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Papers; 1838-1979. Business records and letters of the Tazewell family of Norfolk, VA, chiefly of Gov. Littleton Waller Tazewell, John Nivison Tazewell, Sally A. Tazewell, Ella Wickham Tazewell and Louisa Nivison Tazewell. Includes are account balances, property inventory lists, stock and bond certificate lists, tax collection receipts, payment receipts and personal correspondence concerning a book about Littleton Waller Tazewell. Also includes are a newspaper article, 1978, about the Boush-Tazewell-Waller House, a piece of cotton fabric with a record of money spent in occupied Norfolk and notebooks with keepsake material. The notebooks include records of family births, marriages and deaths, poetry, lists of letters and recipes.

The collection is primarily composed of letters received by Dr. Theodocius Joshua Scurlock (1828-1887), a graduate of Tulane University and a resident of Texas and Mexico, 1855-1888, from family members in Alabama and Texas, and friends in Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas. The letters reflect the restlessness of the pre-Civil War years, and the difficulties and disillusionment felt by many people during Reconstruction. The diary included was kept by Scurlock on his journey to Mexico, December 1867-April 1869, in which he gives his impressions of the people he encountered as well as the natural history of the regions he passed through.

This collection is composed of personal papers, genealogy material and family photographs, gathered by Theodor R. and Helen V. Swem. Included are original documents, notes on the Swem, Gregg and Wright families, correspondence among family members regarding genealogy, articles, books, publications and diaries by or about the families, photographs of family members, including one of Dr. Earl Gregg Swem, Sr., Earl Gregg Swem, Jr., and Earl Gregg Swem, III, and material on Earl Gregg Swem's connection to the College of William and Mary. The collection also contains photographs, circa 1870s-1988, taken of and by members of the Swem family. Some of the 19th century photographs were taken by E.L. (Edward Lawrence) Swem, the father of Earl Gregg Swem, who was the owner of Swem & Newton Gallery in Belle Plaine, Iowa and later of Swem Cottage Gallery (or also Swems Studio) in Cedar Rapids Iowa. Most photographs are described and often dated on the reverse side.

Correspondence, chiefly 1850-1900, of members of the family of Henry Gardiner Lane, an Episcopal clergyman of Mathews and Gloucester counties, Va. Correspondents include members of the Harrison, Randolph, and Lane families of Mathews and Gloucester counties, Va. Included are autograph and composition books, wills, certificates of indenture, Civil War pardon, Confederate bonds and almanacs.

Contains 19th and early 20th century British and American theater memorabilia, including autographs of major actors, writers, and managers; and letters, broadsides, and photographs.

The collection contains letters, receipts, invoices, and account books of Thomas Croxton concerning his law practice at Tappahannock, Va. Includes accounts with J.M. Parr & Son, commission merchants of Baltimore, Md. who received grain from Croxton by ship and sold it on consignment.

The Thomas H. Williamson papers include:

• Civil War memoirs, in which Williamson discusses the events that took place during his temporary assignment to the command of Major General Stonewall Jackson beginning in April 1862
• Lecture notes (1850s) used in teaching engineering and architecture courses at VMI
• Two copies of the textbook written by Williamson for use at VMI titled "An Elementary Course of Architecture and Civil Engineering"
• Williamson family genealogical material
• Correspondence

Letters, 1785-1826, written by Thomas Jefferson while serving as a diplomat to France, Secretary of State, Vice-President and President of the United States to William Short. The letters are written from France (Paris, Lyons, Aix en Provence, Nice, Marseilles, Toulouse and Nantes), Amsterdam, Germany (Frankfort on the Main), New York City, Philadelpia, Washington and "Monticello," Albemarle County, Va. One of the subjects covered by the letters is the University of Virginia. Among the items in the collection is "Syllabus of an estimate of the doctrines of Jesus compared with those of others."

Collection includes a lot of genealogical notes and copies of wills compiled by Thomas Jefferson Stubbs but also report cards, class notes, and letters of different Stubbs family members. An oration delivered by Thomas Jefferson Stubbs, Sr. before the Phoenix Literary Society is also included as well as his application for the professorship at William & Mary. There are letters written William Carter Stubbs while a student at William & Mary,letters of John Catlett Stubbs while studying medicine in Charlottesville and Baltimore and two class notebooks of Lucy T. C. Stubbs of Williamsburg.

Collection of papers and a commonplace book belonging to Thomas Kelso Davis who lived in Washington, D.C. prior to and after the Civil War. The papers include: receipts; 1856 note to William Macgill; July 6, 1857 and June 1858 thoughts on "Boyhood Friendship" and a March 22, 1864, written from Washington, D.C. A hand copy of a letter to President Grant by Thomas K. Davis where Davis writes that Grant's response to a letter Davis had sent him was confusing and incomprehensible, possibly due to his (Davis) lack of intelligence, but he would "bow my head humbly, - submissively to your decree." December 7, 1870 Letter to Davis from Taylor Page, Commissioner of Bureau Refugees, Freedman, and Abandoned Lands, about not being able to attend a club meeting. Undated poem, "But tis around this heart were spun…" where "Miss Josephine A. Plummis written on the edge. August 23, 1876 (Washington) Evening Star article.