Collections

The papers of Anna Maria (Campbell Hickman) Otis Mead Chalmers (1809-1891) and her family offer a deep look into a 19th century American family with a sharp focus on enslaved and formerly enslaved persons. The collection documents the life of a young, widowed woman, Anna Maria Mead Chalmers, who was the granddaughter of General William Hull (1753-1825). She was a mother of four children and became a businesswoman in Richmond, Virginia. She was a writer, an editor of the Southern Churchmen, an educator and founder of Mrs. Mead's School for Young Ladies, and a director of The Southern Churchmen Cot ("Retreat for the Sick"), a hospital for children. Anna Maria's family enslaved people who are represented in the papers including Othello "Tillo" Freeman (1790's-1860's?). It includes a letter from William written in [1875], who was their carriage driver, and letters about Sam the fiddler, who settled on the farm after escaping harsher enslavement in Louisianna, and Jordan who was described as being hired out in a letter dated September 8, 1841 from Thomas R. Blair.

The Armstead L. Robinson papers(1848-2001; 43 cubic feet) consist of audiotapes; book reviews; census material; computer printouts; conference papers; correspondence; biographical information; instructional material; lectures and speeches; manuscripts and original writings by Robinson, his colleagues and students; maps; memorabilia; microfilm; organizational and professional files; photographs; printed items, and research and topical files. Most of the nineteenth century material is in the form of photocopies.

MSS 9221 Bennett Taylor papers consist of family correspondence with letters to and from Bennett about education at the University of Virginia, descriptions of United States Civil War battles including the 19th Virginia Regiment Company F, Picketts Divison at 2nd Manassas, a prisoner exchange for Lieutenant Colonel Bennett Taylor from Johnson Island in Lake Erie New York, and family news of descendants of Thomas Jefferson and local Charlottesville families from 1851-1894. Correspondence of Bennett Taylor (1836-1898): 30 letters. In addition to the letters there is a University of Virginia examination report for Bennett Taylor's father John Charles Randolph Taylor, dated July 5, 1860.

Three autograph letters of Elizabeth Stoddard signed, to Ella Farman, author and editor of Wide Awake discussing the literary periodical press, payments to authors, and other matters. Written legibly in ink on three folded sheets of "E.D.B.S." (Elizabeth Drew Barstow Stoddard) embossed stationary. This collection is an addition to Elizabeth Stoddard letters in the Barrett Collection (MSS 8266, 8266-a).

The Fernande Gontier papers (1787-2005; 8.6 cubic feet) document Dr. Gontier's scholarship on Simone de Beauvoir; Colette; Etienne Cabet and his followers in Nauvoo, Illinois; Mathilde de Morny; and Comtesse Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy. The collection includes manuscript drafts, research files, correspondence, and books representing Dr. Gontier's work. Materials also include manuscripts for cookbooks co-written by Dr. Gontier. The papers are arranged into six series.

The Francis H. Fife papers (1947-2015; 168.4 cubic feet) document the personal and professional life of Mr. Fife with an emphasis on his civic and community interests. Types of materials include reports, meeting minutes, correspondence, memoranda, journals, and some family documents. The collection is organized into three series: Oak Lawn 1, Oak Lawn 2, and Westview.

This collection consists primarly of 26 letters of correspondence between Thomas Garland, his wife Jane Moore Taylor Garland (1810-1861), her father William Day Taylor (1781-1858), and Jane's sisters and sisters(-in-law?) F. A. Taylor (Frances Ann Taylor), Clarissa "Clara" Garland Kean (1816-1845), her husband Dr. Ortho Williams Kean (1813-1865), and Mary Garland from New Kent, British Colonial Virginia (Orange County, Virginia) and other locations including Botetourt County, Goochland, Everettsville, Taylorsville, Boyd's Tavern, and Fredericksburg, Virginia from about 1830-1858. Other family members mentioned in the collection are Angelina "Ange" Fitch Mitchell, William Jacquelin "Jack" Taylor (1815-1854) and Miriam Nones Jacob Taylor. There is a receipt from a D. J. Cauthen and a photograph of Frank Everett Hartmann and family at his graduation from the University of Virginia in 1911.

The Gay family papers (1829-1922; 0.5 cubic feet) document the lives of members of the Gay family of Staunton, Virginia. The collection contains approximately 200 letters written by and to family members, with about one-third of the letters written by Private Charles Wyndham Gay (1841-1862) of the Confederate Army to his parents. Other letters include those from Alexandre Etienne de Clouet, a Louisiana Deputy to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States.

The George Washington Lewis papers consists chiefly of correspondence to and from George Washington Lewis and between other family members, but also includes a few photographs of the Lewis family and the homes of "Claymont", "Shellfield" and "Marmion"; a plat of "Claymont"; newsclippings; notes on Lewis family history and genealogy; and a few financial and legal documents.