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Correspondence and business papers of Henry Gassaway Davis (1823-1916), a successful businessman and politician from West Virginia. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for Vice President of the United States in 1904. The collection largely documents his business and political career, although there are personal papers in the collection as well. His business interests were largely concerned with coal mining, timber, and railroads. Types of documents include letters, reports, account books, and maps, among other material. Much of the correspondence is arranged alphabetically. The scope and content note of each record series provides substantial detail regarding content.

Papers of a Lexington, Kentucky, attorney and editor of the Lexington KENTUCKY GAZETTE, include payrolls of jurors and witnesses, Circuit Court, District of Kentucky, Frankfort, 1830-1838; correspondence, briefs, and other papers in the case of WILLIAM CLARK v. U.S., 1852-1870; newspaper clippings from Lexington and other newspapers pertaining to national and Kentucky politics in the Jacksonian era; and a few pamphlets. Also includes extensive collection of broadsides published in Kentucky in the period 1790-1846 regarding political, cultural, and social issues; an inventory of these broadsides was published in the Kentucky Historical Society Register, vol. 58, no. 4 (October 1960) and vol. 59, no. 1 (January 1961). A card catalog with descriptions of each broadside is available in the Center.

Contains photograph copies of land plat signed by George Washington for 400 acres of land in Frederick County, Virginia; Photostat copy of a letter written by Benjamin Franklin from France; Photostat copies of map of northern neck of West Virginians; newspaper clippings on West Virginia University and state politics. Contains copies of maps and photographs relating to land in the Northern Neck of Virginia, Joist Hite, Jesse Hughes, Henry G. Davis, Alexander L. Wade, and Lord Fairfax.

The papers of a prominent Lewisburg, Greenbrier County lawyer and politician, Samuel Price, who served numerous terms in the Virginia state legislature and was Virginia's Lieutenant-Governor during the Civil War. He was also a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1851, the Secession Convention of 1861, and the West Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1872; and he completed the U. S. Senate term of Allen Caperton in 1876. The papers include correspondence relating to local and state politics, Price's law practice, slavery, the Civil War, land speculation, and railroads. Also included are files and ledgers documenting Price's legal and political activities as well as personal financial records. Among the prominent correspondents are the Civil War generals John Echols and Jubal Early (1872) as well as the following: G. D. Camden, Allen T. Caperton, Charles J. Faulkner, William Parker Foulke, David Goff, Henry M. Mathews, and H. O. Middleton.