Collections

The Christopher A. Dorrance collection consists primarily of original autographs of important and/or famous people of the United States of America from its founding to the early 21st century. The subjects of the autographs include presidents and first ladies, government officials, political and military figures, musicians, authors, actresses and actors, athletes, reformers and civil rights era activists, foreign leaders and celebrities, flyers and people associated with aviation and aeronautics, etc. The autographs in this collection are written on various mediums including, framed posters, official documents, photographs, books, cards, letters, and various forms of paper ephemera. The series titles reflect what the donor prescribed to his collection. The one change made at the discretion of the archivist was to change the word "foreign" to "international." The signatures were originally housed in three ring binders. The order established by the donor has been maintained. Several signatures are part of larger manuscript pieces, such as letters or ephemeral items such as programs.

Papers of WV Senator Harley M. Kilgore. This collection includes correspondence, news clippings, facsimiles and translations of German-language Nazi banking correspondence, legislative files, and speeches.

Papers of Harley M. Kilgore, U.S. Senator from West Virginia. Includes typescripts, correspondence, printed materials, clippings, broadsides, and a photograph. Topics include congressional bills and legislation on diverse subjects; committees with which Kilgore was involved, including the Senate Military Affairs Subcommittee on War Mobilization, the Special Committee Investigating the National Defense Program (also known as the Truman Committee), the Committee on Military Affairs, and the Committee on the Judiciary; the National Science Foundation; various presidential speeches; and a wide variety of material relating to West Virginia, including items pertaining to the Charleston Airport, the Parkersburg Flood Wall, the Upper Monongahela Project, and many other topics.