Collections : [West Virginia and Regional History Center]

Genealogy of the Ashcraft family for the period ca. 1732-1972. Covers line of descent through John Ashcraft and Elizabeth (Evans) Ashcraft. Compiled by Mrs. Harlan J. Ashcraft.

Personal papers of James M. Guiher, Jr. (1927- ), Editor and Head of Textbook Division of Prentice-Hall books, and son of James M. Guiher, Sr. (1897-1965), a prominent lawyer, politician, and community leader from Clarksburg, West Virginia. Includes autobiographical material, correspondence, publications, photographs, and other material regarding growing up in Clarksburg, attending Washington Irving High School (Clarksburg, WV), serving in the U.S. Army during WWII, attending Princeton and Harvard Universities, his career at Prentice-Hall, as well as his writings (including essays and plays). The writings regard an evolving view of life influenced by art, existentialism, and experiences in Italy and Greece. There are publications regarding the history of, and places and events in Clarksburg and Harrison County (including booklets, pamphlets, programs, maps, clippings, and post cards; ca. 1953-1999). There is also a group portrait photograph of his father James M. Guiher, Sr. as a member of Sigma Nu Fraternity, West Virginia University, 1917. There is a book of historical autographs collected by Guiher, Jr., including those of George Washington and Martha Custis Washington, John and Abigail Adams, and Benjamin Franklin, among others. There are also addendums including five portrait photographs (2014-02-24); papers relating to the Guiher, Davis, and Hart families, and related subjects; James M. Guiher Sr.'s service in WWI; four paintings and two artworks (2014-08-29); and three paintings (2015-08-17).

Typescript genealogy record sheets, compiled by Boyers Morgan Clark of Elkins, on the William Clark, Sr. Family. Records also include the Helmick, Kelly, Kittle, and Morgan families.

Ancestry chart of Charles L. Byer. Also includes the genealogy of the Flowers family and a typescript of "Recollections of Emery E. Flowers," Byer's great-grandfather.

Papers collected by Roy Bird Cook, a Lewis County native and Charleston pharmacist, who in his role as historian, researcher, and author, was a pioneering and effective advocate for the preservation of West Virginia history. This collection includes the papers he collected in connection with his research, including documentation of the Civil War in West Virginia, Stonewall Jackson and his family, and genealogy of North Central West Virginia, among other topics. Materials include letters and papers of the Hays family, including Samuel L. and Peregrine Hays of Gilmer County (1836-1884, 1952-1962, undated [includes facsimiles]); records of the Confederate 31st Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and later correspondence, clippings, and papers about the regiment and its members (ca. 1856-1955, undated [includes facsimiles]); various collections of individual and family papers and Civil War correspondence (1793-1974, undated [includes facsimiles]); original and copies of Stonewall Jackson letters and papers, as well as papers pertaining to Jackson family members (1801-1963, undated [includes facsimiles]); and materials related to the history of pharmacy and medicine, with a special focus on West Virginia (ca. 1832-1961, undated [includes facsimiles]). There is also an extensive series of bound notebooks containing manuscripts, transcriptions, clippings, genealogies, pamphlets, and images regarding the following topics: Stonewall Jackson, Mary Anna Morrison Jackson, Colonel George Jackson, and Thomas Jackson Arnold; the Civil War, including historical sketches of battles as well as originals and copies of soldiers' diaries, journals, and letters; Lewis County; Charleston and the Kanawha Valley; Douglas S. Freeman; Granville Davisson Hall; Camden family; George Washington; and other topics.

Material written and collected by a former curator of the West Virginia and Regional History Collection that includes bibliographies, transcripts, photostats, papers and historical sketches on various aspects of West Virginia history. Items deal with prominent West Virginia University historians, the Civil War, early settlement, industrial growth, and West Virginia University. A number of letters and circulars discuss the West Virginia Historical Society in 1869.

Correspondence, manuscripts, documents, memorabilia, photographs, journals, drawings, and sketchbooks of David Hunter Strother (1816-1888), a nineteenth century illustrator and writer for Harpers Magazine whose pseudonym, "Porte Crayon", was a household word. Other highlights of his career, all of which are reflected in this collection, are authorship of Virginia Illustrated (1857) and Charleston and its Resources (1878), his work as illustrator for Blackwater Chronicle (1853), service during the Civil War as a Union officer, stint as a newspaper editor, and Consul-Generalship to Mexico (1879-1885). According to Strother's biographer, Cecil D. Eby Jr., his writings linked the two traditions of literature in the south, "the genteel romanticism of the sentimental novelists and the earthy realism of the frontier humorists." In 1872-1875 Strother wrote The Mountains, which Eby considers the first important presentation of West Virginia in literature. The collection includes roughly 590 drawings and sketches, 44 volumes of journals, and several boxes of correspondence. An addendum of 2015/06/13 includes one drawing. An addendum of 2007/02/08 includes correspondence, newspaper clippings, announcements, and photographs regarding Strother and related families of the Eastern panhandle of West Virginia. An addendum of 2021/06/04 contains an abridged transcription by Cecil D. Eby Jr., of Strother's diary, 1879-1880, when Strother was General Consul to Mexico. For contents of the addenda and link to the digital collection: Drawings of David Hunter Strother, please see the Scope and Content Note.