Claudius Lee Papers

Access and use

Location of collection:
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Special Collections, University Libraries (0434)
Newman Library
Virginia Tech
P.O. Box 90001
560 Drillfield Drive
Blacksburg, VA 24062-9001
Contact for questions and access:
Phone: (540) 231-6308
Fax: (540) 231-3694
Restrictions:

Collection is open to research.

Terms of access:

The copyright status of this collection is unknown. Copyright restrictions may apply. Contact Special Collections and University Archives for assistance in determining the use of these materials.

Reproduction or digitization of materials for personal or research use can be requested using our reproduction/digitization form: http://bit.ly/scuareproduction. Reproduction or digitization of materials for publication or exhibit use can be requested using our publication/exhibition form: http://bit.ly/scuapublication. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives (specref@vt.edu or 540-231-6308) if you need assistance with forms or to submit a completed form.

Preferred citation:

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], Claudius Lee Papers, Ms1961-002, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.

Summary

Extent:
0.3 Cubic Feet 1 box, 1 oversize folder
Creator:
Lee, Claudius, 1872-1962
Abstract:
The collection contains correspondence, photographs, and miscellaneous materials relating to the personal life and university and military service of Claudius Lee, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
Language:
The materials in the collection are in English.
Preferred citation:

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], Claudius Lee Papers, Ms1961-002, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains the papers of Claudius Lee, a U. S. Army veteran of World War I and a long-time professor of electrical engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. The collection contains such items as personal and university-related correspondence, various materials relating to Lee's university and military service, fraternal lodge souvenirs, photographs and miscellaneous items.

The collection includes a few pieces of personal correspondence between Lee, his family and friends, as well as correspondence relating to Lee's work at Virginia Tech. Found here are pieces of correspondence between various professors and administrators, including Samuel R. Pritchard, Joseph D. Eggleston, W. H. Rasche, T. B. Hutcheson, Prof. Randolph, F. A. Heacock, Claudius Lee, Julian A. Burruss, and Prof. Staley. Also relating to Virginia Tech is a folder of various materials containing such items as circulars, invitations, place cards, reports on the campus power plant, and images of campus buildings.

A folder of military-related material chronicles Lee's own military service--particularly at a military ordnance training camp--and includes reports and memoranda, as well as general newspaper clippings on World War I.

Souvenirs arising from Lee's affiliation with local fraternal lodges are included, as is a folder of material relating to his attending the General Electric Professor's Conference. A report--mailed to Lee in 1959--on the gristmill at Mount Vernon, Virginia, is included as well.

The collection contains a small set of photographs including various portraits of Lee; images of Virginia Tech-related individuals, organizations and scenes; and military groups and scenes.

Completing the collection is a folder of miscellaneous materials, including a South Carolina matriculation ticket for Samuel R. Pritchard (1887); Lee's grade report from the Danville Military Institute (1890); several souvenir postcard booklets of Peoria, Illinois and military scenes; and a pair of phonograph records, made by former students of Lee and presented to him on his 80th birthday.

[see also Oversize Materials]

Biographical / historical:

Claudius Lee was born on May 30, 1872 in Culpeper Court House, Virginia. He worked at his father's mill and also served as an apprentice to a gunsmith in Danville. He studied at Lafayette College (Pennsylvania) before being brought to Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) to establish the college's physics laboratory while furthering his own education. Graduating with a degree in electrical engineering in 1896, Lee is credited with installing Blacksburg's first telephone switchboard and bringing an electric lighting system to the campus and town. He devised controls to regulate all the college bells and was the university's timekeeper from December 1893 to 1956.

Lee served as superintendent of the campus power plant from 1899 to 1907, and as local manager of the Virginia and Tennessee Telephone Company from 1900 to 1909. He became a professor in 1914. From 1917 to 1919, Lee served in the U. S. Army as a captain of ordnance. Following World War I, he returned to Blacksburg and headed the electrical engineering department from 1919 to 1936. In all, Lee served the college in various capacities for 69 years. The subjects which he taught included telephony, telegraphy, direct and alternating current.

Among the many campus, community and professional organizations in which Lee was involved are the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the YMCA, Phi Kappa Phi, National Society of Professional Engineers, American Society of Engineering Education, Virginia Academy of Science, Virginia Education Association, Eta Kappa Nu and Tau Beta Pi. He was a trustee of the Blacksburg Methodist Church, in which his wife was also an active member.

Honoring Lee's long service to the university, a residence hall bearing his name was built in the late 1960s. In recent years, however, Lee's campus reputation has been somewhat tarnished by information gleaned from the 1896 Bugle. Within the annual's "organizations" section is a page devoted to the K. K. K., naming Lee as the "father of terror." Lee is also listed as an "arch fiend" in the Pittsylvania Club, whose logo is of the lynching a Black man hanging from a tree. No evidence of campus Klan activity has been found, however, and an investigation has concluded that the pages are racist jokes perpetrated by young men in a nineteenth-century military school dominated by white males. There seems to be no direct evidence in Lee's papers relating to the matter. Several times in recent years, these pages have sparked controversy and led to demands that Lee Hall be re-named. After a petition received over 10,000 signatures in 2020, Lee Hall was renamed Hoge Hall in August of that year.

Lee married Sarah Theresa "Rissie" Otey (born October 14, 1874) on October 24, 1902. their only son, John Henry, died in 1933, the Lees reared Robert and Duval Schultz and Douglas E. Williams. Claudius Lee died December 16, 1962.

Acquisition information:
The Claudius Lee Papers were donated to Special Collections in 1961. Additional materials were donated in 1963 and 1976.
Processing information:

The processing, arrangement and description of the Claudius Lee Papers commenced in December 2004 and was completed in January 2005. Preliminary processing had apparently been performed in the early 1970s.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged by type, then chronologically.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard