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Correspondence, book reviews, certificates and pictures of Waddell, a pioneering black veterinarian and author. His books (People Are The Funniest Animals, The Black Man in Veterinary Medicine, Universal Veterinarianism, and Historical Facts of the Black Veterinarian) document the little known contributions of African-Americans from antebellum times to the present in the field of veterinary science. They also indicate his beliefs that the veterinarian profession can also help heal misunderstandings among mankind. After graduation in 1935 from the University of Pennsylvania, one of the first schools to admit blacks into its veterinarian program, he taught and worked at Tuskegee Institute where he co-founded the first program in veterinary science at a black American college. During World War II, he joined the Ninth Cavalry, a famed black unit of which he includes some of its history among his papers. After the war, he established a private practice in West Virginia eventually locating in Monongalia County where he also served on the board of the Monongalia County Mental Health Association. His home near Morgantown served as a social center for some of the first black students who attended West Virginia University. He was also instrumental in fostering integration of other institutions within the county. After 1963 he moved to North Dakota where he worked on the Chippewa reservations of Turtle Mountain and Fort Totten. Waddell offers his observations on the aspirations of Native Americans and how they are discriminated against and neglected.

Correspondence with the American Museum of Natural History, 1934-1952, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Circumnavigator's Club, 1943-1954, and Richard T. Wiley, the historian, at Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, 1933-1937. Also includes a 34-page travel account of Greece, Crete, and Egypt (1936-1937), materials on Tecumseh (the Shawnee Chief), Monongalia County history, West Virginia University history, and Bayles and Vandervort genealogy. Also includes labeled wood samples from Casa Paraense de M. Matta & Ca. of Brazil. Material covers the years 1781-1955. For more detailed contents information, please see control folder.

This facsimile of a payroll for a Harrison County, Virginia militia unit, which was called to fight native Americans, shows the name, rank, commencement of service, time of discharge, length of service, and pay per month for 20 militiamen.

A diary of an overland frontier journey to the California gold fields by H. B. Heiskell. The account is about traveling from the Rockies to the Sierras. As part of a wagon train, Heiskell mentions fellow passengers and the daily events of the journey. He notes in detail the scenery, particularly the character of the soil and streams. Mention is made of Native Americans/First Nations Peoples, namely the Paiutes, Shoshonees and Utes. Rumors are related about prices in California, the death of President Polk, and the Mormon settlement at Salt Lake City. The volume also contains a scrapbook portion composed of newspaper clippings about various members of the Heiskell family of Tennessee and related families such as Wallace, Roberts, Frierson and Witzmann.

Microfilm copy of the papers of the Henderson and Tomlinson families of Wood County, West Virginia, from 1789 to 1859. Materials relate to frontier life in the Parkersburg-Marietta area, and include Alexander Henderson's journal about his settlement on the Little Kanawha River, 1798-1803; his plantation accounts; letters on the Burr conspiracy; and an account of a duel between Henderson and Stephen R. Wilson in 1803. Also includes several items related to Marine Corps Commandant Archibald Henderson; pioneer Isaac Williams; and A.B. Tomlinson's account of the Indian mounds and frontier settlement at Grave Creek Mound in Moundsville, West Virginia.

Diary and memoir of a Confederate soldier, railroad laborer, and shop owner from Grafton. The memoir begins with Mugler's birth in Alsace-Lorraine in 1838, and covers his immigration to the United States; enlistment in the United States Army in 1851; military duty in New York, Boston, Rhode Island, Texas, California, and the Washington Territory where he participated in the expedition against the Yakima Indians as a member of Company B, Third Regiment, United States Artillery, under Phil Sheridan; and his return to Orange County, Virginia, where following the passage of the Secession Ordinance he enlisted in the Thirteenth Virginia Infantry serving as chief musician. The memoir concludes with Mugler's military career during 1861-1862. The diary covers the remainder of his military service, 1862-1864, and his confinement as a war prisoner at Elmira, New York, 1864-1865. Following the war, Mugler returned to Washington, D.C., and eventually gained employment with the National Cemetery Corps, working at various Virginia battlefields. While in Virginia he served as a delegate to the Virginia Republican Convention of 1867. He worked at the National Cemetery at Grafton and for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, eventually becoming superintendent of painters on the Road Division in West Virginia. After 1874 he worked briefly as a self-employed painter, and then opened a paint and hardware store in Grafton which he managed until the end of his life. Subjects include the Battle of Mine Run, the retreat from Antietam, the Battle of the Wilderness, prison life at Elmira, New York; reconstruction in Virginia; railroading and the railroad towns of Keyser, Oakland (Maryland), Parkersburg, Fairmont, and Wheeling; the strikes of 1877; interviews with Generals Ord and Sheridan; the Murphy Temperance Movement and W.C.T.U. activities; the Liberal Republican movement of 1872; the Greenback Party; the Chicago World's Fair of 1893; political figures such as John S. Carlile, John G. Carlisle, John T. McGraw, John W. Mason, Frank Hereford, John E. Kenna, John A. Logan, James G. Blaine, and "Sockless" Jerry Simpson.