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The Civil War Collection is an artificial collection of material, chiefly 1861-1865, pertaining to the American Civil War including items from both Union and Confederate forces. The collection includes official correspondence, general and special orders, descriptions of campaigns and battles, articles concerning the war, and artifacts. There are pardons, poems, songs, autographs, maps, muster rolls, pen and ink sketches of camp life, engineers' drawings, and a memorandum of signals used by Confederate steamers when approaching batteries.

This collection is a booklet of anti-Union cartoons drawn by an unidentified "quondam Virginian." The drawings include the following titles: The Flight from Harrisburg, Lincoln at Dinner. Meditating on the division of the spoils, Gen Winfield shooting off the big guns of the government with the recent inaugural for a porte-fire, "The Virginia Dare -(not)" Ship of the line, and "Last scene of all that ends this strange Pictorial History. Virginia's degradation." A schematic on the back of the final cartoon appears to be of the College Building (Wren Building) at the College of William and Mary. The back cover has a pencil map of the the Tidewater area, including King's Creek, Poquoson, and further east.

The racial and ethnic ephemera collection contains various materials regarding race, ethnicity, and racism in the United States. The collection includes papers and items that promote racial prejudice and propaganda. The collection also contains items and papers that exemplify the fight for civil and equal rights. African Americans are the most broadly represented group in the collection. Other ethnic groups include Native Americans, Asian Americans, Jewish Americans, Muslim Americans, and Cuban Americans. Ku Klux Klan pamphlets and anti-immigration publications are also included. Through this collection, the American struggle of racism and prejudice is realized.