Collections : [University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.]

Joseph Rodman Drake holograph fair copy of his poem, Abelard to Eloise

This collection contains a scrapbook belonging to Joy Rebekah Kime Benton (1886-1957) of Burlington, North Carolina, an author, poet, painter, and weaver. The contents of scrapbook items are principally documents from 1905 to 1908, although some paste-ins are from the 1930s. There are 128 pages with photographs, clippings, drawings, and ephemera pasted and laid in.

The handwritten copy of extracts (1796; 0.15 cubic feet) from the "Lives of the most eminent English poets: with critical observations on their works" by Samuel Johnson, originally published in 1783. Copy was transcribed in 1796 and includes a table of contents and index.

This collection contains a friendship album belonging to Mary Ann Pratt (1813-c.1880), of Livonia, New York. The bulk of the entries are from 1830 to 1832 and appear to be from her local friends from the surrounding towns of Mt. Morris, and Dansville. The entries mostly consist of poems, with some original works, as well as short notes, whose general themes touch on memory, friendship, morality, heaven, and time. Some poems are attributed to a Charles Spraque. There are a few entries from 1834 to 1835 after her marriage to Frederick Stanley (c.1807-1870). Three pages of tucked-in pages contain different verses dealing with the death of an infant. It is unclear who wrote these poems as they are neither addressed to Pratt or signed and dated by a friend or family member.

This collection consists of one ledger book belonging to Mary Butler, a Catholic woman living in Virginia and North Carolina. The book begins as a school account with a "list of scholars" but quickly transitions to lists of recipes for alloys, solders, and cement and transitions again to mostly original poems. Also recorded is Butler's marriage to Thomas A. Cullen at St. Peter's Cathedral in Richmond, as is their move to Wilmington, North Carolina, and the birth of their child Mary. Additional poems and calculations are tipped in. The name John J. Cullen is stamped in the front of the book.

This collection of McDonald Clarke papers contains one autograph poem titled "Midnight" from 1815, an undated manuscript poem fragment beginning "They tell me we shall never meet" from Clarke's Afara; receipts for the sale of books to William Gowans from Clarke dated October 28, 1837, and from Francis G. Dorr, dated October 25, 1837; and an undated lithograph of the head and upper torso of Clarke.

This collection consists of the working files of the poet and publisher Morgan Schuldt. Included are drafts of his poetry that include Schuldt's annotations and edits and thirteen hard and soft bound journals that include Schuldt's writing as well as other poetry of interest to him. Also included are documents related to his time at University of Virginia and other institutions, chapbooks, and his work for CUE and CUE editions which Schuldt co-founded.

Norfolk Poet's Club Records (1912-1983; 2 cubic feet) include manuscripts of Josephine Johnson and Margaret Haley Carpenter; and correspondence of Mary Sinton Leitch, Josephine Johnson, Julia Johnson Davis, and William Stanley Braithwaite. There are also press releases, newspaper clippings, printed items, and scrapbooks about these poets and editors and their colleagues as well as their poetry and the creative writing process.

This collection contains journals, artworks, correspondence, and photographs that illuminate the life and work of Petra Vogt, a poet, actress, artist, and model, known for her involvement with the Living Theatre, Ira Cohen, and the Bardo Matrix Press during the 1960s and 1970s. Of particular interest are thirty-four journals, chiefly by Petra Vogt, with poetry, prose works, diary entries, and intricate rapidograph drawings along with collage, paintings, and other artworks within; about 150 artworks by Vogt, as well as handmade books of Ira Cohen's photographs and collage, 850 photographs by Ira Cohen, including those from his Mylar photography series and 60 pieces of correspondence and post cards addressed to Vogt and Cohen.