered issues of several Washington, D.
C., organs during the ante bellum period[65] and bound volumes of
the National Intelligencer, 1800-03, 1807, 1813-16, have improved
the research materials covering the national capital. A notable asset
to the Civil War collection is a bound file, with very few omissions,
of the rare Lynchburg Republican, 1861-65,[66] founded by Robert
H. Glass and long controlled by him.[67] The Library's file of the

Richmond Daily Dispatch, 1861-64, has been considerably improved
and the group of papers published by Federal soldiers in
Virginia during the war by photographic copies of The First
Minnesota of Berryville, March 11, 1862, and of the weekly it
supplanted, the Berryville Conservator, March 12, 1862. Miscellaneous
issues of the latter decades of the century include papers
from Bedford, Harrisonburg, Lynchburg, Richmond, and Rocky
Mount; material on southwestern Virginia will be found in a
volume of The Holston Methodist, Knoxville, Tennessee, 187778.

The problem of preserving current Virginia newspapers[68] has
led to a cooperative project between the Virginia State Library
and the University Library. Since 1905 the State Library has
been keeping files of a large number of dailies and a few weeklies;
during the past decade the University Library has preserved many
weekly papers and several dailies. Since economy of space and
of handling prevents both libraries from including all current
papers in their collections, each institution assumes responsibility
for certain ones under the plan adopted and unnecessary duplications
are eliminated. Files of all Virginia dailies are now preserved
(the State Library bearing the major burden) and certain
weeklies, selected to provide adequate geographic distribution
(the University Library being responsible for the larger portion).
The existence of back files in either library was a deciding
factor in allocating many of the papers; a few files have been
interchanged for mutual advantage. Since these two libraries
together embrace the largest collection of Virginia newspapers
in existence, the far-reaching effects of this agreement in aiding
research are obvious. Numerous small collections in local Virginia
libraries will continue to have real value either as supplementary
to the files described above or as rare papers not duplicated
elsewhere.

Certain other printed materials acquired by the University
Library are deserving of mention. The gift of the Swanson
Papers[69] included also a large share of the private library of the
late Secretary Swanson, with many volumes on American foreign

relations and some World War propaganda items. The Wingfield
Collection contains numerous bills of the Virginia Senate during
the 1880's (important research material which is seldom preserved
in private hands) and some literature of the Readjuster Party.
One of these imprints will interest both historians and bibliographers—an
issue of The Wedge,[70] published in Herndon, Fairfax
County, Virginia, in 1882 and not recorded in any serial checklist.
Two volumes of two rare religious periodicals are the Virginia
Religious Magazine, Lexington,[71] for 1807 (Volume III complete),
and the Lynchburg Evangelical Magazine[72] for February
(?) and March-October, 1810. Numerous Confederate broadsides
and other imprints have been added and a photostat of a
Confederate map of Albemarle County in the Virginia Historical
Society. Microfilm copies were made of the Milton Grigg Collection
of 160 photographs of early Albemarle County homes and
buildings exhibited in the University's Bayley Art Museum in
1939.

It is unnecessary to discuss the recent accessions of the Tracy
W. McGregor Library. Its policies and progress are set forth in
the Report of the curator.[73] Suffice it to say that the Advisory
Committee decided to augment this Americana collection with
expensive and rare items especially on Virginia and southern history.
Thus the University's Manuscript Division and the
McGregor Library are complementary and function as a unit in
many respects, to the advantage of the student as well as the staff.
Some of the collections described earlier in the present report
belong to the McGregor Library, but for research purposes it
seems appropriate to include them.

The University Library has projected a series of volumes to
increase the research value of its manuscript collections.[74] The
text and index of the first volume of Civil War calendars have
been prepared for publication. The Jefferson calendar is nearing
completion and satisfactory progress has been made on another of

eighteenth century collections. All these are compiled by graduate
service fellows under supervision of the curator and archivist.
Part of the calendar of Berkeley Manuscripts was submitted to
the history faculty this year as the appendix to a thesis on the
Berkeley family of colonial Virginia.[75]

The growing momentum of the Virginia Historical Records Survey
project under the WPA has resulted in the publication of inventories
of Amelia, Isle of Wight, and Southampton counties
during the past year. Two volumes in the series of church inventories
have also been issued; on the Dover Baptist Association
and Negro Baptist churches in Richmond. The work of the
American Imprints Inventory has progressed steadily in the University
Library; the large collection of nineteenth century sheet
music has prolonged this task. It is fortunate that this national
project is under the inspiring direction of Dr. Douglas C. McMurtrie
who is already applying its findings to larger problems in the
library field.[76]

In the promotion of historical research through the collection
and preservation of manuscript materials, much depends upon
the interest or indifference of the average citizen towards the
history of his own community and the records which may be in
his own family. The local historical society with enthusiasm and
a broad vision of its opportunities may contribute much towards
a genuine appreciation of the past, its records, and their significance.
In Virginia the Clarke County Historical Association, established
in the spring of 1939, has the use of the court house at
Berryville as a repository for manuscripts and other materials.
The following autumn a similar organization was founded in
Rockbridge County with meetings at Lexington, the county seat.
The Albemarle County Historical Society was organized in April,
1940. It numbers over 175 members, meets quarterly, and its collections
are preserved in the Alderman Library of the University.
The Society plans to publish periodically a volume of source material

and historical articles. Some improvement in the care of
local archives is noticeable in Virginia, especially where new
county court houses have been erected. Unquestionably the Historical
Records Survey deserves credit for the growing interest in
such records. What might be done in establishing a county
division of archives, to translate the state archives idea into terms
of the locality, is suggested in a proposal under consideration by
one of the counties of Illinois.[77] When such departments can be
set up successfully with trained personnel, we shall have passed
another milestone in archival progress.

A general index to the ten annual reports of the present series is
included as a separate pamphlet with this issue. The office of
Archivist of the University of Virginia Library was abolished at
the close of the year 1939-40 and has been replaced by the position
of Consultant in History and Archives, held by the writer. The
collection and preservation of historical materials will continue
with some modifications under the new arrangement. In conclusion,
I desire to express my sincere appreciation of the wise
counsel and never-failing co-operation of Messrs. John Cook
Wyllie, Francis L. Berkeley, Jr., George H. Reese, and Glenn
Curtis Smith of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Division, and
especially of Harry Clemons, Librarian.