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The W. Jett Lauck collection consists of his professional, business and personal papers as an economist, statistician and government consultant on immigration, banking, railroads, coal, and unemployment problems as well as other facets of labor in the United States. Included are correspondence, scrapbooks of news clippings reflecting his activities, labor reports and studies, drafts of congressional bills, legal briefs, and other material concerning labor problems in the United States from its formative World War I years until 1949. They begin with his association with the progressive labor codes of the Taft-Walsh Labor Relations Commission and continue with the Railway Labor Act of 1926; the fight to gain recognition of labor's right to collective bargaining "through representatives of their own choosing" under the National Industrial Recovery Act in 1933; the incorporation of its principles in the National Labor Relations Act; and further activity in defense of this act.

A 23 page original manuscript on early local history entitled "The Genesis of the Aurora Community," by Martin Luther Peter.

Papers, 1890-1935, of Samuel Humphreys Yonge. Yonge was an army engineer who worked on flood control projects and navigational improvements. Yonge was interested in excavations at Jamestown and Williamsburg, Va. and in archaeological projects throughout Virginia. Included is correspondence; early twentieth century photographs of ruins and excavations at Jamestown; notebooks of land patent abstracts and other notes concerning Jamestown; and printed material. The collection also includes an account of Yonge's impressions of Robert E. Lee, president of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) when Yonge was a student there and other autobiographical notes.

Papers, 1871-1933, of Robert Morton Hughes of Norfolk, Virginia, concerning his law practice; his interest in maritime law; his biography of Joseph Eggleston Johnston; his influence in Virginia politics; and the College of William and Mary. Correspondents include Joseph Eggleston Johnston, Fitzhugh Lee, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Thomas Nelson Page, Woodrow Wilson, Flora (Cooke) Stuart and Theodore Roosevelt. There is also an autograph collection, 1715-1924, which includes signatures of Frances Hodgson Burnett, Mark Hanna, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Samuel L. Clemens and presidents of the United States.

This collection in comprised principally business and family correspondence and general papers of the Baer family of the Panther Gap vicinity of Rockbridge County, Va. with a concentration of papers relative to the family's land holdings such as maps, indentures, and wills. Other highlights are a group of twenty-one manuscript weaving drafts for making household textiles, a family Bible in German(l744), local militia fines, genealogical materials, some relating to the Decker and Hite (Heyt) families, and two farming account books of Joseph Baer, 1853-1859.

Collection includes papers, 1656-1848, concerning Essex County, Va. including land records and wills, many of which relate to the Rowzee family. Many of the records date from the seventeenth century.