Collections

Start Over Date range 1853 Subjects Authors -- Letters and papers Level Collection

Bessie Rowland James Papers, 1800/1972 3.75 Linear Feet 3 ft. 9 in. (9 document cases, 5 in. each)

James, Bessie Rowland, 1895-

Research notes, news clippings, photographs, and other materials gathered by James for her book, ANNE ROYALL'S USA, published by Rutgers University Press in 1972.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Charles Carpenter (1889-1975) Papers, 1853/1860 0.1 Linear Feet Summary: 1 in. (2 folders)

Correspondence and manuscripts of articles by Grafton resident Charles Carpenter (1889-1975), a historian, writer, and collector of West Virginia memorabilia. The collection also contains a brief genealogy of the Haymond family and an incomplete Upshur County, West Virginia court record book of 1853-1856.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Charles Carpenter, Collector, Papers, 1829/1963 1.7 Linear Feet Summary: 1 ft. 8 in. (4 document cases, 5 in. each)

Carpenter, Charles, 1889-1975

Scrapbooks maintained by Charles Carpenter, Grafton, between 1939-1963. Subjects include descriptions of libraries, book and manuscript collections, museums, rare and unusual books, magazines, book reviews, newspapers, and advertisements for books. There are items as early as 1838, 1875, 1898, 1905, 1917, but the mass of the collection is in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Recurrent topics include book auctions, book burnings, the dime novel, the Freedom Train, the Gutenberg Bible, Hyde Park Library, Incunabula, the Library of Congress, "London Times Notes on Sales," The Morgan Library, New York Times magazine and book review, New York Times columnists (Philip Brooks, Edward Larocque Tinker, and Herbert W. Horwill), and stamps. There are also letters concerning books from Charles Carpenter's son. For more detailed description, see inventory sheet.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Charles Carpenter, Collector, Papers, 1847/1965 0.5 Linear Feet Summary: 6 in. (2 small flat storage boxes, 3 in. each)

Carpenter, Charles, 1889-1975

One notebook used by Mr. Carpenter while he was writing "History of American Schoolbooks." Collection also includes 4 notebooks and 14 small scrapbooks containing notes and clippings about William McGuffey and the McGuffey readers. Also included is a small tabloid newspaper and a letter to Reverend Ira Sherman from William McGuffey, November 5, 1847.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

David Hunter Strother, Artist, Artwork and Papers, 1744/1996, bulk 1833/1887 15.50 Linear Feet Summary: 15 ft. 6 in. (3 document cases, 2.5 in. each); (9 document cases, 5 in. each); (2 large flat storage boxes, 3.5 in. each); (11 small flat storage boxes, 3 in. each); (23 large flat storage boxes, 3 in. each); (5 large flat storage boxes, 2.5 in. each); (3 flat storage boxes, 1.5 in. each); (4 folders, 0.5 in.); (4 reels of microfilm, 1.75 in. each); 3 framed paintings 0.1 Gigabytes 1 .pdf file

Strother, David Hunter, 1816-1888
Correspondence, manuscripts, documents, memorabilia, photographs, journals, drawings, and sketchbooks of David Hunter Strother (1816-1888), a nineteenth century illustrator and writer for Harpers Magazine whose pseudonym, "Porte Crayon", was a household word. Other highlights of his career, all of which are reflected in this collection, are authorship of Virginia Illustrated (1857) and Charleston and its Resources (1878), his work as illustrator for Blackwater Chronicle (1853), service during the Civil War as a Union officer, stint as a newspaper editor, and Consul-Generalship to Mexico (1879-1885). According to Strother's biographer, Cecil D. Eby Jr., his writings linked the two traditions of literature in the south, "the genteel romanticism of the sentimental novelists and the earthy realism of the frontier humorists." In 1872-1875 Strother wrote The Mountains, which Eby considers the first important presentation of West Virginia in literature. The collection includes roughly 590 drawings and sketches, 44 volumes of journals, and several boxes of correspondence. An addendum of 2015/06/13 includes one drawing. An addendum of 2007/02/08 includes correspondence, newspaper clippings, announcements, and photographs regarding Strother and related families of the Eastern panhandle of West Virginia. An addendum of 2021/06/04 contains an abridged transcription by Cecil D. Eby Jr., of Strother's diary, 1879-1880, when Strother was General Consul to Mexico. For contents of the addenda and link to the digital collection: Drawings of David Hunter Strother, please see the Scope and Content Note.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Edward E. Meredith Papers, 1817/1954 0.20 Linear Feet Summary: 2 1/4 in. (1 folder, 1/2 in.); (1 item in 1 oversize folder, 0.1 in.); (1 reel of microfilm, 1.75 in.)

Meredith, Edward E.
Clippings, letters, broadsides, and articles written or collected by E.E. Meredith, author of the newspaper column, "Do You Remember," which appeared in the Fairmont TIMES-WEST VIRGINIAN. There are: copies of theatre programs, 1917-1919; electoral tickets, 1860, 1864; a proclamation by George B. McClellan, commanding the Department of the Ohio, 1861; and an open letter, "Monongahela River Bridge Underwriting Syndicate Managers," concerning the construction of the million-dollar bridge in Fairmont. Subjects include: Marion County, West Virginia; Augusta County, Virginia; farming account books, ca.1853, 1888; Barnsville; Barrackville Covered Bridge; banks and banking in Marion County, 1842-1892; blacksmith shops; buffalo; Marion County Historical Society; coal industry in the Fairmont region; a West Virginia Gold Mining and Milling Company certificate; Grafton and Greenbrier Railroad Company stock certificate; stock of Weston and Fairmont Turnpike Company; school teaching, 1819, 1824, 1850, and 1858. Correspondents or persons mentioned include Charles H. Ambler, Edgar B. Sims, Lemuel Chenoweth, Eli Chenoweth, Paul M. Angle, J.M. Callahan, Ken McClain, William Haymond, Francis H. Pierpont, Ira E. Robinson, and Clem Shaver.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Henry Ruffner (1790-1861) and William Henry (1824-1908) Papers, 1829/1913 0.15 Linear Feet Summary: 1 3/4 in. (1 reel of microfilm (310 items), 1.75 in.)

Pamphlets include Henry Ruffner's antislavery pamphlet, 1847, and his Union speech, 1856. Subjects of the manuscripts and correspondence include family history; travel; Kanawha Salt Works; schools in Virginia and Kanawha County; Lane Seminary Library; Presbyterian Church; slavery, coal, gas, iron, and timber; Johns Hopkins, Washington and Lee, Harvard, Hobart, Cornell, and Hampden-Sydney colleges; Greenbrier County; Alabama; election of 1904; University of Virginia; Kanawha Valley floods; Venezuela; American Colonization Society; and the Philippine Islands. Persons mentioned or commented on include Philip Doddridge, John Letcher, Hugh Mercer, and Nelson A. Miles. Correspondents include Charles H. Ambler, John Eaton, John P. Hale, H.R. Helper, W.S. Laidley, David L. Ruffner, John W. Wayland, and William L. Wilson.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870) Papers, 1829/1854 0.01 Linear Feet Summary: 2 items (1 folder)

Kennedy, John Pendleton, 1795-1870

Papers of a Baltimore essayist and novelist which include a checklist of the Kennedy collection in the Peabody Institute Library; an alphabetical checklist of Kennedy's incoming correspondence; and selected materials pertaining to the Berkeley Springs-Martinsburg-Winchester area, visits to Richmond, Salt Sulphur, and White Sulphur Springs, and a journey in 1850 to Philadelphia, New York, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Louisville from Kennedy's journal, 1848-1855; and his diary, 1829-1832. There are also selected letters and portions of a diary copied from originals in the Library of Congress, describing visits to Berkeley Springs and White Sulphur Springs, 1848-1857.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870) Papers, 1829/1862 0.15 Linear Feet Summary: 1 3/4 in. (1 reel of microfilm, 1.75 in.)

Kennedy, John Pendleton, 1795-1870

Papers of a Baltimore essayist and novelist which include selected materials pertaining to the Berkeley Springs-Martinsburg-Winchester area, visits to Richmond, Salt Sulphur, and White Sulphur Springs, and a journey in 1850 to Philadelphia, New York, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Louisville from Kennedy's journal, 1848-1855; and his diary, 1829-1832. There are also selected letters and portions of a diary copied from originals in the Library of Congress.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870) Papers, 1848/1857 0.15 Linear Feet Summary: 1 3/4 in. (1 reel of microfilm, 1.75 in.)

Kennedy, John Pendleton, 1795-1870

Selected letters and portions of the diary of John P. Kennedy, a Baltimore essayist and novelist. The letters describe Kennedy's many visits to Berkeley Springs and White Sulpher Springs. These items were copied from the originals which are held by the Library of Congress.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

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